Cameron Munster answered the pressure with a performance Melbourne had been waiting for, setting up three tries and scoring one himself in a 34-8 win over Parramatta on Saturday night at Suncorp Stadium.

The Storm five-eighth was everywhere in the first half and again when the game opened up late, finishing with three try assists, three linebreak assists and 92 run metres as Melbourne turned a tight contest into a comfortable victory. Harry Grant added 61 metres and two linebreaks, while Sua Fa’alogo surged to a game-high 225 metres and helped deliver the decisive blow when Grant scored with six minutes to play after his long bust.

Munster’s night was built on the kind of touches that swing matches. He helped finish a team try scored by Moses Leo, then scored himself after running onto a Jahrome Hughes pass before later sending Cooper Clarke over with an inside ball. Jahrome Hughes was back at halfback for Melbourne, and the Storm looked far more like themselves than they had during a long losing streak that was only snapped a week ago.

That matters because Munster’s club form had been under the microscope before this game, and earlier in the season he said he was so frustrated with how he was playing that he had considered retirement. On Saturday, he looked nothing like a player carrying that sort of doubt. Cooper Cronk said those people arguing Munster was too out of form to play Origin were on another planet, and with Billy Slater watching from the sideline in his commentary role, the game carried obvious relevance to Queensland’s selection picture.

Parramatta had chances to make it uglier for Melbourne, but Mitchell Moses said he did all he could for his side and was left frustrated by a forward pass from Joash Papalii. Luke Keary said Moses was “blowing up” when Tallyn Da Silva hit Jack de Belin on a last-tackle play instead of going to him out the back, a small but telling snapshot of how the night slipped away for the Eels once Melbourne started controlling field position and pace.

There was also a reminder that some of the names involved will soon share a dressing room. Sean Russell and Nick Meaney were centres for Parramatta and Melbourne respectively on the night, but they will be teammates in Perth next season. For Melbourne, though, the story was simpler: after weeks of scrutiny and a spell that had threatened to define them, they found a big-game reply, and Munster was at the heart of it.