Craig Bellamy couldn’t resist a cheeky dig at skipper Harry Grant after he put aside injury fears in a masterclass in the Storm’s 52-4 win over the Eels in Round 1.
Grant put in an epic performance that had Andrew Voss calling him better than Cameron Smith and on what he produced against the Eels it was hard to argue with.
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Grant went off with what looked like a serious leg injury, but Bellamy allayed fears after the game with a cheeky dig at his captain.
“He did there in the first half, we were happy he did before he broke his leg,” Bellamy joked when asked if Grant dominated the contest.
“Oh that’s right cramp, I thought he broke his leg, so we got him off, but it was only a cramp, so we were very lucky there.
“He did a great job. That try was the second try we scored that was really important to us and there wouldn’t be too many dummyhalves that can score a try in that situation.
“Again, I just think with Harry this season he’s just really concentrated on making sure he’s playing his best footy and coming to training and training the best he can and going on from there. He’s had one helluva pre-season and helluva game there tonight.”
When pressed on the comparison to Smith, Bellamy preferred not to compare the two champion No.9’s and just felt lucky he has been able to coach both.
“That’s an interesting comparison he’s certainly quicker than Cameron Smith at his best I can tell you,” Bellamy said.
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“I think he broke his leg once, but at the end of the day we’re talking about two different players and probably two different eras and they are both wonderful, wonderful players and I just look back and look forward and just think like how fortunate this club’s been or how fortunate for me as a coach to have two guys that touch the ball more than anybody else in the team and to have Cameron play as long as he did and then soon as he retired Harry came in after, so let’s say the whole club has been very fortunate to have two players like Cameron and Harry.”
Bellamy didn’t see the thrashing coming after some poor trial form, but was full of praise for his side’s application.
“I didn’t see that coming obviously, that score line was a surprise to everybody I think,” Bellamy said.
“But I thought our guys really prepared well this week. Our last couple of sessions were really good. What we planned to do, we basically did it there tonight.
“I think probably one of the biggest things that went in our favour was the completion rates.
I don’t think they were very high in their completion rates. We were pretty good in the first half, but in the second half we were pretty exceptional.
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“I think if you’re that good with your ball control this early in the season, I think that goes a long way to helping you to get the result that you want.”
The win extended Bellamy’s winning record in Round 1 to 23 games, with the Storm having not lost a first up fixture since 2001 and Grant admitted it was in the back of the players’ minds.
“Yeah for sure I think to be fair it was probably spoken about a little bit because it was gonna be there as a bit of noise and at the end of the day it’s just an outcome of how we perform, how we prepare and ultimately the work you do in the pre-season,” Grant said.
“You get a chance to showcase it but I think yeah the playing group really respects it and at the end of the day there’s a lot of old boys sitting at home watching knowing that they’ve contributed to that as a part of the history of the club.
“Whether you call it a record or a streak whatever but you know there’s plenty of people that have played a part in that and hopefully they can be pretty proud that it’s still rolling and they’ve contributed over the years.”
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Fullback Sua Fa’alogo impressed with a classy double in his first game of the season since taking over from Ryan Papenhuyzen and Grant was full of praise for the young No.1.
“I think he had a really good performance and I think the one thing I was pleased with Sua’s game and we were speaking on the run that he probably didn’t get a lot of his natural game on early but we’ve seen it come to life at the end there,” Grant said.
“He probably had involvements in different ways early in the game he didn’t touch the ball as much and that was just the way that the game went, but I think he was nice and patient and disciplined with his game and channelled the energy to the right areas and got some rewards at the end there.
“But I can’t speak highly enough of him and the way he’s attacked his pre-season like Craig said he’s seen an opportunity there.
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“He’s come in every day with the right mindset and you know fingers crossed as a team we can benefit from that, but if he’s doing the little things well bringing effort to his game as a fullback then that’ll set up some of the X-Factor and the exciting things that people like to see.”
Bellamy also paid tribute to the Storm’s two debutants, who stepped up in the big win.
“We had two debutants there tonight in Cooper Clarke and Preston Conn, I thought Preston didn’t play a real long time, but I thought they did a really good job, both really impressive kids and they work hard.
“You can see just in their families they came down and how excited the day worse. So for them being excited like that, to be playing their first game for the Storm, I think the boys really took that on board. We were very intent on playing our best footy tonight and we went close to that.”
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