Storm coach Craig Bellamy says round 10 loss to Cronulla means nothing going into finals rematch

Storm coach Craig Bellamy is lapping up the rich talent available to him with just a single frontliner on the injury list ahead of a qualifying final showdown with Cronulla.

Melbourne Storm coach Craig Bellamy thinks there’s more chance of him “flying to the moon” than the NRL grand final landing at the MCG, but his confidence in the minor premiers getting to the decider this season is growing by the day.

Storm chief executive Justin Rodski this week flagged the idea of the NRL grand final making its way to Melbourne, where a potential crowd record could be set, sometime in the future as a way to further plant a flag in his team’s home town.

Never one to forecast beyond the next game, Bellamy said while he’d “like to see it there”, the fanciful notion wasn’t one for him to concern himself with as he looks to progress to a home preliminary final in Saturday’s qualifying final with Cronulla.

Several of Bellamy’s players this week talked up the idea that Storm was hitting this year’s finals better physically and mentally than other recent, unsuccessful campaign, and the master coach, taking his team into a 22nd finals series in 23 seasons in charge, felt the same.

Craig Bellamy likes the Storm’s chances. Picture: Morgan Hancock/Getty Images

Only livewire Sua Fa’alogo is missing from his best possible 17, superstar winger Xavier Coates is back and flying, and the confidence of his gun halfback, and Dally M Medal favourite, Jahrome Hughes has never been higher.

It all combines to leave Bellamy, who conceded he’s never overconfident about anything, happy with how his team hits the AAMI Park showdown, having been in this position so many times before with different line-ups.

“I don’t really sort of think about what I was feeling last year or 10 years ago. I certainly don’t get confident about things,” he said on Friday.

“But I’m not unconfident about it either, if that’s the right word.

“I just stick to the process and understand what my role is during the week and on game day and make sure I get my bit done because that’s what I want them to do. I want them to do their job the best they can, so I need to do that too.

“We’ve had some injuries during the season, but we’ve got it pretty good at the end of the season. I think Sua was probably the only one that might have been in the 17 that is injured at the moment.

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“That’s been, I suppose, a nice problem, more worried about who to leave out than who to put in. They’ve all been really enthusiastic this week so hopefully that’ll show out tomorrow night.”

Storm were shock losers to the Sharks at home in round 10, but Bellamy said his team, which didn’t have Hughes or star fullback Ryan Papenhuyzen that night, were “different” to then and it was so long ago, it didn’t really enter into his thoughts preparing for the rematch against a team he considered one of the form sides of the competition.

“I suppose you could take a little bit out of it, but like I say, it’s a long time ago, as you say different teams, we were probably a different team,” he said.

“I certainly remember the result, but I’m not quite sure how much you take the other games that were 14 weeks ago.

“They’re probably at the moment the form team of the top eight.

“They are a well-balanced team, and it’s like they found some real form at the right time of the season, so it’s going to be a real tough game.”