How to hold onto the football?
That is the million-dollar question that will be on the minds of Craig Bellamy and his troops this week.
A failure to hold onto the football told the story on Sunday as Storm suffered their first defeat of the season, going down 11-2 against the Sharks.
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Whilst conceding just the one try, another testament to their resolute defence, Melbourne’s 16 errors dug themselves into a hole too deep to get out of.
“I thought we got what we deserved,” Bellamy said.
“We built pressure on ourselves, they built pressure on us in the last 20 minutes, we were under pressure the whole game to be honest.
“Our defensive effort was tremendous but with the ball, geez. It has been coming for a couple of weeks but effort has been getting us through games.
“We are just not completing enough sets to build pressure on the other team, we keep building it on ourselves. Our completions are embarrassing to be honest. Some of the figures and how we are losing the ball, it is not good to watch.”
Bellamy and skipper Cameron Smith admitted after the game they did not have an immediate solution to Storm’s errors.
The team is averaging just over 12 errors a game, up from the seven per game in 2016, a figure that saw them finish the year with the fewest errors in the competition.
“I agree wholeheartedly with Craig, it takes more than effort to beat the best sides,” Smith said.
“You can’t rely on making a lot more tackles than the opposition when you are playing a side like Cronulla and get away with a victory.
“I thought we did a good job to be ahead a half-time but the errors just kept coming, kept continuing after half-time. The lack of possession in Cronulla’s half showed at the end.”
Storm will now have six days to dust themselves off before making the trip to Brookvale Oval to take on rivals Manly on Saturday afternoon.
