Craig Bellamy may sense one thing wasn’t fairly proper on the Storm final yr, however the veteran coach says his champion facet has rediscovered its trademark metal after they overcame a stack of adversity to beat the Eels within the season opener.
The 16-12 golden level win in Sydney continues his unbelievable Round 1 streak and ends their depressing run towards Parramatta which included golden level heartbreak towards them final season.
But with Cameron Munster battling a sickening finger harm and Xavier Coates taken off with a shoulder criticism, the undermanned Storm someway dug deep to steal the win because of a Harry Grant solo effort in extra-time.
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This is a group that misplaced four-straight video games halfway by way of 2022 which noticed them miss out on the highest 4 earlier than they had been bundled out within the opening week of the season.
They struggled defensively final yr, misplaced quite a few veteran forwards within the low season and received’t have Ryan Papenhuyzen again for a few months, however they seem to have rediscovered their defensive grit after holding the grand finalists to only 12 factors.
“Just being so gutsy through the whole 80 minutes, I don’t think we’ve been like that for the past 12 months. I thought we made some steps forward in that area, and hopefully we can keep that up,” Bellamy mentioned.
“It probably took me a while to realise it. You sort of bobble around sticking to your systems and sticking to your routine.
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“All of a sudden, you think ‘we haven’t played with absolute steel for a bit’ and when we get under pressure we’re folding more than we’re fighting. That’s one thing we wanted to be better at this year.
“We’ve got a lot of new guys in our squad – especially with the injuries that we’ve got – but if they keep showing the fight they did tonight, I’m sure we’ll be okay.”
Skipper Christian Welch performed only one sport final yr earlier than a severe Achilles harm on the similar venue ended his yr in devastating style.
He wasn’t there to see the Storm’s requirements drop off in the course of the yr, however he’s enthusiastic about what he noticed on Thursday evening.
“I thought we kept turning out,” he mentioned.
“We had a few out, but the guys who came in did a fantastic job. We’ve worked on that and we want to be a really hungry, aggressive side in our forward pack.
“I thought tonight was good. We were probably against one of the premier packs, and I thought the boys really turned up.”
Source web site: www.foxsports.com.au
