‘Trying To Fix It’ ❤️ Ponissi endorses Bellamy to save Melbourne’s season | Storm Press Conference

Good signs for the 80 minutes there, but ultimately another loss.So how does the team look back on tonight's performance?

Yeah, very frustrated dressing room, Matty.Old cliche, it's a game of two hours.It's as good as we played in that first half.Especially defensively, we had a lot of work to do on our trial line and we had made an enormous amount of tackles on our trial line.So to lead 10 -0, it was a great try they scored just before half -time.But at 10 -4, we're a very confident dressing room at half -time and probably that decisive periods when they went down to 12 men and they handled that really well and we just didn't take our opportunities.

The second half you had 12 sets to their 21, the numbers were, you had 33 % of the ball only, 20 % of the territory, was that because of the modern game or did you not do enough to get into the contest better in the second half?

Oh a bit of both but we've got to control our own destiny there so we probably came up with some crucial errors, especially attacking their try line.I think they might have had 12 men at the time as well.We just struggled to get back to the other end.Again, we defended quite well for long periods of time, but not long enough.One thing, our ball control the last few weeks hasn't been too bad.It's been our defence.

Tonight, as I said, it was just key moments with the ball that just let us down.

Craig, you've obviously been a long -time good friend of the coach.How are you feeling, Frank?

Look, this is not about...This is about Craig.It's been a big week for Craig, it's been a couple of big weeks.With respect, he was never coming in tonight win, lose or draw.He's been through a lot with his family, so I just think we gave him an opportunity just to not worry about tonight.But in terms of the way he coached tonight, you wouldn't think there was anything there that the last few days he's gone through is quite remarkable.

It's tough, but he's done well.just watched him, he's just purely about the team and trying to fix it.fix where we're going wrong and trying to get a win.He's already working on next week and that's what we love about him.

His health is a very private matter but there's no doubt been an outpouring towards Craig across the football, indeed sporting community.Has he told you anything that he'd like to relay to the concerned people who've no doubt reached out to him this week?

He's overwhelmed by the support, so has his family.It's happened so quickly the last 24, 48 hours and it's just Yeah, that would probably be.He's just exceptionally grateful for all the support he's received, both from within the club and especially externally, you know, from lots of clubs and lots of people you wouldn't think you'd hear from, and all around the world as well.So it's been quite remarkable, but he just wants to now just focus on coaching and focus on getting us back.winning.And that's all these major focus is.

How does he feel about the challenge, the footy challenge facing the team now, the club's first ever seven game losing streak?

Yeah, well, none of us happy with that.You know, embarrassed, frustrated, disappointed, all those emotions rolled into one.But he is, you know, Harry best to answer, but just we've just been in there for 10 minutes and leading the discussion and thinking about next week about West Tigers already.You know, how can we get out of this?You know, we took some positives out of tonight, but ultimately you need to play for 80 minutes.

Harry, you must have mixed emotions too.It's a game of footy, but you've got a serious element on the side, the team's not winning.You're encountering something now you haven't encountered in your playing career too, right?

Yeah, for sure.It's all part of the journey and, you know, like Frank said, it's a bit raw and it's a bit real, but at the end of the day, it's life and the cards have been dealt and, yeah, I think there's probably two parts of it.Off the field,and on the field and at the moment we've got to fix some stuff on the field as well to ease a little bit off the field I think so yeah there's a bit of it but at the end of the day yeah we're working hard at the club and having the right combos and Frank said it's just about putting 80 minutes together to turn around.Yeah two Victorians that's probably you know the really pleasing thing for the club and for the pathway system and some of Frankie's fine work but Yeah, I think they performed really well in the team.Hugo's not normally a winger, probably hasn't had that many reps, so I think he found his feet at times there and did a really good job.

And Trent, I was sort of throwing him to the deep end, probably not expecting that early in the game or come on at half, but yeah, same thing.That was the cards we were dealt and he got on with it and I thought they both did their role tonight.No, like Frank said, I think it's a whole club matter.I think everyone would sort of understand that element of respecting Craig's privacy and just getting on with business as usual like Craig's doing.Yeah, I think we can all kind of respect that as a rugby league community, wrap our arms around it and just really roll with what's next.And like Frank said, he's looking forward to next week and really righting some wrongs.

And as a playing group, we just got to really buy into that and back him up by working hard at training and transferring that into a performance.And I think we missed an opportunity there tonight.I think we put ourselves in a good position.but certainly missed an opportunity and it's been a bit of a story this little run of losing games.

No, unfortunately it looks like he's going to miss a few weeks which is disappointing for Wish because he started so well scoring the try.So hopefully he won't miss too many weeks but he certainly won't be available next week.Absolutely, no doubt.The fire's in the belly.It's been hard for him the last few weeks with the news and finding out, but he's as committed as ever.He just had to be in that dressing room now just to see the passion he's got and the commitment.

He doesn't like where we are at the moment, none of us do, and he works as hard as he's ever done before.He's got a great group of assistants with him, wonderful football staff, and we're all hurting and frustrated too.But we're certainly not going to be thrown in the towel.We're going to work even harder and looking for that first win.And I'm sure once we get that first win, we can hopefully get on the run.

Thanks, guys.

Thanks, everyone.