Melbourne Storm coach Craig Bellamy says none of his players want to be rested and they are desperate to find some form against the Wests Tigers on Saturday ahead of the NRL finals.
With a top two spot locked up, Bellamy indicated previously he was considering spelling some players from the final round match at Leichhardt Oval following Monday night’s gruelling 20-18 win over Cronulla, when the Storm were forced to make 73 more tackles than their opponents.
But he appeared to have had second thoughts on Wednesday.
“We’ve had a look at a few guys benefiting from a rest this week but at this stage we’re going to go in with the team that we’ve named,” Bellamy said.
“All the guys are keen play to try to build some momentum because we’re not really where we’d like to be at this stage of year.
“Hopefully we can find a little bit of form and momentum on Saturday night.”
Currently second, the Storm can still leap-frog Canterbury and claim the minor premiership if the Bulldogs, who also play Saturday night, have an upset loss to the Sydney Roosters.
It would be a bold move by Bellamy to rest leading players on Saturday considering what happened last year when, with the minor premiership locked up, he rested stars in the final round.
They got belted 40-8 by the Roosters in that match and his team then bowed out of the finals early, losing their first two games.
Melbourne completed a video review of Monday’s game against the Sharks game but Bellamy said he didn’t need to say much about their poor ball handling – 17 errors and only a 61 per cent completion rate.
“Without a doubt our completion rates weren’t good enough and that made it really hard, with the amount of tackling we needed to do.
“It came down more to individual errors, whether that was a lack of concentration, individuals need to be accountable.”
One player Bellamy was delighted with was winger Sisa Waqa, who scored the opening try against the Sharks and then showed great composure to throw the final pass for Will Chambers to score the match-winning try.
“He’s been tremendous for us the last couple of weeks,” Bellamy said.
“Last year he played some really good footy but lost some form about a month before the end of the season.
“Hopefully this year he can hang on to it because he is a really talented player.
“He’s got really good skills for a winger; he can run and pass and as we saw on Monday night he can make good decisions too.”