NRL 2023 Melbourne Storm def Parramatta Eels, reaction, press conference, Craig Bellamy praises team for finding their hard edge

Craig Bellamy could sense something was amiss at the Storm last year, but the veteran manager says his champions side have rediscovered their trademark steel after overcoming a series of adversities to beat the Eels in the season opener.

The 16-12 Golden Point win in Sydney continues his incredible Round 1 streak, ending her miserable run against Parramatta that included a Golden Point heartbreak against her last season.

But with Cameron Munster struggling with a nasty finger injury and Xavier Coates dismissed with a shoulder problem, the undermanned Storm somehow dug deep to steal the win thanks to a solo performance from Harry Grant in overtime.

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This is a team that lost four straight games in mid-2022, missing out on the top 4 before being bundled in the opening week of the season.

They struggled on defense last year, lost a number of veteran strikers in the off-season and won’t have Ryan Papenhuyzen for a couple of months, but they appear to have rediscovered their defensive prowess after holding the big finalists to just 12 points.

“Just being so brave for the whole 80 minutes, I don’t think we’ve been like that in the last 12 months. I thought we made some progress in that area and hopefully we can keep that up,” Bellamy said.

“It probably took me a while to realize that. You bob around, stick to your systems and stick to your routine.

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“Suddenly you’re like, ‘We haven’t played absolute steel in a while,’ and when we’re under pressure, we fold more than we fight. We wanted to get better at that this year.

“We’ve got a lot of new guys in our squad – especially with the injuries we’ve got – but if they continue to show the fight they showed tonight I’m sure we’ll be ok.”

Skipper Christian Welch only played one game last year before a serious Achilles tendon injury at the same venue devastated his year.

He wasn’t there to see the storm’s standards drop over the year, but he’s excited about what he saw on Thursday night.

“I thought we’d always turn out,” he said.

“We had a couple of failures but the guys that came in did a fantastic job. That’s what we’ve been working on and we want to be a really hungry, aggressive team in our assault squad.

“I thought tonight was good. We were up against probably one of the best packs and I thought the guys really showed up.