Storm only focused on Titans: Bellamy
Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy doesn't like to dwell on the Storm's past or future which means the NRL minor premiership and the looming clash with premiers St George Illawarra aren't on his radar.
Bellamy also brushed aside talk of his competition-leading team equalling the club's season-best 11 successive wins when they play Gold Coast on Saturday, which would be the Storm's 18th for the year against just three losses.
"The only focus we've got is this week," Bellamy said on Wednesday.
"People may get sick of hearing about that but we're not taking anything for granted, we'll be playing a very committed and pumped up Titans side this week.
"We're not going to fall into the trap of concerning ourselves with what we need to do in two weeks or patting ourselves on the back because that's not going to help us."
After the Gold Coast match, Melbourne will remain in Queensland until Tuesday, formulating a plan for the remainder of the season and the looming finals.
Bellamy was bemused to hear of his side's run of results the last time the club held the camp.
While the end result was the 2009 premiership which was stripped last year, their first game after the break was against the Dragons and was a 26-12 loss.
They then suffered a further two defeats in their next three games.
"Maybe because we're going a bit later this year, that might be the change," he said when told of the losses.
"We didn't get much of a result (against the Dragons), although there was some good things after that."
The master coach said it was good to have a change of environment, although the sunshine and beaches didn't signal a holiday.
"It certainly won't be a holiday, although it will be nothing too intense.
"It will help us clear our heads about what's ahead and we put in place a few plans for leading on toward the end of the season."
Despite holding down last spot on the competition ladder, Bellamy was wary of the under-performing Titans, who had a much-needed win over Cronulla last round.
He identified his team's starts as an area they needed to improve on, after letting their past two opponents get the early jump.
"Our starts the last couple of weeks haven't been great.
"There's no excuses.... we need to improve on the way we're starting games and not rely on our second halves."
On the injury front, Bellamy said the club's leading tryscorer, winger Matt Duffie - who has missed the last three games with a sternum injury - was expected to be available to play the Dragons on Friday week at AAMI Park.
Post a comment about this article
Please sign in to leave a comment.
Becoming a member is free and easy, sign up here.