Storm Gets Nsw Heartland Off Side
The Age
Saturday October 4, 2008
Going for Manly in a grand final is like going for Collingwood. Fans want Bellamy to pay.
ACCORDING to former Balmain great Benny Elias, there is now something even worse than supporting Manly. Or for those uninitiated in the ways of rugby league, worse than barracking for Collingwood. It is called: "Hoping that the Melbourne Storm wins back-to-back premierships tomorrow."Something very strange has been happening in Sydney: there's been a call for all north of the Murray River to get behind the old silvertail Manly - traditionally the most hated team in the competition - in its quest to overcome the Melbourne Storm in the National Rugby League grand final.That is the equivalent of asking all AFL fans to don the Magpies garb and hope for Joffa to put on his gold jacket."I actually spoke to (former Carlton president) Dicky Pratt yesterday and he said Collingwood is exactly like Manly and he couldn't understand why we would follow them, and I said because there's a new Collingwood here in Australia called the Melbourne Storm and we even hate them more than Collingwood and Manly put together," Elias said.The basis of such an outrageous suggestion has been the reaction of the Sydney media to a gobsmacking outburst by Storm coach Craig Bellamy and chief executive Brian Waldron against the NRL judiciary last Friday night. The outburst cost the club a $50,000 fine and has the pair facing defamation action by judiciary members.Elias said the Storm had only itself to blame; the outburst after the Storm had won its preliminary final against Cronulla was a strategic move that had gone wrong."I thought his (Bellamy's) outburst a minute after making the grand final was very strategic," he said. "But do I think he's handled it well? No. He hasn't been endearing whatsoever to any of the Sydney people in the last seven days and even now, not being apologetic about his actions is still a mark on a lot of the people's minds up here. At the moment, we just think he's arrogant ..."He was trying to play the football game off the football paddock ... I think it is backfiring because he was hoping for a 'Poor us, poor us' reaction, whereas now we're thinking, 'Stuff you, stuff you'."I think he's a very clever coach. I think he plays the game on and off the football field and he started doing that last week ... I like his strategy; it didn't work, but I like it."Former Penrith great Mark Geyer said he believed Bellamy had spoken from the heart when standing up for Cameron Smith. He said the anti-Melbourne feeling was simply a case of tall poppy syndrome after the Storm's recent success."It's been mooted that it was a ploy but I really don't think it was," Geyer said."I know he's good with mind games and he's good at psychological warfare but I think this one was straight from the heart. I think he should have walked around the oval for 10 or 15 minutes before he unloaded, but he got his point across and his players would have got some confidence that he stood up for them as well."
© 2008 The Age
