Storm coach Craig Bellamy has responded to Melbourne prop Stefano Utoikamanu’s infamous ‘stuck up’ sledge aimed at Broncos players ahead of the NRL Grand Final.
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Utoikamanu said, he didn’t like some of the Broncos players because they were stuck up, prompting suggestions he had lit a fire under the opposition after the Broncos fired back with sledges of their own.
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Cooper Cronk suggested Bellamy would not have been too pleased with a player of his poking the bear, but the Storm coach didn’t seem too bothered by it.
“I haven’t seen too much,” Bellamy told Triple M’s The Rush Hour with Dobbo & Elliott.
“I know he made a statement, or whatever he did, but down here you don’t see too much [press] about rugby league.
“I’m not too sure what he said or the way he said it. It might have been a light-hearted thing.”
Despite heading into his 11th Grand Final in 23 years of coaching the Storm, Bellamy admitted he still can’t explain the nerves he feels this time of year, despite 600 games of NRL coaching experience.
Bellamy has seen it all on Grand Final Day as a player and a coach and he revealed the biggest key ingredient that helps teams perform in the Big Dance.
“I think the biggest thing the team knows what they’re good at and what’s got them here,” Bellamy explained.
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“Don’t go away from that. It doesn’t matter what the other team is good at.”
The Storm are at full strength for the decider after halfback Jahrome Hughes made a courageous return from a fracture arm in the preliminary final win over the Sharks, just 22 days after suffering it against the Broncos in the final round of the regular season.
Bellamy revealed it was a miracle that Hughes returned so soon, given he was meant to be ruled out for the year.
“We didn’t expect him to play a week or two before, without a doubt,” Bellamy said.
“There was no chance he was playing; they said 6-8 weeks at least. He came to me and said, ‘Mate, I think I can play.’
“And I said, “play what?” (laughs). He said the game on Saturday, he was real confident he could play, and I never expected that but because of his confidence we went and saw the medical people and they put him through the fitness test, and he came up okay.”
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