Does the NRL want an “exciting game style, exciting tries and tries off kicks”?
Well, if they do Storm hooker Harry Grant has a message: you won’t get many if the Bunker continues to “look hard enough” when assessing tries.
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Grant’s comments came after Melbourne was denied a try in the dying stages of the first half as the Storm went down 22-14 to the Penrith Panthers on Thursday night.
The Storm had plenty of chances to win Thursday’s game, finishing the contest with 58 per cent possession and 41 tackles to 11 in the opposition 20 after Penrith had three players sin-binned.
Despite that, the Panthers were able to hold on for a much-needed victory to end Melbourne’s season. Although things could have been different had Grant been awarded a try late in the first half.
The Bunker ruled that Grant knocked the ball into the arm of Brian To’o as he went down the short side and kicked, much to the displeasure of the Storm skipper.
“I thought it was a try,” Grant said in the post-match press conference.
“That’s the decision that they’ve made. I sort of had no question about it. If you play it in real motion, you go through every kick contest and when there’s two people competing for a ball, you’d probably find something every time.
“I don’t know, I think they want exciting game style, they want exciting tries, and we want tries off kicks, well you’re going to have something like that every time if you look hard enough.”
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Grant clashed with referee Grant Atkins earlier in the contest after Oryn Keeley was sin-binned for repeated infringements, telling the referee “we’re not playing touch footy”.
“It’s wet, it’s slippery. It’s not going to be the cleanest game. It goes both ways,” Grant added.
Coach Craig Bellamy didn’t have a strong opinion on the six-again calls on Thursday night specifically, but said he generally does not believe they are “particularly good for the game”.
“I’d have to go back and have a look at them,” he added.
“It really hurts a team when that happens. At the end of the day, as long as they’re consistent it’s okay if that’s the way that they want to go with six agains.”
Bellamy was, however, left scratching his head as to why it took a 22-point deficit in 29
“If you get 22 points behind Penrith and what they’ve done over the past four or five years, they know how to win games,” Bellamy said.
“We were probably never really going to be coming back.
“I just thought our guys really put the effort in the second half that we needed in the first half or the first 20 minutes and we just didn’t get it.”
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It was an even more disappointing effort considering the club had honoured prop forward Tui Kamikamica by giving him a guard of honour pre-game.
Kamikamica, a 142-game veteran with the Storm, was forced into retirement after suffering a stroke in March.
“He’s been great for us. He’s obviously a wonderful player but even more than that, he’s a great clubman and just a great person,” Bellamy said.
“What he’s done for our club in the time he’s been here, that would be very, very hard to repeat.
“Everyone loves him. That’s not not just me, it’s everyone in the club. They all love him because he’s such a genuine guy and a real decent guy.
“And then the other thing is every time he laced his boots on and went out and played, he’d give it his all. He’s been one of the best clubmen that I’ve ever seen, coaching and playing.
“I couldn’t give him a bigger rap than that. I’m honoured to have been his coach.”