Craig Bellamy delivers message to NRL rivals after Cameron Munster's Storm return

The Storm have started the 2024 NRL season on fire, with wins over both of last year's grand finalists. In round one they scored a gritty 8-0 win over the defending premiers Penrith and registered a stirring comeback to beat the Brisbane Broncos 34-32 at AAMI Park on Thursday night.

In the match against the Broncos, the Storm welcomed back Cameron Munster from a groin injury, and while he was understandably below his best, he added another dimension to Melbourne's already potent attack. And following their stunning come-from-behind victory, Craig Bellamy said with the crafty five-eighth back fit and firing they are real premiership contenders.

"We had Penrith round 1 down here and won 8-0 and we beat the other grand finalists 34-32. Like that’s a fair discrepancy there between the other games we played and the scores," Bellamy said.

"It's nice that we’ve won some close games but I much prefer the 8-0 to 34-32, so hopefully we can fix our defence up a little bit and get back to that. I would like to be able to pick which one we were going to come up with each night and then you can sort of have a bit more tactics around that.

"You just rather know that you’re gonna hang in there and be consistent with the things we are doing. We’ve been a bit inconsistent even though we’ve fought and that’s been great. When we’ve got behind, we’ve fought to get back in front, and (when) we’ve been in front we’re sort of, I don’t know if we get a little bit overconfident, I’m not sure. But it’s nice to be able to win games like that, but let’s say I’d rather be winning 8-0 than winning 34-32."

Craig Bellamy says Cameron Munster was impressive in NRL return

Munster impressed the Melbourne coach in his first game of the season and Bellamy knows he will only get better with more game time. "I thought he was good actually, I thought he was really good. I’ll give him B-plus perhaps, not an A,” Bellamy said. "He didn’t do anything off the top of his head too much and I thought he defended well.

"Some of his kicks probably weren’t that great but I thought he defended really well and he came up with the right options at the right time. You’d like to think now that he’s going to just get better with a bit more match fitness, bit more training.

"He played outside Shawn (Blore) tonight and he hasn’t played with him. He hasn’t trained much with him, so you’d like to think that combination is going to get even better."

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Craig Bellamy says side has missed Cameron Munster while he's been sidelined

The Storm coach said one of the most frustrating parts of Munster's injury saga has been the confusing nature of it and hopes the worst of it is behind him. "Cameron’s obviously, you know, a really experienced player too so you know we probably missed a little bit of that and we all know what he can do when he’s playing his best," Bellamy said.

"We’re not going to expect miracles from him. He’s missed a lot of time training and he’s missed the trials and first four games of the season, so it'll take him a little bit of getting back into it, I’d imagine."