Craig Bellamy conceded his side needs to get better defensively after they let a 14-0 lead slip to lose to the Broncos 18-14 in an eerily similar defeat to last year’s Grand Final.
The Storm were dominating the first half to lead 14-0 on the back of tries to Sua Fa’alogo and Joe Chan, but their defence let them down in the second stanza.
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“I think we could have defended better, to be quite honest,” Bellamy said.
“That was obviously disappointing there, but it seems to be a little bit of a story with us. We always seem to go really well the first half and not so well the second half.
“I suppose that was a little bit different last week, but there tonight for me it was just like two different games, the first half and second half with our defence.
“I thought we defended really well in the first half and then the second half we just couldn’t tackle anything, so I’m not quite sure why that is.
“We’ll have to have a look at it, and have a bit of a chat about it, and then go from there, but disappointing to lead like that and then get beat.
“We knew who we were playing, and they’re obviously a very good side, but it’s still disappointing after what we produced in the first half.”
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Bellamy noted the Storm haven’t been at their best defensively for a couple of seasons and stressed how important it is to put in 80 minute performances in without the ball.
“We need to get more consistent at the end of the day it’s like that game tonight with our defence was like two different teams they just had the same jumper on, so that’s what we need to start doing,” Bellamy said.
“I think in the past this team prides itself on its defence, but I think that’s one area that we knew we needed to improve this year.
“We haven’t been great defensively and let’s say it was just a real contrast and I was really happy with the way we defended the first half. We thought we’d done a great job but the second half it wasn’t near as good.”
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Bellamy also lamented the lack of creativity in the crucial second last set of the game as the Storm tried to chase a miracle win at the death.
“I thought it was our second last set of the game we weren’t adventurous at all,” Bellamy said.
“A couple before that we were and then the last set something might have happened, but we didn’t really look like we were going to score there at the end.
“But we just lost our way, lost our momentum in that second half and we couldn’t seem to get it back.”
Storm skipper Harry Grant said it was a break neck speed out on the field and conceded his side didn’t handle it as well as the game wore on.
“It felt like touch footy at times,” Grant said.
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“It was pretty fast there throughout the whole game. I guess the Broncos would have felt that in the first half. We probably felt the majority of that in the second half, that period of time.
“We’ve just got a lot to work on in our second halves and I think there was plenty of scenarios that we could have been better towards the end of the game and I think we can definitely have a look at all that and go again.”
Fa’alogo continued his strong start to the year with another busy performance, but Bellamy believes he still has a long way to go.
“I thought he was heavily involved and you know the whole heap of runs, but I still think he’s got a lot of improvement in him to be quite honest,” Bellamy said.
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“Just learning a bit more about the game and learning how to use his pace and his change of directions.
“I think sometimes he probably gets across field a little bit too much, but at the end of the day he’ll learn as he goes, but his involvement today was outstanding and he’s come a long way in a short amount of time.”
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