The Storm gave up a strong lead for the second week in-a-row, with a “frustrated” Craig Bellamy admitting an emerging “pattern” was “worrying”.
In Round 3, Melbourne led 14-0 against the Broncos and the scores sat at 24-14 after 68 minutes against the Cowboys in Round 4.
Both games ended in a loss for the Storm, and their latest defeat saw the Cowboys score three tries inside seven minutes to complete a stunning comeback at Queensland Country Bank Stadium.
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In the post-match press conference, Bellamy was asked how “worrying” it was his side once again folded late to give away two competition points.
“Yeah, it is worrying,” he said.
“I don’t know what the worry scale is, but yeah, it’s worrying.”
As for his assessment of the contest, Bellamy was simply “frustrated” — especially considering the positions his team were in.
“I’m just probably a bit frustrated. You know, the last two games we’ve (lost) after having good leads,”
“You know 10, 12, 14 points I think. So that’s a frustrating thing and why? We all might have a different opinion on the whys.
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“But you’ve got to give the opposition credit too. In both second halves, last week and this week they played really well.
“But that pattern there is a pattern we don’t want to keep going. So we need to try and work it out or get a little formula where it doesn’t happen too often.”
That “pattern” that has reared its head early in their 2026 campaign seems to be a consistent issue.
Their loss against the Cowboys marked the sixth time since the start of the 2025 season the Storm have given away a double-figure lead — the most of any NRL team.
Compare that to only four instances between 2020 and 2024 in total, and it’s a new problem Bellamy is having to fix on the run.
“The errors were one thing, I think we were really good in the first half and then the second half, our completions fell right away,” Bellamy said.
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“It’s the lack of willingness in the contact that is concerning me a little bit…. again, it wasn’t (an 80-minute performance). We had a good lead, and we blew it.
“For me it’s the same thing two weeks in-a-row. At the end of the day, we’ve got to work out why that’s happening.
“There’s a few things that could be. Hopefully we can get some honesty from the players and there’s probably a few things we are doing at training and in our meetings as well.
“Hopefully we can be a bit more consistent over the 80 minutes.”
In the first half, the Storm completed at 92 per cent while that figure dropped to 71 per cent in the second, while possession also swung from 54 to 44 per cent between halves.