Sign up now!!!<\/a><\/p>\nWas it touched? Controversial knock-on | 00:40<\/p>\n
While it has not been the year Bellamy expected after two-straight grand final appearances, there is still plenty to take from the emergence of some of the club\u2019s stars of the future.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s young talent time at the Storm right now and it took just 80 minutes for young halfback Hayden Watson to impress Bellamy on debut.<\/p>\n
Watson was called up to start in the crucial halfback position after Hughes was ruled out with a hamstring injury and the teenager impressed from the get-go.<\/p>\n
Bellamy has coached some legendary halfbacks, including Hughes and Cooper Cronk, but it was the debut of Watson that stood out most for him.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs far as a halfback goes, that was probably as good a debut I\u2019ve seen from a halfback, especially at his age,\u201d Bellamy said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe came in and did a great job for us.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was on the tough side there too.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve got [Viliame] Kikau there and [Stephen] Crichton and those guys out that side, but I thought he did a really good job with the ball and also without the ball as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hayden Watson in his NRL debut. (Photo by Robert Cianflone\/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
Watson was nearly flawless with ball in hand, running for 147 metres, including 47 post contact metres and four tackle breaks.<\/p>\n
The 19-year-old\u2019s kicking game was on point too, registering 190 metres.<\/p>\n
But it was his bravery to throw his slight body into oncoming traffic to affect 23 tackles that drew praise.<\/p>\n
\u201cYoung Hayden, like he\u2019s on one of the best back rowers of the comp, Kikau, he didn\u2019t take a backward step,\u201d Storm captain Josh King said.<\/p>\n
Watson emerged as a future star with a stand out performance for Queensland\u2019s recent under-19 Origin victory over New South Wales.<\/p>\n
Dogs down to 10 men before half time | 00:37<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a talented kid without a doubt,\u201d Bellamy said.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor a halfback, he\u2019s fairly quiet around the group.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s not an out there kid, he sort of sticks to himself a little bit and he\u2019s very quiet, but when it\u2019s time to train and it\u2019s time to knuckle down, he just zeroes in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Watson was so impressive on debut, Channel Nine commentator and former Storm legend Billy Slater chose him as the player to speak with from the losing side in the post-game wrap.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a pretty unreal experience out there, you know playing with the boys, watching them on TV and then actually getting to be out there with them, so it was pretty cool,\u201d Watson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHeaps quicker, I was cramping at the end there, but just lucky to get through.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think [the key] was just backing my own game, not trying to do anything else or be someone else, just be myself and have a crack.\u201d<\/p>\n
Watson said it was a dream come true to represent the club in the state he was born in.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince I was a little kid going for the Storm, obviously being born down here in Melbourne, so it\u2019s a dream to play here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Craig Bellamy admitted he is \u201ca bit pissed off\u201d to be missing the finals and joked he may…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":836029,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-836028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=836028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836028\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/836029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=836028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=836028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=836028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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