Melbourne Storm Head Coach Craig Bellamy said he was pleased with his sides effort as they returned to the winners circle, outlasting the Wests Tigers 24-12 at AAMI Park.
Bellamy post-match: Round 4
Bolstered by the return of Cameron Munster, Storm’s strong first half performance saw it lead 22-6 at the break which was ultimately enough for them to hold on for its second win of the season.
Bellamy said he saw a big improvement in the teams effort areas across the board and while not always pretty at times, it was a return to the style of football they want to be playing.
“The game was sort of topsy turvy at stages but we did some things that we haven’t been doing well in past weeks and did those really well tonight,” Bellamy said.
“I thought our effort was a whole heap better…it was a lot more like that effort we saw back in Round 1.
“While we’ve still got some things to work on, they got some pride out of playing tonight which is pleasing to see."
With youngster Jonah Pezet excelling in just his second career game, Bellamy said he was impressed by the young half’s ability to adapt to playing on a new side of the field.
“I thought Jonah had a tremendous game, I thought he was probably in our top three,” Bellamy said.
“I think he will just keep getting used to those combinations as he played on the right tonight but last week was on the left."
After a strong first half, Storm only registered the two points in the second half but Bellamy said their ability to get into the arm wrestle and stand up in the big moments was a promising sign of things to come.
“There was a lot of good signs in both attack and defence throughout the game…but I just thought we were a lot better at concentrating at what was important in those key periods of the game,” he said.
“If our 17 players are working hard in all of those effort areas, then that’s something we can work with.”
