Bellamy's Preliminary Final rundown

Catch up on all the best bits from Craig Bellamy's chat with the media ahead of Storm's Preliminary Final clash with the Panthers.

Jahrome Hughes status update 

"Yeah, we'll have to see how he pulls up. He got through most of it today. So yeah, we're really confident he'll be okay."

"He didn't do all of it today, but we didn't plan for him to do all of it either. What we planned for him to do, he’s done. So we think he's going to be okay."

Last week’s win over the Roosters 

"Obviously, everyone was excited after the game and to win the game like that, that's special and having said that we were probably fortunate - either team could have won it, but we did."

"It took a great play from Munster and Wabrick to score the score that try.  
I think you know it's given everyone a bit of an uplift and knowing that we can hang in and still come home at the end. But again, it's a different team this week, a different opposition we're playing. "

"I think to win the game like we did last week, it certainly adds a bit of excitement to it."

Storm’s Preliminary Final against the Panthers 

"I remember the time and I remember the score and whatever, but that was when I was in lockdown. Obviously it hurt at the time. It was a little bit like last week's game, either side could have won it, but for them they won and went on to win the Premiership."

"I wouldn't say still burns. If you keep hanging on to something like that for two or three years that's going to take a lot of energy out of you. So you try to get rid of that feeling straight away. It's hard in the off-season but when you start next season it’s usually gone."

Taking risks during Finals 

"I don't see the Prelims all the different to other finals games. They're obviously big games because they get you to the last game of the year and that's the aim for all clubs."

"We’re not going to take a big risk and I imagine Penrith wouldn’t take a big risk either. You don't want them guys [Jerome Luai and Nathan Cleary] starting the game and getting hurt in the first five or ten minutes. That puts a lot of pressure on the rest of the team, especially the positions that they play."

"We're not going to play Jahrome if we don't think he's very close to top fitness and I imagine Penrith will do the same because at the end of the day they're important players and those sort of games...if you don't win, you don't play next week." 

"As I said, everyone's aim at the start of the year, every team is to be there at the end of September, early October. So we need to go one extra step to achieve that."  

What he enjoys most about Finals 

"You don't really enjoy them more than during the season, to be quite honest, what you do enjoy is if you get a result and you win the last game of the year. That's when you enjoy it."

"Other than you're working out here and working hard during the week to try and do your job the best you can and that's what we expect of our players and if that happens, well everyone's real happy."

Team effort throughout the year 

"I think we've done a great job. Our players have done a great job this year, to get to where we got to but that doesn't mean we're not real hungry to go that extra step."

"We've had a little bit of an up and down year too with some of our consistency, but probably losing the players that we lost in the offseason."

"We lost four forwards; it took about 800-900 games of experience out of our team so that was hard to replace. But the way they've really strung it together the last month...but hanging in like we did last week and to come back at the end shows that they've got a lot of belief in each other."

"If we put that sort of effort in tomorrow night, we'll see what happens from there."  

Has this season panned out better than he expected? 

"Oh, it's easy to look back now. I don't have any expectations."

"All I’m concerned with is just playing the best we can each week, and to do that you need to prepare well."

"I've never looked too far forward and I don't really look too far back. I've always concentrated on what I need to do now, and then worry about what we do today, and then tomorrow worry about what we’ve got to do tomorrow."

"You know who your opposition is each week, plan your week out, do your best and see what happens."