Latest Melbourne Storm news throughout the 2020 NRL season
Craig Bellamy has urged the NRL to find an answer to a problem which threatens to derail Melbourne’s chances of winning the premiership.
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The mental toll of training but not playing is starting to surface at Melbourne Storm and coach Craig Bellamy wants solutions sooner rather than later for his squad..
Second tier competitions were shut down shut down in March meaning nearly half of the Storm’s 32-player squad have nowhere to play each week.
Those not in the 21-man squad for Friday’s clash against South Sydney aren’t even allowed to enter AAMI Park and Bellamy said those players having “nothing to look forward to” was an issue the NRL had to address now.
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“We’ve got to get them back playing footy. We have to find a way,” Bellamy said on Thursday.
“Not only is it going to be harder for them to be paying in first grade as we go along, (coaches) won’t take lightly dropping someone and putting someone in that hasn’t played for six or eight weeks.
“The other thing is some of those guys are not going to see an opportunity to play and press their claims for a spot. How’s their mental wellbeing going to go through that?
“If they have basically nothing to look forward to, and that’s what they do for a job, and what they love doing, it’s going to be really hard for those guys.
“To expect them to come to every training session and train really well when they know they are not playing, that’s tough.
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“We’ve seen a couple of signs with our blokes that they are struggling mentally. For us it’s really important that we get them playing some footy, somehow, somewhere.”
Storm had spoken to both Newcastle and the Warriors about forming a hybrid team for excess players to play a similar team formed by Sydney clubs. Bellamy also spoke to Canberra coach Ricky Stuart about the same thing.
Both ideas were rebuffed by the NRL, but Bellamy said league officials had shown some “urgency” around the issue with the competition up and running again.
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Bellamy conceded Storm was a team in “transition”, the term South Sydney coach Wayne Bennett used to describe Melbourne ahead of Friday’s clash at AAMI Park.
But the Storm boss refuted any suggestion from NRL great Peter Sterling that his captain Cameron Smith was a fading force after Melbourne was humbled by Canberra last week.
“I’m not in agreement with that. I thought Cameron played really well the fits two rounds. It’s a little bit early to be making that statement (about Smith),” Bellamy said.
“We are in a little bit of transition but we think we have some really good young players coming through, our older players are playing really well. I like the look of our side at the moment.”
Originally published as Latest Melbourne Storm news throughout the 2020 NRL season