Jahrome Hughes has sounded an ominous warning to the rest of the NRL, declaring Melbourne's all-star spine are in better shape than when they made last year's grand final.
Superb for the Storm on return from a broken hand against Manly last week, Hughes helped Melbourne flex their premiership muscle in the 48-24 flogging.
The pre-season favourites to steal Penrith's crown, the Storm's only loss in the opening five rounds came when Hughes missed the defeat to St George Illawarra.
Melbourne's spine is one of the best in the competition, with Ryan Papenhuyzen, Cameron Munster, Hughes and Harry Grant.
But they remain relatively inexperienced playing as a quartet, having started only 23 games together through injuries and Grant's 2020 loan deal to Wests Tigers.
The group have won 20 of those matches, and benefited from a rev up from Craig Bellamy last August about taking their game to the next level together.
And a quarter of the way into this season, Hughes believes the group are benefiting from a proper run together.
"I feel like last year was a bit disrupted in our spine, a few boys in and out," Hughes said ahead of Sunday's clash with the Warriors.
"This pre-season has been really good, got some quality reps together and then the first couple of weeks.
"It's going good and having the same squad really helps the rest of the boys, not just the spine.
"There are still a lot of things we want to work on and still a lot of things we want to work on as a team as well.
"It's not perfect yet, it'll probably never be perfect, but as long as we keep improving."
Hughes said he had challenged both himself and the club in his bid to return from a fractured hand, while only missing one game against the Dragons.
The reigning Dally M Medallist had a plate and screws inserted into his left hand after fracturing a metacarpal, but pushed to return to training after only a week.
He had a hand in three tries in the win over the Sea Eagles, and while his left hand was swollen after the game he got through the match without a pain-killing injection.
"It looked worse than it felt," Hughes said.
"Once the physios and doc said I could get back after two weeks, I did everything I could to get back out there.
"It was a bit of a stretch playing, but the way the recovery went it gave it a full week of training. And if I was able to get through that, then I was able to play."
