Melbourne Storm coach Craig Bellamy unhappy with his side’s defence ahead of round-one clash with Parramatta

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Melbourne Storm coach Craig Bellamy unhappy with his side’s defence ahead of round-one clash with Parramatta

Melbourne can forget about extending the club’s phenomenal streak of NRL first-round wins unless pre-season defensive woes are rectified.

That’s the verdict from Storm coach Craig Bellamy ahead of his team’s battle with Parramatta at AAMI Park on Sunday.

Since Bellamy took charge of the club ahead of the 2003 season, Melbourne has won 21 successive first-round matches, a total that doesn’t include the 2004 campaign when the Storm had an opening-round bye.

However, stretching the run to a 22nd consecutive round-one win on Sunday is perhaps under threat, with Bellamy unhappy with Storm’s defensive displays in the club’s two trial games.

Melbourne was beaten 36-10 by the New Zealand Warriors and 36-24 by North Queensland.

“It’s always interesting when round one comes up,” Bellamy said on Saturday.

“Sometimes you think you’re ready, other times you’re not.

“Our pre-season has been pretty good as far as injury-wise. We always get a couple of injuries there, but probably the thing I’m not quite sure of is our form in the trials … our defence wasn’t great.

“We scored a few points but it’s important to be on with your defence early in the season. We should have been defending better (in the trials) than what we did, so we’ve had two weeks to hopefully correct it.

“With our contact stuff we’ve done, we’ve been a bit more aware of that. I’m sure they’ll have a good attitude (on Sunday).”

Bellamy played down his own role in the Storm’s streak of round-one wins.

“It’s not really my record, it’s the players’ record. I’m sitting up in the coaching box. I don’t have a whole heap to do with it,” he said.

“I know the players, especially our old boys, they used to hold being ready for round one pretty close to their heart, and then to perform well in round one, that was really important to them, so hopefully it’s important for these guys as well.”

Bellamy – whose side is set to include fit-again fullback Ryan Papenhuyzen as well off-season recruit Stefano Utoikamanu – will go head-to-head in a coaching battle with his former assistant Jason Ryles, who will make his NRL head coaching debut after taking charge of the Eels.

“He did a great job here as an (assistant) coach. We were sorry to lose him as a coach, but we knew he was going to move on to ******* and better things,” Bellamy said of his former right-hand man.

“They’ve worked on their play the ****** a bit, working on playing the ball quickly, and perhaps on the other side, working hard on slowing down the opposition.

“That’s one of the things that I’ve noticed is a little bit different from Parramatta last year to this year.”

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