Kevin Walters in terse exchange with NRL reporter Lara Pitt after ugly Broncos loss

Kevin Walters wasn't in a particularly happy mood after the Broncos' 34-32 loss to the Melbourne Storm on Thursday night, and he took out some of his frustrations on NRL reporter Lara Pitt. The Broncos were up by four points with just six minutes remaining, but the Storm scored two late tries to snatch the victory.

While Walters' side showed plenty of brilliance with ball in hand, their defence left much to be desired. The Broncos coach wasn't happy about his side's defensive effort, and made that point abundantly clear in his post-match press conference.

But Walters appeared to snap at one stage after a question from Pitt about the entertaining nature of the contest. "It was a really entertaining game for fans to watch," Pitt began, before Walters shot back sarcastically: "I'm pleased you liked it Lara."

Pitt took the little dig in her stride, continuing her question. “But obviously you want to set a standard defensively," she said. "Is that the message you’ve hammered home to them straight after the game?”

Walters responded: “It certainly is. There’s plenty of effort and I can’t fault their effort and we lost Adam (Reynolds) at half-time which was a pretty big disruption for us.

“But we just weren’t quite there defensively and that’s the most annoying thing because there was lots of effort and we just have to get the effort into the right places. We showed it. I mean some of the tries we scored were amazing and that’s great for all the crowd, I’m pleased you’re enjoying it, but we’ve got to be better defensively.

“I feel sorry for them in there because so much effort went in and a couple little sloppy areas and you concede points against a team like the Storm who are always at you. We’ll learn from this tonight and will certainly be better moving forward. You just look how hard our boys worked to score tries (compared to the Storm), that’s what’s disappointing.”

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Walters conceded his side didn't deserve to win. "Just a couple of soft tries there," he said. "There's plenty of effort and I can't fault them there with their effort ... we just weren't quite there defensively tonight. That's what the most annoying thing is - there's lots to like but we came here to win and we didn't."

Craig Bellamy unsure how to react after Melbourne Storm win

Storm coach Craig Bellamy said he didn't know what to make of the match considering his side got the win but also struggled defensively. "It's probably one of the strangest games I've ever seen or been involved in," the veteran said. "I imagine the crowd and the people watching on TV would have quite enjoyed it but we were were probably a bit disappointed as in the first half we had the better of play but didn't take advantage of that."

The Broncos snapped a 14-game losing streak against the Storm in the semi-finals last year, but Thursday night's loss means Brisbane haven't won at AAMI Park since 2016. To make matters worse, captain Adam Reynolds went down with a hamstring injury.

“They obviously wrestle well, the Storm, and just seemed to have that advantage for the whole game," Walters said. "The play-the-ball speed, over 80 minutes, makes a huge difference which I’m sure everybody watching saw.

“There’s lots to like but we came here to win and we didn’t, so I’m disappointed. When you concede 34 points you can’t expect to win a game of footy when they score that many tries. It’s not acceptable.”