Melbourne skipper Cameron Smith says an Olympic-sized spray from frustrated coach Craig Bellamy helped the NRL side get the breakthrough win they desperately needed.

Nicknamed “Bellyache”, Bellamy lived up to his reputation leading into the Penrith game and managed to get results with an impressive 46-6 victory to end the Storm’s five-game losing streak.

Smith has been on the receiving end of a Bellamy serve many times over his years in Melbourne and rated last week’s a “seven out of 10”.

“Back in the early days, a lot of blokes were pretty scared of him and, when he walked past, we would put our head down so he wouldn’t talk to us,” Smith said on Monday.

“He put the wind up a lot of the boys last week. I don’t think many of them had seen that side of Craig before.

“Everyone’s aware of what he can dish out and we don’t want to see that side of Craig Bellamy again this year.”

Veteran prop Jason Ryles enjoyed a dream start to his Melbourne career this season with nine straight wins, but felt the wrath of Bellamy last week.

“He quite literally sprays you,” said Ryles, referring to Bellamy’s spit accompanying his angry words.

“They were up there for me and I was on the end of a few of them – everyone had their turn.”

Bellamy was a relieved man on Saturday as was Smith, but the captain said the win over Penrith would count for little if they didn’t back it up against Gold Coast at AAMI Park on Friday night.

“It felt like the start of the year when we won nine in a row,” said Smith on Monday.

“But we’re not going to judge ourselves off the result on the weekend.

“You can’t do that – not after you’ve lost five games. You can’t go on 80 minutes of football.

“We need to back up that performance again on Friday night.”

The Titans, who were beaten 22-18 by second-placed South Sydney last round, will be an entirely different proposition to the Panthers, who had an awful first 40 minutes and trailed 36-0 by halftime.

Smith said Gold Coast skipper, halfback Scott Prince, was in vintage form.

“They’ve had a fair few wins and their captain Scott Prince is playing extremely well.

“I haven’t seen him play as well as he is for a while.

“He’s running the football, he’s taking the line on and he’s got a lot of confidence in himself at the moment.

“Any halfback that’s playing the way he is at the moment, they’re always dangerous.”