Despite Cronulla missing the likes of Shaun Johnson, Matt Moylan, Wade Graham and Aaron Woods, the Sharks were able to come away with an impressive 20-18 win over the Storm on Friday night.
The hosts handed Melbourne just their second defeat of the season, which left Storm coach Craig Bellamy fuming with his side's effort.
Bellamy launched a scathing attack on his side in the post-match press conference, saying they were outplayed in every single facet of the game after half-time.
“It was a crap second half for us and they took real advantage of it,” Bellamy said.
“(Cronulla) played nearly the perfect second half, but how we started the second half, it’s hard to get momentum from that.
“We were outplayed, we were out-toughed, out-toughed physically, out-toughed mentally, their game management was a whole heap better than us, they out-maneuvered us, out-everything in that second half.
“No I don’t (often say that about the Storm), but if I had a look at the stats in the second half, I’d be thinking without seeing the game, you’ve done well to get beaten by two.
“We had that game, we were right in it in that first 25-30 minutes, then we just let go. We couldn’t get a grab back on it after that.
“ … The way we started, we dropped the ball twice in the first three sets so we were under pressure straight away.
“You could say our defence was okay, but they just ground us into the ground and we couldn’t recover.”
After winning their first five games this season, the Storm have lost two of the past three, with their one win coming with a late one-point win over New Zealand on ANZAC Day.
Bellamy went on to tell the media no one's position in the side was safe, suggesting the Storm need to get back to playing like Melbourne sides have been playing in the past.
“At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter who you play against, where you play against them at, you know you’re going to get a tough game in the NRL,” Bellamy added.
“That’s one thing I think we’ve been pretty strong at over the years, but the last couple of weeks I’m starting to doubt that this group has got that. And we better find that or I’ll be finding some new players.
“We just expect what we plan to do and we’re not doing that at the moment. We’re doing it for parts of the game — it’s in our control and we’re not controlling it.
“We gave young (Ryan) Papenhuyzen a go tonight and how good was he? So if I have to go and put some young blokes in, I’ll do it.
“There’s a lot of players in that team that have got a lot of points up, so there will be a couple tapped on the shoulder this week and (told) you’re going to need to improve.
“I’m not going to sit here and bullshit to you.
“At the moment, we aren’t playing games out like Storm teams play them out and that’s what we need to get better at.”
That should have been the Storms third loss in a row if not for the refs getting them over the line with an incorrect decision last weekend against the Warriors
Does anyone still want to bash the 2 horse race theme after 8 and a half rounds . Injuries , origin , fatigue, experience all will start to effect…..
Does anyone still want to bash the 2 horse race theme after 8 and a half rounds . Injuries , origin , fatigue, experience all will start to take effect…..
Bit of a sore loser is old “BellyAche” Few more losses like that to come for his storm in a teacup side this year….