News

Rugby League > We've lost our will to win, says Bellamy
By Justin Chadwick And Ian McCullough
June 27, 2010

Melbourne Storm coach Craig Bellamy admits his players have subconsciously lost the will to win as the heavy penalties handed down by the NRL begin to take their toll.

The Storm were stripped of two premierships, three minor premierships and denied the right to play for any points this season following the uncovering of serious breaches of the salary cap in April.

Bellamy, who will be officially cleared of any involvement in the scandal when a report by audit accountancy firm Deloitte is published within the next week, said the lack of an incentive to win blunted his team's motivation in Saturday's 16-14 loss to South Sydney in Perth.

After winning four of their first five games after the punishments were invoked, the Storm have now lost three of their last four.

"We just don't seem to have that little bit of ruthlessness that we've sort of been known for over the last few years," Bellamy said after the defeat at Perth's ME Stadium.

"We aren't far away from where we'd like to be but we just don't have that want to keep competing when the game's on the line as hard as we've done in the past.

"We certainly ain't consciously thinking 'well what's the point, we can't get two points'.

"But in the back of our minds ... I might be wrong, but look how many breaks Rhys (Wesser) made from kick returns; that doesn't usually happen to us."

Melbourne skipper Cameron Smith, who missed a tough conversion attempt eight minutes from time that would have tied the scores, agreed with Bellamy.

"Craig's right, there's certainly a difference there where when at six-all or 10-all or whatever it was, in the past we'd find ways to finish teams off or put them away," Smith said.

"I guess the best way to describe it is that killer instinct (has gone), just to know the best way to go about things and get the job done.

"At the moment it's hard given the situation we're in."

News Limited spokesman Greg Baxter said Bellamy, along with other senior Storm figures, were interviewed by Deloitte after the rorts were uncovered by the NRL and the NSW coach will be officially exonerated later this week.

"We haven't got the final report from Deloitte yet and when we have got it we will work out what we can and can't say with legal advice," Baxter told AAP.

"Once we have got the report we will summarise it and we expect that to happen in the next week or so."

Baxter said News Limited were always confident Bellamy was not involved, but had no choice but to investigate him.

"There was no specific doubts that he was involved but ... everyone had to go through the process and answer questions and he was happy to do that and it was all fine," Baxter said.

"We didn't specifically have any doubts about him but we couldn't rule anything in or out until that process was done.

"They have talked to a lot of people and everything that has been found, what went on and who is responsible will included be in the report."
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