Response to ‘Spraygate’ key to Storm and Broncos’ fate
Joel Gould |
A bit of spit and polish does wonders in eradicating a mess and Brisbane and Melbourne have been put on notice to clean up their acts.
The sides have worn recent verbal broadsides from their coaches and their response will go a long way to deciding which of them are serious title contenders.
Welcome to the aftermath of “Spraygate”.
The second-placed Storm play the fourth-placed Broncos on Thursday night at Suncorp Stadium after coach Craig Bellamy erupted following his side’s 40-10 loss to Sydney Roosters.
Melbourne conceded 40 points in the second half, a club record high, leading Bellamy to label the performance “embarrassing”.
“When the finals start, you want everyone on board and doing what the team needs you to do,” Bellamy said after coaching his 600th game.
“If they don’t want to be on board, they can come and sit with me.”
Bellamy is famous for spraying spittle when he tees off and you can bet your bottom dollar there was a bucket-full of it behind the scenes.
Brisbane beat North Queensland 38-30 away on Saturday night but at halftime coach Michael Maguire was seen ripping into his side for their laissez-faire approach.
The content of his blast was rated AO, for adults only.
“I don’t know if there is a PG version for what was said,” Broncos half Ben Hunt told Fox League.
“You would have to put a lot of beeping in there to block it out, but we knew going in he wasn’t going to be happy.”
Maguire was an assistant coach at the Storm previously, so understands sprays of spit. He had five-eighth Billy Walters ducking for cover.
“I had to get the hand towel out and wipe my face down,” Walters said.
“There was a bit of water spray there, but he was all right. It wasn’t good enough that first half. We kept them in the game and it probably warranted a spray.
“We didn’t work as well as we would have liked and we didn’t come out in the second half as we wanted to, but we got the job done.”
The Broncos have won nine of their past 11 games to rocket from 11th to fourth.
There is still a sense, however, that they are not defending well enough to succeed in the finals cauldron.
The mentality of the side appears to be that whatever points the opposition score, they will post more.
“I don’t do it often but the way the game was going it was tit for tat and try for try. I was talking to them about playing style,” Maguire said of his verbal barrage.
“We want to use the ball but we pushed it here and there and we have to back it up with our defence. Our defence was a bit off.”
Fullback Reece Walsh had five line break assists, two try assists, a try but also five errors against the Cowboys. The Broncos would not have won without him.
Walsh is a match winner and that is the way he plays but his teammates need to improve their concentration and defensive clout to stay fourth and beat their bogey side.
The Storm have won 17 of the past 18 meetings between the sides.
AAP
