'I love this place': Christian Welch on his future at the Storm 07:27

Time to check in with the Melbourne Storm off the back of their 30-24 win over the Dolphins last night. Jerome Hughes was named our player of the match. Pretty good game of footy in the end, really entertaining. And we're joined this afternoon by their Melbourne Storm forward, Christian Welch. He's on the line. G'day, Christian. G'day, guys. Thanks for having us on. And it's potato cakes. I don't know what you're talking about. Oh, come on. Queensland. Queensland. How dare you? They're scallops.

Nah, mate, a potato cake. I could end this interview right now. It's disgraceful. Anyway, moving on. Is there drama between two Queenslanders here, big man? Well, Christian is a Queensland champion. The old pick and stick. We'll probably go close on Wednesday, but I don't think we can win. What do you reckon? What, Origin? Yeah.

The trails back City dominates the arena I'm really worried us Queensland team You know Yeah we can't But a few out No Cameron Muster I think we'll really struggle You never had Muster The first game either

That's right, we smashed it. Christian, out of interest, you know, throughout your illustrious playing career and you've done some wonderful stuff on the football field, did you ever fall victim as a Queensland Origin player to the mystery virus or the mystery injury leading into an Origin game? What's that? Well said, Christian. Don't fall for these gibberers. Yeah. Yeah.

Why have we got Christian on? Any glass house? Did you like the little glass house jibe this week from Michael McGuire? I thought it was very, very good.

Yeah, it wasn't bad. It's good to see a bit of combat in the press. I probably haven't seen too much of it since Scallons retired. So it's a good bit of spite. Well, that cost them too much for that. They're not really allowed to pay, man. You see how large rugby league is. Good point. You've got to sell some tickets. Fire them up. Actually, Gal. Yeah. Has Andrew Abdel or Peter Volandi been on the phone? They've got to sell another $5,000 or $10,000. Why don't you drop a bomb this afternoon and see how you go? I did have a discussion with someone before round one, but I did say it's not my job anymore. Sorry.

What, you wouldn't do it for 10 Gs? No, I wouldn't actually. Look, I've got money. I'm okay. You wouldn't do it for 10 Gs, but you'll go and do something for two grand during the week. Because listen, it's not my go anymore. I'm not out there playing. I don't have to put up with the result if Queensland get angry or blah, blah, blah. You've gone soft. It's not me anymore. I don't need to do it. He's no longer a puppet for money. Can we get back to our...

player here? Poor old Christian. Listen, I host the show and I'm not going to be dictated to by some blow-in who's here on a Saturday. It's you, okay? Do you reckon he wants to just sit on the phone listening to us? Christian's enjoying his Saturday listening to us. We're punishing him. He's just given us a call 131873 thanks for your call. Can I ask him a question? No, no, just shush for a minute. Now listen, unlike you on the sideline who waits four hours to go and get an interview...

He's been patient and waiting for our questions. Thank you, Christian. He's about to hang up. All right, well, what do you want to ask him? I want to ask him about last night's game. Oh, boring. How good was it? Boring. This is entertainment, Piggy. Potatoes. You want to talk about Melbourne Storm. All right. You just trot out the usual. Oh, yeah, we play for the boys. Go, you ask him. No, you ask him. You ask him. No, you ask him. No, you ask him. I'll ask him. You're the host. Christian, in the first half last night, the Dolphins were tearing in, mate. They were giving it to you. But you managed to score a couple of pretty good long-range tries. That was a...

Pretty handy getting themselves out of trouble. They're going in a half time and 8-0.

Yeah, it was a weird, strange, like we actually didn't have one tackle inside their 20 metre, which is really strange because I think it was about 18-all, wasn't it? Yeah, so we had some kind of good long-range tries and we had some guys who, you know, we didn't have Xavier Coates and a few blokes like Raymond Smith throughout. We had some really great impact, Grant Anderson, Jack Howarth had a really good game. Obviously, everyone's talked up his potential, but it was great to see him actually get out there and

place well and then you know being able to inject sewer there's some really exciting

I suppose backs, it's always a good sign for a big front rower when we can score some of those long-range tries. So happy day. Did that give you the confidence, Christian, going into the break? 18 all and with what you were saying and your completion rate was pretty ordinary. I think it was about 60-something percent compared to the Dolphins where you've really got to go out and beat them because they complete really high. They kick to the corners and when you turned it around in that second half, they really struggled to go with you.

Yeah, the Dolphins, they're a really, really good side. I think they play a really high percentage, complete well. And that Katoa, he's years ahead of where he is considering how old he is. He's a phenomenal player. I think it won't be too long until we see him probably in the Origin Arena. He's a really nice player. Great kicking game and

They've got some really good players there. And obviously probably set them back a bit with Bostock going. I think they had four ruckies on the bench, which is always a bit of a risk. So I think they had to juggle that a bit. But, yeah, they're a really, really well-coached side and they compete really hard. Mate, you mentioned Sua Faiolongo before. Tell us a bit about him because he just looks as though he could be, well, one of the excitement machines of the whole competition. Yeah.

Yeah, he's an amazing story. Born in Samoa and come over and he's got a big family. So yeah, I'm so pumped for him. We don't develop too many Victorians, but we're counting him as one. I think he's our fifth or sixth one in 26 years. So he's been really awesome. So it's just about, I suppose, finding out how it works with paps because they're pretty similar, I suppose, size and height. I'm not sure what it's going to look like. Obviously,

that's up to Bells and the coaches seeing obviously because Bells is a very traditional conservative I suppose coach and whether

what his appetite is, I suppose, to get creative with lineups, you know, having Papamau as a man, Sewell on the field at the same time. So it seemed to work all right last night. So it's a good problem to have. Before you go, Christian, you're 29. You've played 155 games for the Melbourne Storm. You debuted back in 2015, six games for Queensland. What does the future hold for you, mate? How many more years are you contracted with and are you still enjoying your footy?

Yeah, I'm loving my footy. Yeah, I really love this club. Probably seeing my role probably go a little bit backwards this year, you know, come off the bench and not getting as many minutes. But I just really love this club and I just want to see us doing well. And we seem to be going all right at the moment. So, yeah, I'm just trying to make an impact in the minutes I'm on the field and really, I suppose, help the younger guys coming through. Yeah, because I don't really have any interest in –

I suppose moving clubs or anything. So I've probably got a couple of years left in the purple and yeah, really excited. I really do love this place and the opportunity they've given me. So it's all about...

So I was just doing what I can to add value to the club on and off the field. Good on you, mate. Well, you're a great talker and hopefully this wasn't considered to be one of the hardest interviews you've ever been done because obviously you talk about potatoes and everything else. But you just keep doing your role for Melbourne, mate. It's great to see you continuing on winning ways on top of the ladder, maintaining that ladder-leading position and may that continue for the remainder of the year. Thanks for joining us, mate, and you enjoy your weekend.

Thanks, guys. Thanks for having us on. Queensland 13+. Good on you, buddy. Christian Welch.