Bellamy lauds stand-in fullback Munster

Melbourne Storm coach Craig Bellamy believes Cameron Munster is most suited to fullback but says in time he will develop into an equally talented five-eighth.

Munster was the star of the show in Melbourne’s 36-18 win over the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs in Perth on Saturday night, making the most of his return to the No.1 jersey in the absence of Billy Slater.

The Queensland Origin five-eighth will move back into the halves when Slater returns from injury to play his 300^th game, potentially next week, with his coach confident he can have a similar impact to what he had against the Bulldogs.

“He didn’t even have a touch there for a while but when he had a few he caused some problems,” Bellamy said.

“He’s a very, very talented player. No matter where he plays he’s always going to have a real impact. He was one of our best tonight. He turned the game for us.

“At the moment probably No.1 is his best position because he’s probably played there more. The more time he gets at the No.6 he will be able to play that position as well as he plays fullback. It’s pretty exciting to see what he’s doing.”

The win marked Melbourne’s 14^th straight victory in the opening round of the season, however the coach said there was plenty of room for improvement following their first hit-out since last year’s premiership triumph.

“I thought we were pretty untidy at times and you expect that in round one,” he said.

“Trials are usually not the intensity of comp games. A lot of round one games are untidy because teams try to play like the way they want to play in round 12 or 15. Having a couple of new halves there was always going to be a little but unorganised.

“We made it hard for ourselves on occasions. The Bulldogs were in same boat with Kieran [Foran] there and Moses [Mbye] at fullback so it was always going to be hard for them as well.

“Good thing for us is we have a lot of improvement in us. To score that many points was pleasing.”