BELLYACHE HAS THE KEY TO STOP TURBO’S CHARGE
JUST how will Storm coach Craig Bellamy stop the player he labels the best in the game in Saturday night’s blockbuster clash against Manly?
Bellamy has bypassed some of rugby league’s finest players – including his own – to nominate Tom Trbojevic as the “elite player in the game” as he plots to stop the superstar’s run.
“Some of the things he is doing are unbelievable,” Bellamy said. “Tom is certainly one hell of a player. He’s certainly the hardest guy in the game for any team to handle.”
But every supercoach has a plan against stellar opponents. Asked how his team could limit Trbojevic’s impact, Bellamy said: “There are a couple of things around him that his teammates do so hopefully we can restrict that.
“We just have to be aware of where he is and when he gets into those positions, what he is likely to do and defend it from there.
“There will be no defending him as an individual, we’ll need to defend him as a team. Fingers crossed.”
Manly has won 12 of its past 15 games and Melbourne all 16 of its past 16 matches. That’s a combined 28 wins from 31 games entering the big match.
And flying out in front is inspiring Trbojevic, who was, yet again, stunning against Cronulla in the 40-22 demolition last Monday night.
He scored three tries, ran for 179m, posted 11 tackle busts, five offloads, three line breaks, 52 post-contact metres, six line-break assists and three try assists.
“It’s hard to describe – he’s close to the quickest player in the game, he’s close to the biggest player in the game and he’s close to one of the most skilful players in the game,” Bellamy said.
“He reads the game really well, as well. He can pick out a chink in the opposition armoury as quickly as anyone. You often see guys who can pick that but when (Trbojevic) picks it, he can do something about it with his pace. All those things are rolled into one, which makes him, with all due respect, the elite player in the game and certainly the hardest guy in the game for any team to handle.
“He is very well conditioned as well because he can keep it up for 80 minutes. He is having one hell of a season. “He came up with some outstanding stats (against Cronulla) but he has done that in all the games he has played. Tom is certainly one hell of a player.”
And Bellamy had no hesitation saying Trbojevic was moving into the same category as former Storm fullback great Billy Slater.
“He’s around that standard. You can throw (James) Tedesco in there as well. He was the best player in the game there for a fair bit. If Billy wasn’t the best player, he was certainly the best fullback,” Bellamy said. “For those guys, it was about how long they did it for. They did it for I don’t know how many years. Billy was the best player in the game for a whole heaps of years. Tedesco is around that as well.
“For Tom, it’s about being able to continue what he’s doing. Then you can start to, I suppose, put him up there with the great fullbacks.
“The way he’s playing now, he’s up there but doing that over a long period of time, that’s the making of our really great players. Billy did that for so long.”