{"id":332858,"date":"2023-09-21T20:12:27","date_gmt":"2023-09-21T20:12:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=332858"},"modified":"2023-09-21T21:01:02","modified_gmt":"2023-09-21T21:01:02","slug":"bellamy-warned-over-ploy-that-could-backfire-badly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=332858","title":{"rendered":"Bellamy warned over ploy that could backfire badly"},"content":{"rendered":"

A\ufeff number of rugby league<\/a> greats have cautioned Melbourne<\/a> supercoach Craig Bellamy<\/a> against benching hooker Harry Grant<\/a> on Friday night.<\/p>\n

\ufeffThe Storm have named the crafty rake in the No.9 jumper for the preliminary final blockbuster against Penrith<\/a> at Accor Stadium.<\/p>\n

But Bellamy last week pulled a late selection shock when he started Grant on the pine and put relative rookie Bronson Garlick in the starting hooker role.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: <\/strong>Inside the secret Panthers test for injured Luai<\/strong><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\ufeffREAD MORE: <\/strong>Tigers announce long-term Hardwick successor<\/strong><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

READ MORE: <\/strong>Why Broncos star owes career to late grandmother\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

He also promoted giant prop Nelson Asofa-Solomona into the starting pack in favour of Christian Welch in a tactic designed to physically dominate the Roosters early in the game, before searching for points later.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

It almost backfired, though, and the Storm scraped home to win their semi-final thanks to a late piece of magic from Cameron Munster and Will Warbrick.<\/p>\n

\ufeffAhead of Friday's meeting with the Panthers, all of Phil Gould, Brad Fittler, and Andrew Johns warned Bellamy against pulling the same tactic.<\/p>\n

"I think he's got to play the whole game," Fittler said of Grant on Wide World of Sports' Freddy and the Eighth<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Stream every game of the 2023 NRL finals series live and free on<\/strong><\/em> 9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

"I think they need to throw them (star players) all out there, and back their bench.<\/p>\n

"They looked very unorganised (last week) in the absence of Jahrome Hughes. If they are chasing points (against Penrith) I think they're in trouble.\ufeff"<\/p>\n

Gould agreed it's risky for the Storm to consider benching Grant, potentially robbing the team of more opportunities to score early points.<\/p>\n

\"Legends<\/p>\n

"\ufeffI like my best players out there," he told Wide World of Sports' Six Tackles with Gus<\/em> podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n

"Sometimes you do it every now and then if you think they're going to be targeted, and I'd imagine that's the reason (for benching Grant).<\/p>\n

"I can't imagine any other reason to be leaving him off the field. He's their main man.<\/p>\n

"You can't win the game in the first 20 minutes but you can certainly lose it. And Panthers start extremely fast.<\/p>\n

"I don't get it, but that's the way they are. Panthers did it with Api Koroisau for a time – I think they think their little blokes will get targeted by big blokes early in the game.<\/p>\n

"But I think the Storm have to get to the front and get to the front early. I can't remember the last time the Panthers got run down in a game."<\/p>\n

Two-metre tall enforcer Asofa-Solomona has been named on the Storm bench again.<\/p>\n

But there's an expectation he may once again be called into the starting side specifically to target Penrith five-eighth Jarome Luai<\/a>, who is returning from a shoulder injury.\ufeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A\ufeff number of rugby league greats have cautioned Melbourne supercoach Craig Bellamy against benching hooker Harry Grant on Friday night. \ufeffThe Storm have named the […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":312754,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332858"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=332858"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332858\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":332861,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332858\/revisions\/332861"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/312754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=332858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=332858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=332858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}