Craig Bellamy urged his Melbourne players not to leave their NRL record slip unmatched when they welcome Parramatta on Sunday afternoon at the Aami park.
And if two disappointing trial performances are a guide, the victorious triple coach of Premièreship has every reason to worry.
The story shows that the storm is undefeated in the opening match since Bellamy took the reins of Mark Murray in 2003.
They have since succeeded in 21 successive victories, 2004 not counting because they had a bye in the first round.
The Eels almost broke the impressive sequence in 2023, only so that the Skipper Storm Harry Grant obtained a test at Golden Point to win a 16-12 victory.
Bellamy said that the record belonged to the players and was the one who meant a lot for those who previously wore the storm jersey.
Craig Bellamy urged his Melbourne players not to leave their NRL record net unmatched when they welcome Parramatta on Sunday afternoon in Aami Park
The former storm assistant Jason Ryles is now in charge of the eels, who will enter the shock like massive outsiders
Melbourne has not lost a round one NRL match since Craig Bellamy took over in 2003 (photo, Hooker Harry Grant)
“This is not really my record, it is the record of players,” said the coach in the team captain’s race.
“I sit in the coache box, I have no whole heap to do with that.
“I know the players, especially our old boys, they used to be ready for a tour of a fairly heart.
“To perform well in the first round, it was really important for them, so I hope it is important for these (current) guys too.”
After two heavy pre -season defeats against the Warriors and Cowboys – where Melbourne conceded 72 unusual points – a disappointed Bellamy said that their defense had to improve to take over the eels.
“Probably what I am not sure is our form in the tests-our defense was not great, so we worked a little on this,” he said.
“It is important to be with your defense at the start of the season – the attack sometimes takes a little frost … But we should have defended better than what we did, so we had two weeks to hope for it.”
Appearing in a major doubt after its knee exploded, the rear star Ryan Papenhuyzen will start against the eels that should help organize their defense.
The side outside was shaken by the loss of the gaming chief Mitchell Moses for the first six laps with a foot injury – but Bellamy expects them to be well prepared under their new coach, the former storm assistant Jason Ryles.
“He did an excellent job here as a coach; We were sorry to lose it, but we knew that he was going to move on to bigger and better things, “he said.
“The only thing about him, I think they worked a lot on their games, playing the balls quickly and perhaps on the other side working hard to slow the opposition.
“This is one of the things I noticed that will be different from Parramatta last year to this year.”