NRL Market Watch 2022: Injury-hit Storm chasing Reece Walsh, Jayden Campbell
The struggling Storm are working feverishly to fill their final roster spot before the August 1 deadline — with Reece Walsh their top target.
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The August 1 deadline looms as a key date for the Melbourne Storm as they look to salvage a season that is teetering after they went down to the Rabbitohs on Saturday night to slide out of the top four.
Their four-game losing streak left coach Craig Bellamy furious after the game, declaring he didn’t know if they could turn things around after errors and defensive lapses saw them easily beaten by a team that had won just five of 36 games against them before Saturday night.
Melbourne’s struggles have coincided with a backline crisis that has seen Ryan Papenhuyzen and Reimis Smith ruled out for the season, while representative winger Xavier Coates is still a couple of weeks away.
It’s led to speculation that the Storm will look to sign a quality outside back to fill their roster before the deadline, but there are reports that main target Reece Walsh won’t be joining them from the Warriors.
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“We’d like to do that, but at the end of the day, we’re running out of time,” Bellamy said.
“There are other clubs who have got other players and they don’t want to release them.
“We will still look if we still can, but whether that happens or not, I’m not going to be involved with that. My job is to coach the team and to coach the players that we’ve got here at the moment. That’s what I’m concentrating on at the moment.”
While Walsh is at long odds to join the Storm, hooker Harry Grant said the young gun would be an excellent fit after the pair bonded during the Queensland camp before the second State of Origin game.
“I was in camp with Reece and he’s a really good fella,” Grant said.
“He’s a great football player and he’d be an asset to any team but I don’t think that’s looking likely.
“He’d fit in here because he brings a lot of x-factor, but Nick Meaney has done a great job for us and he was awesome for us again.
“I think the club’s in a position where they do have an extra spot. They’ve done pretty well to keep the number 30 spot available and they’re obviously going to have to fill that by the end of the month.
“We’re going to have to sign someone, so we’re going to welcome whoever that is.”
Melbourne’s slide down the ladder has seen plenty of pundits put the red pen through their chances this season, but you only have to go back 10 years to see that it is possible to turn things around.
The Storm lost five-straight games in 2012, culminating in a late-July loss to the Dragons, but they romped through the rest of the season undefeated to win their most treasured title.
Grant said he was “sure” they could fix things before the finals and said a premiership was still on the cards.
“We’ve got a group here who works really hard and has a lot of trust in each other,” he said.
“It’s just going to be a team effort to prioritise where we’re going and what we need to do over the next few weeks. We just need to make some small changes.
“We all know the footy that we can play, but we’ve just got to get back to playing it. We need to simplify a lot of things within the game to free up our strike players to give them the opportunities to perform.”
Golden Oates: Veteran on track to be Bronco for life
— David Riccio and Brent Read
The Storm have investigated signing Titans whiz Jayden Campbell for the rest of the season and held high-level talks with the Wests Tigers over potential recruits after Warriors bosses slammed the door shut on immediately releasing star fullback Reece Walsh.
Warriors CEO Cameron George has issued a defiant ‘hands off’ Walsh, who has been targeted by an injury-riddled Melbourne as a fast-fix for the remainder of the year.
Walsh was granted an early release from his Warriors contract on compassionate grounds to join the Broncos next season.
That has led to the likes of the Storm contacting Walsh’s management to try and use the young star for the rest of the year.
George said the 12th-placed Warriors weren’t interested in being “exploited” by rival clubs, wanting to keep their finals hopes alive.
“He has been released at the end of this year for personal reasons and geographical reasons was also a part of that,’’ George said.
“We’re only letting Reece go to be with his daughter.
“We’re not then going to turn into someone that just allows him to trot off to another club interstate.
“That flies completely in the face of why we’re letting Reece go.
“Next year is completely different because we’re moving internationally, back home and he can’t be separated from his daughter.
“That then doesn’t need to be exploited where he can trot off to an interstate club because they’re in the finals and we’re not.
“We’d be accused of fire-selling our players that are leaving just because we’re out of the finals.’’
“We’re not here to recruit for other clubs, we’re here to do the best for ourselves and Reece can help us do our best.’’
Despite the Warriors’ defiance when it comes to Walsh, the Storm are expected to ask the question again next week as they scramble to sign someone before August 1 – the cut-off date to add new players to a team’s roster.
News Corp understands Storm officials have also held talks with the Tigers over whether they would consider lending Melbourne any outside back for the remainder of the season – Storm coach Craig Bellamy and Tigers head of football Tim Sheens have a relationship dating back more than 30 years to their time together in Canberra.
Winger Ken Maumalo is believed to be of interest to the Storm, although their priority remains the electrifying Walsh, with discussions around Campbell proving fruitless at this stage.
Aside from Papenhuyzen, the Storm have lost Reimis Smith, George Jennings and Christian Welch for the season. Queensland winger Xavier Coates is also sidelined, although he is expected to return from an ankle injury in the next fortnight.
George added that even if the Broncos wanted Walsh – they wouldn’t be letting him go early.
“It’s no disrespect to Melbourne.
“It could be any club.
“We wouldn’t even let him go to Brisbane. He’s only allowed to leave us when we depart Australia at the end of this year to go to New Zealand.
“He’s locked and loaded for us for the rest of this year.
“We still want every game and do our best for fans, sponsors and our brand.’’
Campbell’s name has appeared on Melbourne’s radar with the Titans utility on the comeback trail from injury.
Campbell is contracted to the Titans until the end of 2014, but has an option in his favour to get out of the contract early.
The attacking spark has also been named on the interchange bench for the Titans against the Bulldogs on Sunday and with fullback AJ Brimson in front of him, the Storm have expressed an interest in luring him south.
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Originally published as NRL Market Watch 2022: Injury-hit Storm chasing Reece Walsh, Jayden Campbell
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