“I wasn’t aware”: Bellamy not bothered by Dragons hat-trick push

There's only two sides in the NRL that have won their past two matches against the Storm.

One is Brisbane, who beat Melbourne 30-14 in Round 27 last year, before knocking them off 26-22 to win the premiership.

The other team is the Dragons. In 2024, they defeated the Storm 18-16 in a Round 22 thriller at AAMI Park, then, in Round 4 last year, St George enjoyed a 14-8 home victory against Melbourne.

Furthermore, the Dragons have won four of their past ten matches against the Storm. That doesn't sound overly impressive, but compared to other sides, it stack ups pretty well.

Ahead of Saturday's Round 2 match-up against the Dragons at WIN Stadium, Storm coach Craig Bellamy said Melbourne's recent record against St George Illawarra won't be used to motivate his side.

"It hasn't been [mentioned]," Bellamy said on Friday.

"I wasn't quite aware of that.

"At the end of the day, they are a good side, they're a big, physical side."

The Dragons will be desperate to open their account, having just fallen short in their season opener in Las Vegas earlier in the month.

St George Illawarra was unlucky not to come away from the US with two points, after Canterbury skipper Stephen Crichton slotted a field goal with just six seconds of golden point remaining to sink the Dragons 15-14.

"They were probably unlucky, you get beaten in extra-time," said Bellamy.

"I thought their performance was really good, actually.

"They're a big, physical team, and our defence, our actual contact, needs to be on this week.

"Hopefully, when we've got the ball, we can do the things that we've planned to do and go from there."

In stark contrast to the Dragons' one-point defeat, the Storm ran riot in their first game of 2026. Melbourne conceded the first try against Parramatta, before running in nine consecutive tries in a 52-4 romp at AAMI Park to extend its Round 1 winning run to 24 on the bounce.

Bellamy said "it's hard to be critical of the performance", but he has identified some areas for improvement.

"Just some of our defensive actions in our half, we'd like to improve that a little bit. Just some positional play, some urgency in certain situations, we'd like to be a bit better," he commented.

"We've got to make sure we're consistent, now. Consistent with our preparation and hopefully consistent with our performance."

Bellamy has made just one change to his starting side, with experienced forward Tui Kamikamica named at lock in place of Alec MacDonald, who misses due to concussion.