Melbourne Storm head coach Craig Bellamy has defended fill in halfback Tyran Wishart despite what was perceived by the majority to be a poor showing during a tough loss to the St George Illawarra Dragons on Saturday afternoon.
Wishart, a utility who became Mr. Fix It for the Storm throughout the 2024 campaign where he played a number of roles, had his first start of the 2025 campaign during Round 4 against the Dragons, filling in for Jahrome Hughes at halfback after he broke his hand last week against the Penrith Panthers.
Wishart couldn't help Melbourne to breach a gallant Dragons' line despite repeated opportunities, with the Storm only scoring a single try during the contest.
The utility seemed to struggle to adapt to the number seven jersey, but Craig Bellamy said Wishart did a solid job given the circumstances.
“It's a tough situation for Wish to come in as a halfback into a team where he hasn't played a whole heap at half. He had a couple of errors in the second half that he wouldn't be happy with, but overall I thought he did a solid job,” Bellamy said during his post-match press conference.
“As I said, it wouldn't be easy for him to come in in that spot. I don't know if he has ever played for us in that position on the right hand side, so like I said, I thought he did a good job, a tough job for him though.”
While the stats look fine for Wishart, who wound up with 153 metres from 19 runs, he had no line breaks or line break assists, no try assists, and only a trio of tackle busts to his name when it was all said and done.
Bellamy admitted his side had chances they should have, but failed to, take throughout a first half camped on St George Illawarra's line, before a second half saw Melbourne riddled with errors.
“We had a lot of opportunities in the first half, we had a lot of field position, a lot of ball. The second half we didn't complete so well and that didn't help us,” Bellamy said.
“I thought St George defended really well, real good actually. We had a couple of chances there that we should have, would have but didn't take, and you know, we paid the price for that.”
Hughes will miss at least one more week of action prior to his expected return, with Wishart likely to back up in the number seven jumper next weekend against the Manly Sea Eagles.
Making matters worse in the halves depth department for the Storm was Jonah Pezet being unable to complete his return match in the QLD Cup with a knee injury.
Bellamy said the hope is that the injury 'isn't too bad' although scary given the recovery the young star, who has re-signed with the Storm through to the end of 2029 but with conditions in his contract regarding his spot in Melbourne's system, has just gone through.
“They don't seem to think it's too bad. I'm not quite sure what position. I know it's outside of the knee, but I think it's only a jolt,” Bellamy said on Pezet.
“Obviously after what he has been through, when you saw the pain, I'd imagine he would be fairly aware of it so hopefully the medics are right and it's minor.”
The only other injury concern out of the game for the Storm was for Harry Grant, who seemed to suffer a leg injury during the first half, but the captain was not worried over the severity of it during the post-match press conference.
