Bellamy only focused on Storm ahead of title rematch
Melissa Woods |
While Melbourne centre Marion Seve is wearing googles, his coach Craig Bellamy has the blinkers on ahead of the Storm’s NRL grand final rematch with Penrith on Thursday night.
Seve will become the first player in the NRL to wear goggles after he suffered a serious eye injury from an accidental boot stud while playing for the Storm’s feeder team North Sydney in June.
He required emergency surgery and was told he could lose his sight permanently if he sustained another knock.
The Storm gained clearance for him to wear goggles, and in his NSW Cup return last week he scored a hat-trick.
Bellamy was delighted to give Seve a recall for his second NRL game since round four, coming in due to a backline shuffle, with fullback Ryan Papenhuyzen unavailable because of concussion.
With superstar halfback Jahrome Hughes already out with a shoulder injury, Papenhuyzen is expected to only miss this week after his symptoms surfaced a few days after their win over Brisbane last Thursday night.
But the master coach was otherwise in a combative mood before the CommBank Stadium match against the in-form Panthers, who have surged back into title contention after a horror start to the season.
They showed no signs of a dip in their thumping win over Newcastle, despite skipper Isaah Yeo being out with a troublesome shoulder injury.
Bellamy wasn’t surprised by Penrith’s return to form.
“They’ve won nine or 10 in a row, so they’re going OK,” he said.
“The Panthers have been ultra consistent for the last four, five, six years – they know how to win, and at the moment they just keep on winning.
“We’re just mainly concerned about what we need to do and what we need to do well.
“I don’t think about the result, we just think about what our process is, what our process has got to be, and just stick to that and the result will look after itself.”
Nelson Asofa-Solomona has been named on the extended bench, with Bellamy cagey about whether the firebrand forward will be in the match-day squad.
Making his return from a two-game suspension in the Queensland Cup, the Kiwi prop put his hand up for a return with a barnstorming effort with 173 run metres and a try in 48 minutes for the Sunshine Coast Falcons.
“He knows what he needs to do and what’s expected of him,” Bellamy said when asked if Asofa-Solomona would play.
“We’ll make those decisions on that later, after his training session or whatever.”
The coach said the inclusion of the popular Seve gave the team a boost, with his NRL career limited to 48 matches in seven seasons.
Seve beat stage three cancer as a teenager, and through his NRL career has overcome a knee reconstruction, a fractured jaw and a serious syndesmosis injury that ended his 2024 season last August.
“Throughout my time in footy, I don’t think I’ve seen someone more unlucky than Maz, with the injuries that he’s had and the times when he gets the injuries,” Bellamy said.
“He’s a hell of a fighter, a hell of a competitor, and it’s good to see him back.
“It’s going to be a tough job for him against the Panthers, but he’s been playing well … and hopefully he can get the job done.
“He’s one of those guys that just has never given up, he just keeps going and going and you wonder at times he must be close to saying, ‘what the hell am I doing’, but he just keeps coming back, so there’s a lot to admire about him.”
AAP
