After a horror run of injuries to begin the year, the Melbourne Storm are regaining players at the right time of the season.
Constant injuries to their outside backs followed by a cleaning out of their forwards left Melbourne vulnerable in the opening half of the season, so it's no coincidence that their current six-game win streak coincides with the return of some crucial players.
Will Chambers, Cameron Munster, Blake Green, Nelson Asofa-Solomona and Tim Glasby have all come back from injury over the past six weeks, with Glasby in particular missing Rounds 15-20 due to a shoulder problem.
The 27-year-old returned against the Cowboys two weeks ago and scored with his first touch of the ball, and said the body is holding up despite the injury.
"It's feeling pretty good, I never really missed that sort of footy since I've been playing NRL so I was a bit unsure how it would go coming back," Glasby said.
"But I've been pretty happy with it and I've got a little bit to go, but it's going well so far."
With Jordan McLean also set to return in the coming weeks, competition for spots in the club's forward pack will surely be heating up, although Glasby claimed it had been hot all year due to the performances of some reserves in the Queensland Cup.
"Hopefully we can get Macca (Jordan McLean) back as soon as we can, but I think the competition for forwards has been really good all year," Glasby said.
"We probably didn't change our forwards that much early in the year, but I know a lot of those boys like Matt White and Mark Nicholls have been playing really well up in the Queensland Cup, so everyone's felt them nipping at our heels all year.
"I think you want as many players as you can fit at any time of the year, so it's really important to get the boys back as soon as we can. This time of year obviously makes it a bit more important, but we're not too focused on that, they'll come back as soon as they can."
The Storm travel to Canberra on Monday night to face one of the competition's best teams and Glasby knows his side is in for a challenge.
"They've got a really good forward pack, and some very dangerous backs, so they're on a real run at the moment and they're looking really good," Glasby said.
"Certainly they've been tossed around as one of the form teams at the moment and it's hard to argue with that."
In a game that will be littered with key match-ups all over the field, Glasby has identified two forwards in particular who will pose a threat to the Storm's line.
"They've obviously got Shannon Boyd there, he's a big fella and he's been playing some great footy, and so has [Junior] Paulo, so they'll be hard for us to handle but hopefully we can get out there and do the job."
