A war of words has broken out between Craig Bellamy and Paul Green just 24 hours before the Storm host the Cowboys for a spot in a preliminary final.
Cowboys coach Paul Green made comments on Friday morning about how the referees should interpret Melbourne's play in the ruck, and Storm coach Craig Bellamy quickly returned serve on Friday afternoon questioning Green's assertions.
"At the end of the day, Paul obviously came into the press conference this morning and made a statement," Bellamy said.
"I don't think he answered a question, it was a very pre-conceived message from him, which at this time of the year is very predictable.
"We played them five or six weeks ago and he didn't have a problem with the ruck then, he didn't mention it, we haven't changed anything in those five weeks, we haven't changed in 24 weeks to be honest, so he's just trying to get an advantage from the referees, but the referees will referee how they see it.
"I didn't think coaches and players were allowed to criticise referees in press conferences, and that sounds like criticism to me.
"Everyone's trying to gain little advantages, so if Paul thinks he's going to get a little advantage out of that so be it. At the end of the day we just concern ourselves with what we need to do."
There's not much the Storm need to work on after last weekend's win over the Sharks, as they were clinical in most areas on their way to a 26-6 win to secure the minor premiership.
Melbourne were hell-bent on bringing heat and energy to the game against Cronulla and it was evident they did just that, and despite a different training pattern this week, Bellamy is hopeful his side can bring the same fire against the Cowboys on Saturday night.
"It's a little bit in how we train, but also what our mentality is this week and what we need to do," Bellamy said.
"Certainly our training sessions have been lighter this week, but they've been very upbeat and very intense so hopefully we can transfer that into the game tomorrow night."
During the week Storm fullback Cameron Munster said for his side to beat the Cowboys the key was to shut down Johnathan Thurston, but Bellamy has widened his vision a bit further than the mercurial halfback.
"The things that happen around him and the things that happen off him I think are more the point that we must defend well," Bellamy said.
"They've got good players that can carry the ball strongly, [Jason] Taumalolo, [Matt] Scott and [James] Tamou and [Michael] Morgan and [Lachlan] Coote play off him, so there's a lot that happens around him that we'll have to face more often [than just him alone] so we'll have to defend that better more often."
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