Melbourne Storm not as good as they were earlier in the season, says Darren Lockyer

DARREN Lockyer has some thin hope for worrying Broncos fans — Melbourne Storm are not playing as well as they were earlier in the season.

Storm coach Craig Bellamy won’t be worried by Lockyer’s assessment. (AAP Image/Julian Smith)

DARREN Lockyer has some hope for Broncos fans — the Storm are not playing as well as they were earlier in the season.

Melbourne have lost four games all year going into Saturday’s home preliminary final against the Broncos, but have not followed the traditionally most desirable trajectory for finals football of building form in the last week or two before the playoffs.

The Storm snapped up their 12th win from their past 14 matches against Brisbane when they overwhelmed the Broncos 42-12 in Round 17 at Suncorp Stadium.

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Storm coach Craig Bellamy won’t be worried by Lockyer’s assessment. (AAP Image/Julian Smith)

“The Storm were perfect that night. They’re not perfect right now,’’ former Broncos skipper Lockyer said.

“They aren’t playing like they were six or seven weeks ago, but they do have an experienced spine and that can be a factor.’’

Storm coach Craig Bellamy, in his ninth preliminary final with Melbourne, does have knowledge of how to make the week off, earned by winning a qualifying final, work for his team.

Lockyer said the Broncos had their own challenges in making their game style sustain for 80 minutes against the well-drilled Storm.

“They need to move the ball early in the count against the Storm and kick well for the corners,’’ he said.

“Parramatta (in the September 9 loss to Melbourne) went wide coming out of their end and made a lot of easy metres. I don’t know if Melbourne will defend against the Broncos the same way. They like to go up and in out wide to shut out Darius Boyd.

“The completion rate by the Broncos at the moment isn’t good enough.

“If you are going to beat the Storm you have to beat them at their game, getting the better of them mentally and that’s very hard. You need to defend very well on your tryline against the Storm.’’