Storm back Bellamy even as flagging heavyweights slide into ‘uncharted territory’

Melbourne chair Matt Tripp has made it clear the club won’t look into sacking Craig Bellamy after six straight losses, insisting everyone in the club needs to take responsibility for fixing current issues ⁠— not just the head coach.

Bellamy is one of the best coaches in rugby league history and has long enjoyed success, winning several premierships and regularly keeping the southern heavyweights in the top four year after year.

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This current NRL season, however, something has snapped ⁠— the perennial powerhouses are in sixteenth place with just two wins to their name. Only the hapless St George Illawarra Dragons, 0-8 and looking all but guaranteed to win a first wooden spoon for the joint venture, after keeping Melbourne away from that dreaded last place running.

But it’s not panic stations in the Victorian capital. Bellamy has earned far more than that, Tripp told reporters after Round 8 ended.

“I had a good chat with all our coaches after the game,” Tripp said this week. “It wasn’t a crisis conversation; it was, ‘What can we do to help you fix this?’ There have been lots of conversations over the course of yesterday and heading into today.

“Everyone understands that the situation needs to be rectified. It’s on the club as a collective. It’s not on Craig. No one works harder than Craig.”

“I think it’s fair to say we haven’t experienced a run like this in a long time,” he continued.

“Everyone in the club, not just the players and coaches, is acutely aware they need to lift and put whatever level of support they can to drag ourselves out of this.

“It’s uncharted territory. No one is enjoying it. It needs to be fixed. It all starts with working hard.

“The guys have been training incredibly, and it hasn’t translated into game day.”

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We will see later today how Bellamy responds to the six-game slide, after he vowed to “make changes” following a 48-6 loss to South Sydney. At the very least, halfback Jahrome Hughes won’t play after he entered concussion protocols. Beyond that, anything could happen.

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The Storm should be getting some troops back, too: Second rower Ativalu Lisati is available, while Shawn Blore is only one week away from his return and should quickly slot back into the lineup.

The Storm this week travels to Redcliffe to play the 12th-placed Dolphins.