Cronk sees Inglis in Storm’s Munster

Melbourne NRL veteran Cooper Cronk says he sees some of ex-Storm great Greg Inglis in their new playmaker Cameron Munster.

Like Inglis back in 2007, Munster is being converted from fullback into the Storm’s five-eighth and Cronk says they offer similar attacking threats with their running games.

Now Souths captain, Inglis was slow to find his feet in the new role but steered the Storm to a grand final win over Manly that season, scoring two tries to win the Clive Churchill Medal.

“Last time we were in this situation, Greg Inglis was similar type five-eighth and you had to accommodate his skill set,” Test halfback Cronk said.

“The thing that Greg Inglis did, while he may not have had the most consistent year in 2007, he was a threat because of the skill set that he brings and Cameron Munster’s very similar.

“He’s a ball-runner first option and he broke a lot of tackles last year so that’s a threat that opposition teams will have to look out for and if they start loading up on that position we can take advantage in another part of the field.”

While there’s still some conjecture over who will play at fullback until injured veteran Billy Slater makes it back on to the field, Munster is the Storm’s first-choice long-term five-eighth.

Ahead of their season-opening game against the Bulldogs on Friday night at Belmore, Cronk says his team have tweaked their playing style with Munster very different to Blake Green, who is now playing with Manly.

“There’s no doubt that Cameron Munster needs to adapt to the first receiver role in the way that we like to play but we also need to bring in his strengths,” Cronk said on Monday.

“We’ll accommodate that, there’s no doubt he brings some different aspects and we’ve changed our style of play to suit that.”

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