Melbourne Storm’s Cam Smith finds time to tease Craig Bellamy while walloping Wests Tigers
Melbourne Storm’s Craig Bellamy is a powder keg of emotion in the coaching box, but this gesture towards his skipper Cam Smith was more in admiration than animosity.
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The Storm secured a top two finish but coach Craig Bellamy was fuming after Melbourne’s suspect defence was exposed by Benji Marshall’s brilliance in an entertaining affair on the Sunshine Coast.
Melbourne recorded a 50-22 win but were far from convincing defensively against Wests Tigers in a 72-point spectacle on Saturday night.
The win cemented second spot on the ladder for the Sunshine Coast-based Storm with one round to go in the regular season, locking Melbourne into a home final at Suncorp Stadium in two weeks’ time.
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But if the Storm want to challenge for their first NRL title since 2017 they will have to improve defensively following what was far from an impressive effort without the ball for the second week running.
The Storm pride themselves on defence and had conceded the least amount of points (224) in the competition this season going into the game.
But they have conceded at least 20 points in their past two encounters against the Cowboys and Tigers, both bottom eight teams, in a worrying sign on the eve of the finals.
“I thought our defence was pretty ordinary,” Bellamy said.
“Our second half was all over the place. It was a bit disappointing.
“We had some injuries so we had a few players out of position.
“Our attack has been going really well. We need to prepare well for our games. There’s a couple of things we need to look at.”
BELLAMY FLIPS THE BIRD
While Bellamy was seething at Melbourne’s leaky defence, he saved his best reaction for captain Cameron Smith.
Smith burrowed over to score the 47th try of his career, surpassing the 46 tries Bellamy scored in his playing days.
The Storm captain let Bellamy know, pointing to the coaches box and smiling, which prompted Bellamy to respond by “flipping the bird” to his skipper.
“It was a scrappy old try, I thought he knocked it on,” Bellamy said.
“I have to apologise for my reaction. When they all started laughing at me I just stuck it up him. For anyone who takes offence, I’m sorry.
“It took him 427 games to get there, it only took me 149.”
It was a lighthearted gesture after Smith secured victory for the Storm in the 72nd minute, with Josh Addo-Carr and Suliasi Vunivalu scoring doubles for Melbourne in the big win.
SMITH v GRANT
It was billed as the master versus apprentice.
Storm legend Smith came up against Tigers dynamo Harry Grant for the first time since Grant was loaned to Wests for the season.
While Melbourne won comprehensively, Grant was far from outclassed by the man he is waiting to vacate the Storm’s No. 9 jersey.
Grant was all class out of dummy-half in a busy performance and was responsible for most of Wests’ attacking spark.
He finished with 50 tackles in a tireless effort and proved he is ready to take over from Smith whenever the Storm captain decides to walk away from the game.
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MARSHALL MAGIC
He is 35 and has been told he is not wanted at the Tigers next year but there is plenty of life left in Marshall.
In his 323rd NRL game, Marshall produced a series of brilliant passes that were reminiscent of the Kiwi legend in his prime.
Marshall no longer moves like he used to but he is as sharp as ever between the ears and able to execute skilful plays, as evidenced by pinpoint cutout passes for Asu Kepaoa’s two tries.
Marshall’s two try-assists took his tally to 21 for the season, the second most in the NRL behind Cronulla’s Shaun Johnson (22).
“He is quality in what he does,” said Tigers coach Michael Maguire.
“He tries and wants to win games. You can see that with the fight he comes back with.
“We definitely beat ourselves in the first half, every time we scored a try we gave the ball back.
“We need to get our starts right and build pressure. We put so much pressure on ourselves with fundamental errors and poor defensive decisions.”