The Melbourne Storm have turned up for its best win of the season, holding off the South Sydney Rabbitohs 18-10 in Sydney.
Storm coach Craig Bellamy has been questioning his side’s commitment over the past few weeks and the side has revealed its answer with a brilliant defensive performance.
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It was the Storm of old as the Rabbitohs may have had more possession and better territory, having had 40 tackles inside the Storm red zone.
The workman effort took the full 80 minutes of commitment and post-match, the players were ready to let off some steam.
Post-match, Queensland representative winger Xavier Coates was chatting with one of the Rabbitohs trainers, who Gorden Tallis revealed was also the Maroons and a former Broncos trainer.
As Munster was walking past, he turned back, pantsing the trainer before giving him a hug.
“Oh, oh my god,” Fox League’s Yvonne Sampson laughed.
“Cameron Munster, the world’s best pest in the NRL has just dacked the trainer. He hasn’t worked hard enough if he’s still got pranks in him after 80 minutes.”
But not to be outdone, the distracted trainer was then targeted by Harry Grant, who dacked him as well.
The pair then smacked him on the butt and shared a laugh and a hug together.
Gorden Tallis said: “There’s the three Queenslanders overt there and obviously they just wanted to dack him and I don’t know why. I don’t know why but that’s Cameron Munster. I think there’s a few kangaroos short in the top paddock for that kid.”
Sampson laughed: “I think it’s a bit unfair for the two Queenslanders to gang up on the poor trainer.”
But after another strong performance from the Storm No. 6 with 11 runs for 130m, a line break and try, Greg Alexander said it’s part of what you get from the star.
“We’ve said tonight, what you are off the field is what you are on the field — and we’ve just seen him pants the trainer,” Alexander laughed.
“He’s always around trouble and he is trouble,” Tallis said.
They were hilarious scenes after the match, but his coach Craig Bellamy may well be thankful his half has turned his attention elsewhere.
It comes a day after a firmly tongue-in-cheek Munster said of Bellamy: ““We’re probably ready for him to hang them up. A lot of the boys have lost that hunger for him to be coach — I know I have …”
And that wasn’t the only time Munster has roasted his coach recently.
While it wasn’t the attacking masterclass that the footy world was hoping for, the Storm did enough to come away with the win and push into the top eight after a third win of the season.
After two decades at the top, some NRL pundits have tipped the Storm to finally drop off the pace in 2023 after a mass exodus of forwards, mostly to the Dolphins.
But the win shows that the Storm will still be a force, assuming it can perform like that week-in, week-out.
“It’s been a while since we’ve seen as good a defensive effort for 80 minutes, I thought it was tremendous,” Bellamy said.
“You want to be a good defensive side first and foremost and with all due respect, this year we haven’t done that. I just thought tonight there were a lot of desperate efforts out there.”
