Craig Bellamy has bristled at talk that Melbourne’s campaign will be branded a failure if they fall short in next Sunday’s grand final.
The Storm reached their 11th decider under his watch with a gritty 22-14 win over Cronulla, but the coach made it clear he won’t indulge claims that anything less than lifting the trophy is unacceptable.
Asked if his team needed to make amends for last year’s defeat to Penrith, Bellamy didn’t hesitate. “And I find it amazing that people say, you get to the grand final, but you’ve failed the year. Like, please,” he said.
“At the end of the day, it’s hard to get into a grand final and it’s extra hard to win one. But this thing about, you’ve had a failed season to get beat in the grand final, that’s a load of crap.”
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Rest advantage acknowledged
The Storm’s path has been eased slightly by the finals schedule, with Bellamy’s men gaining an extra day of recovery after playing the Friday preliminary final. “Yeah, I think it is an advantage, but with all due respect, we didn’t make that decision,” he said. “The NRL made the decision, not us.”
For now, Bellamy is more concerned with consistency than narratives. “I think it’s a sense of relief in that we’ve found basically nearly a consistent 80 minutes, which we probably haven’t produced for the last five or six weeks,” he reflected.
“That’s a bit of a relief. Then sort of understand what winning today means. That probably hasn’t sunk in to me yet.”
The Storm now await their grand final opponent, but their coach has already made his stance plain: reaching the last day of the season is an achievement in itself, and he isn’t about to let outside chatter diminish it.