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.
โIt was a crap second half for us and they took real advantage of it,โ Bellamy said.
โ(Cronulla) played nearly the perfect second half, but how we started the second half, itโs hard to get momentum from that.
โWe 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.
โNo I donโt (often say that about the Storm), but if I had a look at the stats in the second half, Iโd be thinking without seeing the game, youโve done well to get beaten by two.
โWe had that game, we were right in it in that first 25-30 minutes, then we just let go. We couldnโt get a grab back on it after that.
โ โฆ The way we started, we dropped the ball twice in the first three sets so we were under pressure straight away.
โYou could say our defence was okay, but they just ground us into the ground and we couldnโt recover.โ
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.
โAt the end of the day, it doesnโt matter who you play against, where you play against them at, you know youโre going to get a tough game in the NRL,โ Bellamy added.
โThatโs one thing I think weโve been pretty strong at over the years, but the last couple of weeks Iโm starting to doubt that this group has got that. And we better find that or Iโll be finding some new players.
โWe just expect what we plan to do and weโre not doing that at the moment. Weโre doing it for parts of the game โ itโs in our control and weโre not controlling it.
โWe gave young (Ryan) Papenhuyzen a go tonight and how good was he? So if I have to go and put some young blokes in, Iโll do it.
โThereโs 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) youโre going to need to improve.
โIโm not going to sit here and bullshit to you.
โAt the moment, we arenโt playing games out like Storm teams play them out and thatโs what we need to get better at.โ
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….