Reliability and consistency King for Storm as Josh stands tall

Craig Bellamy has been known to be selective with his praise over his 21 years at the Storm, but that did not stop him waxing lyrical about at-times unheralded prop Josh King.

Having signed for the Storm in 2022 after five years at Newcastle, the former apprentice electrician has been a mainstay in Melbourne's squad ever since with Bellamy lauding his efforts after another tireless performance against Canberra. 

“He’s been such a great addition to our team and to our club,” Bellamy expressed.

“He’s so reliable and consistent, and just really glad that he’s decided to make the change down here. He’s always really hard working, tough as nails, you just know what you’re going to get from him.”

“I thought [King and Jahrome Hughes] were our best players to be quite honest. He seemed to have a bit more dash in him today, King.”

On Saturday, King totalled 11 hit ups, 145 run metres with one line break, and 28 tackles – many of them rattling the Raiders, particularly in the second half, as his side hung on for a gritty 16-6 lead to stay top of the table.

“It’s nice, especially coming from someone like Craig Bellamy and a team like the Melbourne Storm – it’s a pretty big rap,” he told NRL.com post-game, when asked about his coach’s comments.

“But that’s [consistent] all I really want to be.  That’s all I go out there to do each week is to make the club proud and the players around me, and the coaching staff.

So I just make them proud and do my job each week. It’s a simple job, but I think I work pretty hard to do it.

Melbourne prop Josh King

He also scored the all-important try against the Raiders to break the deadlock late in the first half, something that he was never going to pass up the opportunity to lord over his teammates post-match.

“I’ve been into the wingers, I think I’m scoring more than them at the moment!” he joked.

“It’s nice to get over the line. It doesn’t happen very often – it’s happened the last two weeks, which is the first of my career, that’s for sure. I’ll take them when I can get them because there’s certainly a lot of dry spells.”

“If someone said that he’d score a try like that this afternoon, I probably would’ve doubted that,” Bellamy laughed, “but it was a great try. We needed it.”