Storm tip ‘six-again’ rulings to help Smith

MELBOURNE Storm coach Craig Bellamy believes the new rules that made the opening match of the restarted NRL season “lightning fast” could play into the hands of his captain Cameron Smith.

With a single referee allowed to call “six-again” on the run and restart a tackle count for ruck infringements rather than stop for penalties, Bellamy said the best dummyhalves could get an extreme advantage.

Parramatta scored the opening try in Thursday night’s game off back-to-back repeat sets and tired defences were opened up on other calls during the game with the speed and continuous nature standing out.

Bellamy said Smith, who turns 37, had “unrivalled” experience at dummy-half and the captain could prove to be Melbourne’s key weapon against Canberra today, and for the rest of the season.

“Cameron is unrivalled in his experience in the game and his experience at that position. We haven’t played under these rules before so it will be interesting to see how they pan out,” Bellamy said.

“But the way a couple of the dummy-halves went (in the opening game) coming out to get people on to the ball, that was pretty encouraging for us, because no-one does it better than Cameron.”

In a COVID-19 impacted world, where a sniffle could rule out any player from any game, Bellamy said he would have players at home “with their boots polished” ready to play should they be required.

Brisbane halfback Brodie Croft required two temperature checks before he could play in Thursday night’s clash against Parramatta, after failing the first one.

Each team can only take 20 players into a match venue and Bellamy, who said the biosecurity protocols were “wearing me down at times”, revealed Storm would have plenty of players at home on standby.