Storm coach Craig Bellamy has offered his players a simple ultimatum following their 50-10 drubbing at the hands of the Panthers, with the only silver lining that skipper Harry Grant’s knee injury isn’t serious.
The world’s best dummy-half was taken from the field in the second half on Friday night with the initial diagnosis that he’d suffered some bone bruising and should be fine to face the Warriors next week.
“It’s fine. I just got a knock and jolted the knee,” he said at the post-match press conference which he would have skipped if the injury was serious
“The physios took me off pretty quickly. If it was a tighter contest then they’d probably assess me on the run and then go, but they sort of took me off and assessed me. It’s fine.”
The injury scare is the least of their concerns after they slumped to a third loss on the trot against a Panthers side that has one hand on the premiership trophy.
The Storm completed 94 per cent of their sets but missed 41 tackles as they suffered their heaviest loss since the 2008 Grand Final.
Last year’s grand finalists were without several key players but it wasn’t an excuse, with Bellamy warning them that training is going to be brutal next week.
“We just go a little bit harder,” he said, with Shawn Blore and Jack Howarth hoping to return from their respective injuries.
“If they don’t want to go harder then they can go and play reserve grade and we’ll bring some young blokes up. That’s how we’ve always handled these situations.
“We’ve just got to learn from tonight and be better. The disappointing thing for me was our defence. You don’t have to be a brain surgeon to be a good defender – you just have to work hard and be determined.”
Conceding 50 means the Storm can’t win the premiership based on the infamous stat, but it wouldn’t matter anyway given the Panthers look unstoppable at the moment after recording another thumping victory.
They are the first team in history to win their opening five matches by more than 20 points, with winger Tom Jenkins bagging a record 12 tries already.
This is a team that won four premierships in a row before the streak was snapped last year, but this current squad is playing better than anything we’ve seen from Penrith.
“It’s about leaving your ego at the door and trying to get better,” star halfback Nathan Cleary replied when asked what was motivating them after all these years.
“At the end of the day, we didn’t win the premiership last year so it’s there on the table.
“Once you start the year, everyone starts on zero again and there’s a new premiership to be won, so what’s happened in the past has happened in the past.
“When we’re all old, we can tell our grandkids about it. But for now, it’s why not chase after it?”