Bottler Bellamy triumph

CRAIG Bellamy has showed why he’s the most sought-after coach in the NRL, with Melbourne outplaying Wayne Bennett’s Brisbane 32-16 in their clash at AAMI Park.

The Broncos hope to lure Bellamy north and while yesterday’s game was far from Melbourne’s best performance of the season, it turned in a huge second half, scoring 24 points, for the Storm coach to extend his head-to-head coaching record to 24-10 over Bennett.

Both teams had three players backing up from State of Origin, with Brisbane centre James Roberts sitting out with achilles soreness and his Storm opposite Will Chambers suspended.

Of the Melbourne players, Cameron Munster took a while to build into the game but scored a crucial 57th-minute try when he ghosted past Broncos skipper Darius Boyd to open up a 20-12 lead.

In a scrappy first half, Boyd, who was overlooked for Origin, was one of his team’s best.

Storm skipper Cameron Smith, who missed Origin after quitting representative football, was also a standout. CRONULLA has consolidated its spot in the top eight on the back of a vintage second-half performance from Paul Gallen in a 24-16 win over the Wests Tigers yesterday.

The Sharks appeared out of energy and ideas when they trailed a typically stubborn Tigers outfit by eight with half an hour to go at Southern Cross Group Stadium.

But a nondescript solo try to the oldest player in the competition flipped the contest on its head.

The Cronulla skipper backed his way over on a routine run up the middle then set up a 90m try for Valentine Holmes four minutes later when he fielded a Luke Brooks kick.

The 13,093-strong crowd then found full voice as the Sharks made it three tries in 10 minutes to seal the match.