No Smith but Storm out to keep streak

REPLACING the retired Cameron Smith hasn’t proved easy but Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy is confident of keeping their National Rugby League round-one streak alive when they host South Sydney tonight.
New hooker Harry Grant is out with a knee injury while Dale Finucane hurt his calf soon after being named as a co-captain to cover Smith.
The Storm have had limited preparation for the opener, opting for extra time off after their grand final victory, and with the Rabbitohs in red-hot pre-season form, their round-one winning record which dates back to 2001 is in doubt.
“It’s well known we’ve had a shorter pre-season than usual and losing Harry and Dale hasn’t been the ideal preparation,” Bellamy said yesterday.
“Obviously, Souths are one of the top sides this year, their depth is really strong, but it’s our first game at AAMI Park for a while and I’d like to think the boys will be fairly excited about that.
“We always like to think we’re pretty well prepared and our form in the trial was pretty good so we just need to step it up.”
The match will be Melbourne’s first game back in Victoria in over nine months, having last played there against Souths in round four, while they haven’t played in front of a crowd at AAMI since September 2019.
Brandon Smith will wear the No.9 jersey with Bellamy well aware of the danger posed by the star Souths’ spine of Adam Reynolds, Cody Walker, Damien Cooke and Latrell Mitchell.
“All those guys are going to cause us some problems at some stage and they have some big forwards as well so we will need to be effective with our contact,” Bellamy said.
Melbourne have new recruits centre Reimis Smith and wing George Jennings partnering on the right side, following injury to Brenko Lee and the departure of Suliasi Vunivalu.
“George really impressed when he came on in the trial and Reimis has been really good at the Bulldogs s, so it’s just a matter of him getting some combination with the guys around him,” Bellamy said.
Souths coach Wayne Bennett didn’t expect much to change with the premiers without Smith steering the side, saying they still had a stack of talent.
The Storm have had the wood on the Bunnies, winning all 16 matches in Victoria.