Craig Bellamy admitted his side’s plan to stop Reece Walsh didn’t work and conceded his team didn’t learn the lessons from their 2024 Grand Final defeat after losing the 2025 decider to the Broncos.

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The Storm had a huge lead in the second half, but Walsh stormed home with one of the greatest grand final performances ever to lead the Broncos to victory and break the Storm’s hearts for the second straight year.

“It didn’t work,” Bellamy said of the Storm’s plan for Walsh.

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Pressed on whether the Storm could have done anything differently, Bellamy was blunt.

“I think there’s some things you can do, you could tackle him,” Bellamy said.

“Obviously we didn’t. He’s obviously a good player. He’s quick and he’s strong. That’s probably the X-factor in him to be quite honest. I know everyone knows he’s quick, but he’s so strong in contact and we didn’t do much of a job.”

Bellamy was brutal in admitting the Storm didn’t learn from their loss to the Panthers in 2024.

“I think there’s a couple of things we thought we’d learned from last year, but obviously we didn’t,” Bellamy said.

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“And they’ll be doubled down on in our pre-season and hopefully we can have a good season next year.”

Bellamy was asked to sum up his emotions, but was classy in conceding the better team won.

“Disappointment, obviously, losing Grand Final is hard, but you sort of console yourself a little bit with Grand Finals are hard to get to and obviously they are hard to win as well,” Bellamy said.

“So congratulate the boys on having a good year and getting here, but it’s obviously very disappointing when you don’t get the result you want, so that’s the emotion at the moment.”

The Storm could have gone up by 20 in the second half with a Tui Kamicamika try denied and the Broncos scored at the other end to spark their comeback, and Bellamy conceded it was a huge moment in the game.

“It was a pretty big turning point, but you’ve got to give the Broncos some credit too for coming back,” Bellamy said.

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“They’ve been coming back the whole semi-finals series actually, so we were a bit disappointed in how we let a couple of tries in.

“But at the end of the day, we just weren’t good enough on the day and the Broncos were.

“It is obviously tough losing a grand final whatever the situation.

“Certainly with that lead we had and made the point here that when we lost that ball over the line, that was a big turning point.

“It was a no try and then that would have made it 20 points in front, and then they went up the other end and scored a try, so that was a huge turning point.

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“Let’s say we’re disappointed in the result, but to make a grand final, it’s hard work and the boys have done a good job to do that, but obviously we’d have liked to have won, but we haven’t and the Broncos were too good on the night.”

The Storm had their chances in the second half, but Walsh came up with try-saver after try-saver to stop their victory bid.

“I would have liked too, but obviously it didn’t,” Bellamy said of the final five minutes of the game turning in the Storm’s favour.

“But there was a few other instances in the game where that could have happened, but it could have happened for the Broncos too, so at the end of the day things happened for a reason.”

Storm skipper Harry Grant summed up the pain of losing back-to-back grand finals for his side.

“Everyone can probably can understand the pain,” Grant said.

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“It’s a long season like Craig touched on. It’s hard to get here. There’s a lot of work that goes into being here and a lot of people put time and effort throughout the season.

“So it’s not easy to get here and you don’t need to be in a rush to get back here. We can’t get back here tomorrow. But what we do tomorrow can certainly help. I think that’s painful to listen to, but it’s about what’s next now.”

Grant was pressed on a crucial trip call on him on Ezra Mam and took aim at the referees for blowing it out of proportion.

“He just said it was a trip, look, the game’s so fast,” Grant said.

“Ezra Mam’s dangerous, left foot, right foot. You’re coming across to make a tackle. You get wrong-footed, you’re going to have imbalance somewhere within your body and for me, unfortunately there, that was what it looked like.

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“At the end of the day, that decision is not from Grant (Atkins). It’s from someone above Grant that has got replays and looks at it.

“Look, I don’t think there’s any player going out a majority of the time, with intent to trip someone. Play it in fast motion, you’ll see someone getting wrong-footed.

“Ezra Mam is one of the best in the game as a running five-eighth. You don’t know which way he’s going, so there’s probably more of what it was.”

Grant conceded the Broncos took their opportunities and the Storm fell short.

“We created a few opportunities in the second half, but as Craig said they were there to stop it and we just didn’t take advantage,” Grant said.

“We were on the back foot a lot of that second half, but we still managed to find ways to give ourselves a sniff and credit to the Broncos in the way they turned up and owned their moments.”