'Kiwis gave me confidence to lead': Inside Hughes' rise to Dally M contender

Jahrome Hughes has credited last year’s Pacific Championships with the Kiwis for the stunning run of form that has made the Storm playmaker a favourite to win the 2024 Dally M Medal.

With injuries to key players, Hughes had to take charge of the New Zealand team and helped lead the Kiwis to a record 30-0 defeat of the Kangaroos in the Pacific Cup final.

He has done the same with Melbourne this year, steering the team to the minor premiership despite playing just nine times alongside star halves partner Cameron Munster as the Storm battled a heavy injury toll.

“I think last year I was worried about everyone else before myself, and probably didn’t play the best consistent footy I could,” Hughes told NRL.com when asked about his impact this season.

“One thing I took from last year’s tournament was just to have confidence that I could lead a team. The leaders in our team and our captain… they really wanted me to step up and be a leader on the field.

“I felt like they gave me the confidence to do it back here at the Storm, and I feel like that’s helped my performances this year, being confident in myself to be able to lead the team.

“I probably had to do it more quickly than I wanted to, with having a few of the spine out this year. But I’m grateful for that because it’s excelled my game a little bit.”

Hughes finished the regular season with 25 try assists in 20 matches – equal second in the NRL – and produced 26 line-break assists. His nine tries include a hat-trick against the Broncos last week.

The 29-year-old’s kicking game has been a particular highlight, with his 154 attacking kicks contributing heavily to the Storm’s attacking play.

He attributes his newfound clarity as a leader on the field for the consistency of performances that have been key to the Storm’s minor premiership success this season.

“I think the leadership has definitely come over the last year,” Hughes said.

The Kiwis really made me confident in myself to lead that team and I did that, and I felt like it gave me confidence to come back to the Storm and lead this team.

"The last couple of years, I’ve had a couple of good games and then followed up with a couple bad games, so one thing I wanted to do this year is to be consistent, and probably to help that is focus on my own game first, and then the rest of it will come.

“It’s probably just taking a bit of onus on little things in my game - that if I do those things right, I’ll have a good game, and it will help the team have a good game.”

The Storm’s success this season has come despite a host of injuries in key areas. Munster (14 appearances) and fullback Ryan Papenhuyzen (17) have both missed large portions of the season, while star winger Xavier Coates was sidelined for the latter part of the campaign as well.

Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy has said that Hughes and captain Harry Grant have “taken the reins” as a result - but for Hughes, having the confidence in his teammates to do the job has been central to his performances.

“To have guys like Wishy [Tyran Wishart] come in and do such a great job, and Sua [Fa'alogo] will come in and do a great job – it gives the whole squad confidence that it doesn’t matter who we put out there, we can still do the job,” he said.

“The boys are giving me confidence around me that they’re going to do their job, so it makes it a little bit easier for myself.”

The Storm host the Sharks in Saturday’s qualifying final and are heavy favourites to advance to the preliminary final and earn a week off.

However, Cronulla believe that they can overturn the odds as the Sharks are one of only two teams to beat the Storm in Melbourne this season, coming away 25-18 victors in Round 10.

That match was one of the four games that Hughes missed this year. While he said there hadn’t been much talk in the squad about the result, it wasn’t something they had forgotten.

“It’s not going to be an easy game,” he said. “There’s still a bit of sting in it when they did beat us here… hopefully we can pay them back on Saturday.”

For Hughes, being part of a third premiership with the Storm will come down to that key word once more – consistency.

“If you’re not consistent in the finals, you’ve got no chance,” he explained.

“We just want to keep playing how we’ve been playing. That’s the big thing.

“Anyone can win on the day. It doesn’t matter who you play or where you’re playing, you need to be sticking to your game plan for the full 80 minutes… that’s a big key for myself, and I’ll be trying to get that down to the boys.”