A faster pace of play could lead to more NRL domination for ageless Storm star Cameron Smith
New rules and one referee made for a fast, free-flowing game as the NRL resumed, and Melbourne Storm coach Craig Bellamy thinks he has the perfect man to take advantage.
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Melbourne Storm coach Craig Bellamy believes the new rules which made the opening match of the restarted NRL season “lightning fast” could play in to the hands of his captain Cameron Smith.
With a single referee allowed to call “six-again” on the run and restart a tackle count for ruck infringements rather than stop for penalties, Bellamy said the best dummy-halves could get an extreme advantage.
Parramatta scored the opening try in Thursday night’s game off back-to-back repeat sets and tired defences were opened up on other calls during the game with the speed and continuous nature standing out.
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Bellamy said Smith, who is about to turn 37, had “unrivalled” experience at dummy-half and the superstar captain could prove to Melbourne’s key weapon against Canberra on Saturday, and for the rest of the season.
“Cameron is unrivalled in his experience in the game and his experience at that position. We haven’t played under these rules before so it will be interesting to see how they pan out,” Bellamy said.
“But the way a couple of the dummy-halves went (in the opening game) coming out to get people on to the ball, that was pretty encouraging for us, because no-one does it better than Cameron.
“If that style of games continues the craftier dummy-halves will think they are able to do some damage but the quicker ones will be able to do a bit of damage as well.
“We’re only going on one night, and we’ll see if that is a continuing pattern. But if its, we’d like to think that gives us an advantage with Cameron’s experience and what he does so well.”
In a COVID-19 impacted world, where a mere sniffle could rule out any player from any game, Bellamy said he would have players at home “with their boots polished” ready to play should they be required.
Brisbane halfback Brodie Croft required two temperature checks before he could play in Thursday night’s Round 3 opener against Parramatta, after failing the first one.
Each team can only take 20 players in to a match venue and Bellamy, who said the biosecurity protocols were “wearing me down at times”, revealed Storm would have plenty of players at home on standby.
“They’ll be sitting next to their phones with their boots polished and mouth guard ready if we get a crop of guys that do go down,” Bellamy said.
“You’d like to think that’s not going to happen too much, and if you’re not feeling too well hopefully we know about that a little bit earlier.
“If we’ve got a few temperatures up, that is a little bit of a worry, but hopefully we’ll manage that if it happens.”
Bellamy, who said everyone was “excited” to be back, was bullish about his team’s preparation for the resumption of the season. He singled out hulking prop Nelson Asofa-Solomona for praise on his work at training.
“I might be putting a little bit of pressure on him here but he has trained unbelievable well this week,” he said.
Storm has lost its past two clashes with Canberra, including a 12-10 loss in last year’s qualifying final at AAMI Park.
But Bellamy said those results mattered little with so much change since then to the teams, and the game.
Originally published as A faster pace of play could lead to more NRL domination for ageless Storm star Cameron Smith