Craig Bellamy has blasted his team's attacking performance after they succumbed to an embarrassing defeat to the Brisbane Broncos.
The 26-0 loss to the Broncos on Friday night became only the third time in the club's history that they have been kept to zero points in a finals game.
The first was against the Bulldogs in 2003, and the second was the 2008 Grand Final against the Manly Sea Eagles, a day that all Melbourne fans would like to forget.
Cameron Munster and Jahrome Hughes were unable to provide anything in attack for the Storm, and the side only produced a single line break- a statistic that is normally unheard of from a Storm outfit.
"I'm not quite sure how we came into this game and played like that. The injuries didn't help later on, but at the end of the day, we were poor, the Broncos were good and the result was probably what we deserved," Bellamy said.
"I can't remember the last time we attacked as poorly as we did tonight. Some of that was due to the Broncos' good defence without a doubt, but we looked like we were 17 players thrown together on the night and told good luck," Bellamy added.
"We have scored plenty of points the last four to six weeks, and our attack has been humming along okay, but tonight, it looked like we had only met each other in the dressing room before the game, so that's one thing we will have to look at during the week."
"We probably weren't as fluent as we have been during the week with some of our attack, but our energy was great during the week. We might have left some of that on the training track" Bellamy added when quizzed on the side's preparation.
The game went from bad to worse for the Storm after they will be without a quartet of players next week, including star fullback and Queensland Maroons winger Xavier Coates. However, Bellamy doesn't blame the injuries for his team's poor performance.
Ryan Papenhuyzen, who returned after 13 months out of the NRL, left the field on the medicab and, with assistance from a green whistle and multiple medical personnel after, he suffered an ankle injury during the closing minutes of the loss. He wasn't the only Storm player to endure an injury throughout the game.
It'sย believed wingerย Xavier Coates, who left the field just minutes before Papenhuyzen, has suffered a syndesmosis injury. The Storm also lostย Trent Loieroย andย Marion Seveย to head injury assessments after a head clash.
"I don't know [how tough it will be to recover] until next week," Bellamy added.
"It's obviously really disappointing with them couple of injuries. I think we had four HIAs as well, it was that sort of night.
"With all due respect, we aren't going to blame them for what happened tonight.
"At the end of the day, our first half was really poor. We did really well to be 8-0 at halftime, it could have been 20-0 at halftime the way we played.
