Craig Bellamy shuts down Ivan Cleary over issue with tackling rule after penalty try controversies

News.com.au

2 days ago

Melbourne Storm coach Craig Bellamy says any rivals not happy with rules that prohibit players being tackled in the air can 'put an application' in to change them amid claims his team is benefiting more than others.
Storm winger Xavier Coates was awarded a penalty try in last week's win over the Brisbane Broncos after being tackled in the air while in the act of scoring, which was outlawed in 2020 to match the international interpretations.
Former Storm superstar Cooper Cronk suggested his old team were exploiting the rule by putting up kicks for Coates in the in-goal area knowing he couldn't be tackled.
Days out from a grand final rematch between Storm and Penrith, Panthers coach Ivan Cleary also said more 'common sense' was required in judging what players could and couldn't do to stop opposition sides scoring.
'I think it's one of those ones where the rule was originally made, we tend to forget why it was made and we drift off and it becomes something else,' he said.
But Bellamy gave a quick slap back to any of those complaining.
'That's the rules. Doesn't matter what I think. Doesn't matter what anyone thinks. It's the guys making up the rules, so that's the rules,' he said on Wednesday.
'If you want to put an application to get the rules changed, they can do it. But at the end of the day, I'm not going to worry about that.
'That's the rules, so that's what we'll go play to.'
Melbourne will go into Thursday's showdown without star fullback Ryan Papenhuyzen, who suffered some delayed concussion effects after the win over the Broncos last Thursday.
Bellamy is hopeful that Papenhuyzen will only be sidelined for a week.
'He's just got apparently a head knock last week, didn't really sort of think too much about it and then he had a couple of headaches over the weekend and then basically got ruled out from there,' he said.
'Unless there's other complications, we're expecting (him) to play next week.'
Papenhuyzen's absence comes as the Storm prepares for a hectic month leading into the finals, with clashes against the fourth-placed Panthers, third-placed Bulldogs, and ninth-placed Roosters before another clash with the Broncos to round out the regular season.
But the daunting task isn't one Bellamy is thinking about, with his team looking for yet another top-four finish.
'It is what is what it is,' he said.
'I don't know whether having tough games is good or whether a mixture is probably better, but it is just how the draw is, so this is what we got prepared for.
'You're not sitting back saying, 'Oh we like this or like that', it's not the case, it's not reality.
'Reality is that's who the four teams we're playing and we'll worry about this week. We'll worry about today and then as the weeks turn over, we'll worry about our next opposition then.'