Storm coach Craig Bellamy has called for a cutdown of short turnarounds in the NRL schedule after his side had to play two away games in Brisbane and Sydney in five days.
The Storm played in Brisbane against the Eels in Magic Round last Sunday, flew back to Melbourne, before heading to Sydney to take on the Sea Eagles on Friday night.
Bellamy didn’t use the short turnaround as an excuse for his side’s 26-20 loss to Manly, but admitted it wasn’t ideal for the team’s preparation.
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“It doesn’t help. The preparation was short,” Bellamy said.
“I’m not quite sure with the Thursday night games (on the schedule) why there are still five day turnarounds or as many.
“I think we can handle five day turnarounds okay if one of the games are at home but we had two away and had to travel twice.
“That’s not whinging about it but for me, if you have a five day turnaround, one of those have to be at home.”
Bellamy was then asked by Fox League’s Lara Pitt whether the short turnaround can be a factor in injuries.
The Storm lost winger Will Warbrick during the game with a calf injury.
“I don’t know. I’m not a medical person. I don’t know why what causes some injuries that we’ve had, but at the end of the day it doesn’t help,” Bellamy said.
“I just know that travelling can tire you out and when you have a five day turnaround, you need at least one of those games at home.
“I don’t know if (the draw) got misplaced by the Magic Round game being our home game when we had to travel to Brisbane, which is one of our longer trips.
“As I said, for me, I’m not quite sure why there is still as many five day turnarounds for all teams, not just us, but I think when you have a five day turnaround, you need at least one at home.
“I’m not saying that is the reason we lost tonight. It didn’t sort of help in our preparation but at the end of the day we had our chances, we didn’t start well at all and that cost us the game.”
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The Storm almost pulled off a massive comeback after being down 12 with six minutes to go, but despite three attacking sets at Manly’s line at the end of the game, the home side held Melbourne at bay.
Bellamy said some poor execution early in the first and second half was the reason for the loss, while praising Manly for a complete 80-minute performance.
“Our start in both halves were poor. I think the first 25 minutes, we didn’t even complete at 50%,” he said
“We showed some resilience, but you can’t start games like that and expect to win at this level.
“Manly played to their strengths and played really well for the 80 minutes.
“At stages it looked as though we were looking for the quick kill, and that just doesn’t work.
“It could have got right away from us with the amount of possession and field position they had in the first half but our guys hung in … We did too much damage to ourselves in the first half.”
Source Agencies
