How Craig Bellamy and Melbourne Storm broke Tom Trbojevic

Craig Bellamy masterminded the perfect strategy for Melbourne to shut down Tom Trbojevic on Friday night — this is how he did it.

Tommy Turbo couldn't fire against Melbourne.

Melbourne did the impossible on Friday night — it stopped Tom Trbojevic.

The Manly star has been in unbelievable form all year, scoring five hat-tricks and beating teams on his home but he was invisible as the Sea Eagles crashed to a 40-12 defeat in the first week of the finals.

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They get a second bite of the cherry next week but need their superstar fullback to rediscover his mojo if they’re to stand any chance of remaining in the premiership race.

Trbojevic had just 17 touches all game — less than half his season average — and made just 118m and one tackle bust. At times in the first half, Manly had repeat sets in Melbourne’s red zone and he didn’t receive a single possession.

In the second half, the man they call “Turbo” ran for just 25m as the Storm completed a crushing victory.

Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy has a habit of coming up with ways to keep the best players in the game quiet come finals time. He did so against Jarryd Hayne in 2009, Ben Barba in 2012 and Jason Taumalolo in 2017.

And he was at it again on Friday — but how exactly did the Storm shut out the most exhilarating talent in the NRL this time?

“The Storm neutralised him,” ex-Storm halfback Cooper Cronk told Fox League.

“When he ran in and around the ruck he wasn’t one out with a defender, there were three or four swarming like bees to a honey pot.

“On an edge they gave him space and waited for the cavalry to come from the inside and usher him towards the sideline.

“Players get a lot of credit for implementing the game plan and they nailed that one.”

Tom Trbojevic just couldn’t break free. (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)

Cronk’s former teammate Billy Slater also weighed in, saying Bellamy would have educated his side all week on how to nullify Manly’s biggest attacking threat.

“No one does their homework better than the Melbourne Storm,” Slater told Nine.

“When Tom gets the ball in the situations you want to give him the ball, and that’s in the corners ... when he got the ball, you see the attention around him.

“You see the urgency (from Storm defenders) to get him and make the tackle. There are players coming three, four, five and six metres away just to get into the tackle.

“There’s no doubt there would’ve been extra attention around Tom Trbojevic in their preparation.”

Seeing Trbojevic kept quiet reminded Slater of when past Melbourne teams he was part did the same under Bellamy’s guidance.

“I remember when we played in 2009 in the grand final against Jarryd Hayne and he was in this incredible form, and we shut him down,” Slater said. “It wasn’t any individual, it was collectively as a team.

“Then in 2012 — the Bulldogs in the grand final and Ben Barba was in this purple patch of form. Craig Bellamy came up with a system to shut it down.

“This is not the first time Craig has done this and it certainly won’t be the last. It’s a collective team effort, it’s not an individual thing.”

Tom Trbojevic went missing. (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)

Manly coach Des Hasler pointed the finger at his own team’s failings as to why Trbojevic wasn’t able to have an impact.

“People are probably going to reflect on it that way (the Storm shutting down Trbojevic), but we didn’t give ourselves a chance,” Hasler said.

“You look at possession, you look at where our possession was — they made us come out of the corner the whole time.

“We didn’t make them chew up any gas, we leaked them down the field both with our ill-discipline with the ball and also giving away too many penalties. It was nine in total tonight.

“It’s just not going to get it done. We weren’t smart enough.”