The New Zealand Warriors have been thumped by a rampant Melbourne Storm side 42-20 at AAMI Park with Kiwi Jahrome Hughes starring.
The Warriors lost key players Tohu Harris and David Fusitu'a on the eve of the clash and then an hour before kickoff, coach Nathan Brown handed Teenager Reece Walsh an NRL debut at fullback, which saw captain Roger Tuivasa-Sheck shift onto the wing.
Warriors fans would've been wishing Storm's halfback Hughes signed with the club when they offered him a contract back in March as their side had no answers to his amazing footwork.
The halfback tore the Warriors defence to shreds with four try assists, two linebreak assists, three tackle breaks and 115 run metres to hand the Storm their 10th straight victory over the New Zealand side.
The bright spot in the Mt Smart outfit was the performance of teenager Walsh - who was making his NRL debut - who looked dangerous with ball in hand.
He came into first-receiver to cause the Storm problems all night and set up a two late tries to Maumalo to show the Warriors faithful that they're in good hands for the future when Tuivasa-Sheck leaves for the rugby union at the end of the year.
The Storm made a fast start when George Jennings crossed after five minutes off the back of sizzling play from Hughes.
The Warriors responded four minutes later when Maumalo finished acrobatically in the corner after a brilliant cut-out pass from second-row forward Josh Curran.
The a major talking point came when the bunker sent Curran to the sin bin for ten-minutes after a massive hit on Jennings. The two players clashed heads in what looked like a legal tackle.
In the 10 minutes that Curran was off, the Storm ran in two tries through forward Felise Kaufusi and fullback Nicho Hynes with Hughes starring in both to open up a 12-point lead.
The Storm capped off their near-perfect half when Reimis Smith grabbed his sides fifth of the evening to go into the sheds 26-4 up.
The Warriors produced a much improved second-half showing and got an early reward when big forward Ben Murdoch-Masila hit and spun to score the Kiwi sides second four-pointer of the night.
The Storm steadied themselves when Justin Olam crashed over 10-minutes later before blockbusting wing Josh Addo-Carr scored two tries in three minutes to open up a 32-point lead with ten to go.
The visitors got two late consolation tries through Maumalo - who claimed the first hattrick of his career - to put some respectability into the scoreline but it was too little to late.
The visitors will be hoping for a much improved performance next week when they take on former Warriors interim coach Todd Payton and his North Queensland Cowboys side as they look to get back into the top eight.
The loss sees the Warriors drop down to ninth but level on points with seventh place Gold Coast Titans, while the Storm stay fourth.
Join us on Sunday at 4pm for live updates as the Warriors take on the North Queensland Cowboys.
