TIGHT SCHEDULE SET
Travel may test the Storm
MELBOURNE coach Craig Bellamy is a stickler for habit – from the training paddock to match day and everything in between.
But as the NRL does its bit to keep the game going – chartering a plane for teams to use for interstate trips – unprecedented 10hour round trips are the new normal at the Storm.
“We try and make it as normal as possible,” a hopeful Bellamy said yesterday.
“It will be different … travelling tomorrow and coming back straight after the game.
“Those sort of things are going to be different but we need to adjust our routines and try and make it work.”
The team’s travel itinerary must be adhered to with military precision.
The chartered, 50-seat, Alliance Airlines Fokker 50 turboprop aircraft – the one and same plane to be used by all travelling NRL teams this weekend – departs Melbourne Airport today at 1.15pm (AEST).
It will land at 2.30pm in Sydney, where a bus, parked on the tarmac, will take the Storm touring party to Jubilee Stadium about four hours before tonight’s game against Cronulla kicks off.
Barring extra-time, Storm has about 40 minutes after the final siren to complete post-match media commitments, get showered and changed, and be driven the 7.8km journey back to the private jet at Sydney airport.
The plane is due to land at 11pm and the touring party is expected back at AAMI Park at 11.40pm.
“We’ve got to make the most of it,” Bellamy said. “We’ll be (in the locker rooms) two hours before the game, then playing the game, that doesn't change, so that’s got to be our mentality.
“I can’t remember the last time we travelled on the same day and then came back on the same day – those changes we’ve got to try and get used to and basically concentrate on what we can control.”
Bellamy has done his best to maintain a sense of normality during the Covid-19 pandemic.
But the master coach conceded the difficulty of focusing on the fundamentals of football.
“I don’t think it’s all that practical (blocking out the coronavirus situation),” he said.
“Last Thursday or Friday it was changing every hour … that’s still going to happen in the next days, weeks, months probably.
“We just need to concentrate when we’re here.
“Our performance on the weekend will come from our preparation here … it will be a distraction for everybody, but when we come to training we got to concentrate on that.”
Bellamy said his players were on guard for veteran Cronulla halves Shaun Johnson and Chad Townsend, but he was delighted with how his own playmakers, Cameron Munster and Jahrome Hughes, fared in the opening match against Manly.
Hughes played six games in the halves at the end of last year, but over summer spent his first full pre-season training at No.7.
He set up two tries against Manly by kicking sweetly for winger Suliasi Vunivalu.
“I really liked what Jahrome did,” Bellamy said.
“He came up with some big plays with those kicks, but defensively he was outstanding ... one game doesn’t make a season, but he’s off to a good start.”
with Melissa Woods