Storm General Manager of Football Frank Ponissi stepped in for Craig Bellamy after his side slumped to a seventh straight loss amid his private health battle.
Bellamy was diagnosed with a neurodegenerative disorder during the week and Ponissi revealed the club gave him the press conference off ahead of the 28-10 loss to the Dolphins.
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“This is about Craig and it’s been a big week for Craig,” Ponissi said.
“It’s been a couple of big weeks, so with respect, he was never coming in tonight win, lose or draw.
“He’s been through a lot with his family, so I just think we gave him an opportunity just to not worry about tonight, but in terms of the way he coached tonight, you wouldn’t think there was anything there that the last few days he’s gone through.
“It’s quite remarkable, so it’s tough, but having just watched him, he’s just purely about the team and trying to fix it, fix where we’re going wrong and trying to get a win.
“He’s already working on next week, and that’s what we love about him.”
Ponissi revealed Bellamy has been taken aback by the support he has received from the whole rugby league and sporting community this week.
“He’s overwhelmed by the support and so is his family,” Ponissi said.
“It’s happened so quickly, the last 24, 48 hours, and he’s just exceptionally grateful for all the support he’s received, both from within the club and especially externally from lots of clubs and lots of people you wouldn’t think you’d hear from.
“And all around the world as well, so it’s been quite remarkable, but he just wants to now just focus on coaching and focus on getting us back winning, and that’s all his major focus is.”
Ponissi admitted the Storm players and Bellamy were frustrated they missed a golden opportunity to snap their losing streak.
“Very frustrated dressing room in there,” Ponissi said.
“The old cliche it’s a game of two halves, we were as good as we have played in that first half, especially defensively, we had a lot of work to do on our try line and we had made an enormous amount of tackles on our try line, so to lead 10-0.
“It was a great try, they scored just before half time, but at 10-4, we were very confident dressing room at half time and probably that decisive period is when they went down to 12 men and they handled that really well and we just didn’t take our opportunities.”
Ponissi conceded the club is going through a range of emotions amid their historic seven game losing slump.
“None of us happy with that, we’re embarrassed, frustrated, disappointed, all those emotions rolled into one,” Ponissi said.
“Harry, best to answer, but we’ve just been in there for 10 minutes and leading the discussion and thinking about next week, about Wests Tigers already.
“How can we get out of this? We took some positives out of tonight, but ultimately, you need to play for 80 minutes.”
Storm skipper Harry Grant admitted it has been an emotional week, but pledged that his players will honour Bellamy’s wishes for privacy and work hard to help turn the club around.
“It’s all part of the journey and it’s a bit raw and it’s a bit real, but at the end of the day, it’s life and the cards have been dealt.” Grant said.
“I think there’s probably two parts of it, off the field and on the field and at the moment, we’ve got to fix some stuff on the field as well to ease a little bit off the field, I think.
“But at the end of the day, we’re working hard at the club and having the right conversations. It’s just about putting 80 minutes together to turn around.”
Grant praised Bellamy’s selfless approach in putting the team first and wants to honour that as a captain and a playing group.
“I think it’s a whole club matter and I think everyone would sort of understand that there’s an element of respect in Craig’s privacy and just getting on with business as usual like Craig’s doing,” Grant said.
“I think we can all kind of respect that as a rugby league community, wrap our arms around it and just really roll with what’s next.
“He’s looking forward to next week and really righting some wrongs and as a playing group, we just have got to really buy into that and back him up by working hard at training and transferring that into a performance.
“And I think we missed an opportunity there tonight. I think we put ourselves in a good position, but certainly missed an opportunity. And it’s been a bit of the story, this little run of losing games.”
Originally published as ‘He’s been through a lot’: GM’s ‘remarkable’ praise for Bellamy as he steps in for Storm coach
