Melbourne Storm coach Craig Bellamy was fuming with the effort of his players after Saturday night’s devastating 18-16 loss to Manly Sea Eagles at AAMI Park.
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The Storm’s six-game winning streak came to a screeching halt and their home fortress was breached for the first time this season as they completed a meagre 29 of 45 sets compared to a near flawless Sea Eagles who carved out 37 of 41 on the back of stellar play from Daly Cherry-Evans and Luke Brooks.
“You just see the error rate, at half time, our completions was 65% and theirs was 92% or something, so it’s hard to be competitive if you’re completing at that and the opposition is completing at that high rate,” Bellamy said.
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“I don’t know whether we were looking for a soft performance, but having said that, you’ve got to give a lot of credit to Manly too, they scrambled really well I thought.
“We had a couple of chances there, but they snuffed them out pretty well.”
Bellamy was disappointed to lose in the manner they did on the night they welcomed back some of the club’s legends for their past players day.
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He accused Storm players of being unwilling to embrace the grind, particularly in a terrible first half that saw them trail 16-6 at half-time.
The second half was much better with Xavier Coates completing a hat-trick of tries to level the scores before a somewhat controversial Reuben Garrick penalty goal sealed victory for the Sea Eagles.
“How we started, it’s like we were looking for short cuts straight away,” Bellamy said.
“We know that it doesn’t work for our game, we know that it doesn’t work in life, but we were looking for short cuts, the easy options.
“For me, on old boys day and to go out and play like that is just disappointing.”
On the game deciding penalty, where Storm captain Harry Grant was adjudged to have taken out the legs of Brooks on a field goal attempt, Bellamy was content that to the letter of the law it was the right decision by referee Wyatt Raymond.
“Again, I suppose, within the rules say, that’s what it was,” Bellamy said.
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“I think Hughesy [Jahrome Hughes] sort of might of copped one [too], it obviously wasn’t for a field goal, but as I say at the end of the day, commenting on it, ain’t going to change it, so it is what it is.”
Asked about the inconsistency in the referee adjudicating around pressure on the kicker, Bellamy said: “You can say that [there is inconsistency], but I can’t say that, I might get fined”.
The Storm is preparing to be without star five-eighth Cameron Munster for Thursday night’s blockbuster clash with Sydney Roosters at Allianz Stadium.
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Munster is expected to be on personal leave with the funeral of his dad Steve taking place on Friday.
“I don’t think he’ll be playing,” Bellamy said.
“It really hasn’t been spoken about all that much, but I don’t think he’ll be playing on Thursday.”
Bellamy praised Coates for his three-try performance.
“X was great for us – outstanding,” he said.
“He has been all year, he has been for three years he’s been here, but he needed a bit of help tonight.”
