Craig Bellamy wants ‘patchy’ Melbourne Storm to be more like ‘consistent’ Sharks

Coach Craig Bellamy sees consistency as the key to Cronulla’s bright NRL season start and it’s something that he wants to see more of from his Storm players.

Third-placed Melbourne host the second-placed Sharks at AAMI Park on Saturday night, both losing just the one match from five outings.

The Sharks have stunningly only conceded 56 points – 10 less than frontrunners Penrith who have the next best defensive record.

Craig Bellamy wants his Melbourne Storm players to be more consistent this season

Bellamy said Cronulla were doing a lot of things right.

‘I think they’ve only had one try scored against them in the last two games and that was an intercept in the last minute of last week so they’re obviously doing a lot of things well with the footy and without so they’re a much improved side,’ he said.

‘Some of the players that were there last year, they are much more consistent doing the good things right – that’s the one thing I’ve noticed.’

While Melbourne have lost one game to Parramatta in golden point, Bellamy felt his team’s form had been ‘patchy’.

Cronulla have won four of their first game of the season and are second on the NRL ladder

The Sharks have the fourth-best attack in the NRL and the best defence in the competition

‘We’ve been really good in most parts of the game but we’ve been inconsistent in other parts,’ he said.

‘Probably when we’ve had the upper hand, we’ve taken the foot off the throat.

‘We’ve got to stick to what we’ve been doing instead of looking for other ways to do things so that’s what we’re concentrating on at the moment.

‘There’s still some improvement in us but that’s got to come from individuals.’

The Storm have won four of their first five games and are third on the NRL ladder 

While the lofty ladder position is something Melbourne are accustomed to, Cronulla is making waves under new coach Craig Fitzgibbon and with ex-Storm favourites Dale Finucane and Nicho Hynes in their line-up.

Bellamy said he’d watched plenty of vision of the duo in Sharks colours while preparing for the match.

‘Dale did a whole heap for us while he was at the club and Nicho made a pretty big impression too so with two of them, it makes it a little bit harder.

‘It’s not easy to watch but life moves on.’

The Storm will come up against former Melbourne boys Dale Finucane and Nicho Hynes

He said he wasn’t surprised that Hynes had made a success of his transition from fullback to halfback.

‘I think that was always going to be his best position – he’s got the main control of their attack and has been doing a great job.

‘We played him a couple of games in the halves but with Hughesy [Jahrome Hughes] it was always tough to pick him in that position.

‘We all know what a talented player he is and he’s showing that now.’