‘Won’t happen again’: Bellamy condemns Brandon Smith’s spray at referee

Craig Bellamy has condemned Brandon Smith’s abuse of the referee in the Storm’s loss to the Sharks, declaring “it won’t happen again”.

Craig Bellamy speaks after the Storm's loss to the Sharks.

Craig Bellamy has condemned Brandon Smith’s abuse of referee Adam Gee in the Storm’s 28-6 loss to the Sharks and declared “it won’t happen again”.

Smith was sent to the bin during a bizarre moment as he played the ball with the Storm on the attack.

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The hooker took a hit up and was tackled by Aiden Tolman. As he got up to play the ball he fired off a comment at Gee who immediately sent him from the field.

“I’m not even going to repeat what he said,” Gee could be heard saying when questioned on the incident.

As Smith left the field he waved to taunting Sharks fans even gave them the thumbs up before reacting angrily to one comment.

Smith spun around as he headed down the tunnel and fired back at one fan: “What’d you say bra?”. He had to be held back by a Storm official and a security guard.

Speaking after the game, Bellamy condemned Smith’s treatment of Gee and lamented the impact his sin binning had on the Storm.

“I don’t know what happened there. That looked like it was going to be one of our best sets, we had a bit of line speed. Then all of a sudden I thought we were getting a penalty, but he ended up in the bin,” Bellamy said.

Brandon Smith fired up. Photo: Fox Sports

“I don’t know what he said. We don’t want our players showing that sort of disrespect for the referees. I can only say it won’t happen again.

“I don’t know why he would say something then. The referee obviously did it for a reason. I’ll have a bit of a chat to Brandon and see what happened there.

“As I said, we don’t agree with everything that happens with the referees but we show respect and it is bad enough turning the ball over and giving away a penalty.

“I am pretty sure it isn’t going to happen again.”

Reflecting on the disappointing loss, Bellamy admitted he had considered a mid-season signing to help with the Storm’s injury toll.

Rookie winger Grant Anderson suffered a serious elbow injury while Kenny Bromwich was taken from the field with an ankle problem.

“It’s been a really tough year, to be honest, as far as injuries go,” he said.

Craig Bellamy wasn’t too impressed.

“Hopefully those guys (who got injured in the Sharks game are) not too bad.

“We’ve got a little bit on the cap left. We’ve certainly got a spot in the 30 left.

“We will probably have to do that at some stage. We haven’t spoken too much about it but with Grant getting injured tonight we will have to have a chat about it.”

Bellamy said there were positives to be taken from the match despite the Storm slumping to their second-straight loss.

“First half I thought our effort in the first half was pretty good. With all due respect, their footy in that first half was pretty off the charts.”

“I thought we were in the game at 10-nil. There’s some things there that we need to improve on but I just think our effort areas tonight were a lot better than last week.

I just think we ran into a pretty hot side with the footy.

Originally published as ‘Won’t happen again’: Bellamy condemns Brandon Smith’s spray at referee