Melbourne Storm coach Craig Bellamy says his team will need a repeat of its punishing defence to stop a Ben Barba-led Canterbury in their NRL grand final rematch on Sunday.
The Storm’s defence was at its brutal best in their crushing win against Brisbane last round, denying the Broncos several times on the tryline.
“The real pleasing thing is that we were getting bodies there, people were working really hard to get into position to try and stop tries,” said Bellamy.
“It’s something we always try to build our games on, especially when we’ve got our senior players out, it’s probably doubly important.”
Both teams will be without their State of Origin stars, with Bellamy saying their absence from the ANZ Stadium clash took some of the “gloss” off the match.
“I think they (NRL) have probably missed a really good opportunity to get a good crowd there,” Bellamy said.
“I’m not why or how it’s happened, we just get the draw and we deal with it.”
One star he is expecting to have an impact on the game is Dally M Medal-winning Bulldogs fullback Ben Barba, who he believed was back to his threatening best.
“There has been some comment that he hasn’t been in his best form this year,” Bellamy said of Barba.
“I watched a bit of vision of the Bulldogs that he’s playing every bit as good as he was.
“Perhaps some of the other things around him aren’t working as well as they were last year but he’s breaking a lot of tackles and every time he gets the footy you’re expecting something to happen.”
The Storm have their own weapon in winger Sisa Waqa, who was a stand-out against Brisbane, scoring a try as well as saving at least one.
He had a slow start to the year after undergoing hand surgery.
“He’s one hell of a player,” said Bellamy.
“He was outstanding on Friday night.”