It was a horror night for the Storm on Saturday, but no player had a worse few hours than Melbourne forward Joe Chan, who copped a massive spray from coach Craig Bellamy before being benched.
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Chan had a tough outing, committing three errors and exposed in defence during the Storm’s shock 38-14 loss at home to the Warriors.
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At half time, Fox League cameras captured Bellamy gave the back rower a dressing down in the sheds.
“He was the whipping boy tonight. He copped it from Bellamy and his teammates and he was dejected,” Yvonne Sampson said on Fox League’s Super Saturday.
Chan was ordinary but he wasn’t alone, as several players failed to fire in the heavy loss – the Storm’s fourth straight defeat.
While Chan was in Bellamy’s sights at halftime, Warriors legend Shaun Johnson insisted he wasn’t the only one well of their game.
“Joe Chan was the scapegoat tonight. Those pictures don’t look good,” Johnson said on Fox League.
“I’ve been in a similar position where it’s just not clicking for you and you try harder but it snowballs and it becomes worse and you think on the sideline wondering if I’m the only reason for the team’s poor performance.
“But he wasn’t the only reason. He wasn’t alone. It was right across the board.”
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It was a very uncharacteristic performance from the Storm. They had several chances to score but looked out of sorts near the Warriors’ line.
However, it’ll be their defensive effort that will come under the spotlight.
Cooper Cronk, who played under Bellamy for the majority of his storied career, says that while Melbourne could only manage 14 points, Bellamy will be focusing this week on the seven tries they conceded.
“He’s going to look at the lack of movement from certain players in defence. He’s not worried about the 14, he’s worried about the 38,” Cronk said.
“He’ll look at it on a wide screen and see Munster and Grant being lazy. He’s not going to go to the inexperienced guys, he’s going to pick out the guys who should be leading the way.
“He’ll look through it from a defensive lens and see poor decision making, this player not moving up when they should be. There’s a lot of areas he’ll look at and it’ll all be defensive.”
Cronk’s comments led Johnson to again admit his surprise with Bellamy’s half time spray.
“That’s what I found interesting with the Joe Chan move because he’s been sound defensively and runs a great line with the ball but to put it one kid and if it’s through a defensive lens, I was scratching my head over that,” Johnson responded.
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