‘Back to reality’ says Bellamy

The Brookvale Oval curse continued for Melbourne Storm tonight as the ladder leaders went down to a more committed Manly Sea Eagles outfit 34-12 in wet and slippery conditions.

The loss is the Storm’s fourth in a row against Manly at Brookvale and ended the club’s impressive five match winning streak.

Both teams were missing many key players; however it was the Storm who found it more difficult to overcome the losses.

With Cam Smith, Greg Inglis, Dallas Johnson and Matt King unavailable with Origin commitments, and Billy Slater and Michael Crocker out suspended, it was always going to be a big ask for the Storm to win at Manly’s spiritual home.

“We had a lot of our players out tonight, but so did Manly so there are no excuses there,” said disappointed Melbourne Storm coach Craig Bellamy.

“But I thought with the new guys coming in I thought there might be a new air of enthusiasm, but I couldn’t find that.

“They just responded to the situation a lot better than we did.”

The Sea Eagles had plenty of players out themselves. Steve Menzies, Steven Bell and Brent Kite were out on Origin duty while their captain, Ben Kennedy failed a fitness test the day before the game.

Maybe it was nerves given the amount of inexperienced players in the game with both teams missing players to injury, suspension and State of Origin. Or maybe it was the greasy conditions, but the ball security from both teams was poor in the first half.

Storm’s preparation during the week may have had something to do with it.

“There were a few things (during the week) that smelled like we were a little bit complacent perhaps,” said Bellamy.

“I thought we’d sorted it out, but we just didn’t play well and got what we deserved.

“We started slow tonight and for me it looked as though we were waiting for the other team to lose and that’s never going to happen at Brookvale.”

The Sea Eagles were up to the challenge of handling the conditions right from the outset, and they went into the break 16-0 ahead with tries from Glenn Stewart, Steve Matai and Chris Kicks.

In the second half, the Storm tried desperately to fight their way back in to the game.

After an early setback with the Sea Eagles Mark Bryant extending the home side’s lead, the Storm hit back with tries to Matt Geyer and Steve Turner getting them within ten points with plenty of time to go.

However, when Paul Stephenson scored with 11 minutes left, the task became too great for the Storm with a final try to Hicks rubbing salt into the visitors’ wounds.

The defeat brings the Storm back to the pack and with a tough clash against the Panthers next Sunday at Olympic Park, Bellamy knows his players need to rise to the occasion.

“It’s back to reality,” lamented Bellamy.