Melbourne Storm coach Craig Bellamy concedes his team isn’t playing as well as he hoped heading into the NRL finals but feels it’s gaining some timely momentum.
Few coaches would complain about a five-game winning run heading into Saturday night’s qualifying final against South Sydney at AAMI Park but Bellamy believes the Storm are yet to hit their straps.
“We’re not exactly where we would want to be at this time of year,” he said before Wednesday’s training session.
“Obviously our form’s a bit better (than last year).
“I think we finished the season on two losses last year and we’ve had five wins, that’s obviously better preparation, we’ve got a bit more momentum.”
He said the fact that his team had fought to the final whistle to clinch a last-gasp win in two of their last three games was a good sign.
“There’s been some patches in there we would prefer to change how we played but we’ve played for 80 and if you don’t do that in the semis you ain’t going to go on.”
Bellamy doesn’t believe Souths’ lack of recent NRL finals experience will be a factor.
The Rabbitohs will line up at AAMI Park for finals action for the first time since 2007 against a Melbourne team that haven’t missed the playoffs, apart from 2010 when they were stripped of competition points, since 2002.
Bellamy said the Rabbitohs players had enough big game experience that his own team wouldn’t have an advantage.
“Michael Crocker’s probably played more than the rest of this team put together,” he said.
“Greg’s (Inglis) played in a lot of big games, Matt King, Roy Asotasi has played in a winning grand final team, Isaac Luke’s played for his country.
“A lot of their players have had big game experience as well so I don’t see that as being an issue.”
Much of the pre-match focus has been on Souths coach Michael Maguire squaring off against his former mentor.
Bellamy didn’t think he could see much of his own game plan in the Rabbitohs and said Maguire had put his own stamp on his side.
He said Maguire’s biggest strength was moulding his game plan around the strengths of his players, like former Storm boy Inglis.
Despite the long history between Bellamy and Inglis the coach didn’t think he had the key to stopping the Souths powerhouse.
“I wouldn’t say we’re in a better position (than other clubs),” Bellamy said.
“I think Greg has shown in the last six months what we always knew he could do consistently.
“He came to us as a 14-year-old and he had a lot of special moments with us.
“While he’ll be the enemy for 80 minutes on Saturday night, he’ll always be a special player to our club.”