Nelson Asofa-Solomona has been Melbourne Storm’s most consistent player so far this season.
That sentence is music to Craig Bellamy’s ears.
For the last four years the Storm coaching staff have known what Nelson is capable of. Over that time there have been glimpses such as; his best afield performance in ANZAC Day last year, the occasional flashy offload and bulldozing runs that leave defenders on their backside.
All these things have seen him become a fan favourite amongst the purple army and now he is starting to showcase all the above and more each and every week.
The Storm coach said that while his side’s form had been patchy in the opening two weeks, the performance of his No.10 had been not.
“We’ve spoken about our team’s consistency not being so great but Nelson has been 180 degrees from that,” Craig Bellamy said.
“This is the most consistent he has been. He has made a lot of changes to his routine and preparation and we are seeing the results of that off the field.
“He has probably been our most consistent player, if someone had of said that to me 12 months ago I would’ve thought they had rocks in their head.
“He just needed to tidy up on a couple of things and he has, he is playing good footy at the moment. The longer he is out there, the better we seem to be going.”
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Nelson’s promotion to the starting side has granted Storm with a wealth of powerful players on the bench.
Kenny Bromwich and Sam Kasiano are international representatives, Tim Glasby a Queensland Origin player and Christian Welch has been tremendous in his return from a long-term knee injury.
It is an advantage Storm will look to use to full effect against the Cowboys on Thursday night.
“Tim is an Origin player and he played that (bench) role in Origin so he is doing that really well at the moment,” Bellamy said.
“Hopefully in the next couple of weeks we can get a few more minutes into Sam as well and hopefully he can play that role also.”
