Storm left the worst for last: Bellamy
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Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy has praised Manly for its 'tremendous' performance in the NRL grand final as the Storm licks its wounds after a second grand final loss in three years.
The Sea Eagles clinched the premiership in the rugby league's Centenary year with a magnificent 40-0 dismantling of the defending premiers on Sunday evening.
Bellamy says Melbourne, similar to Manly last year, left its "worse for last", but he could not fault the collective effort of his players.
"Certainly didn't see that coming, we ran into a pretty red-hot side tonight and couldn't seem to stem the tide and they were very deserved winners," he said.
"I'm not going to completely let what happened tonight spoil what these guys have done throughout the year.
"As I said we were very disappointed in how we played tonight, especially our second half with our defence but to get to this point, or to get to the grand final was a great effort by these guys and I'm still proud to be their coach."
Defence was a key weakness pin-pointed by Bellamy as Manly ran roughshod in the second 40 minutes with 32 unanswered points.
"We didn't perform that well obviously, I thought our defence was a bit soft in the first half and got soft in the second half," he said.
"We knew we would have to defend good tonight to stay in the game, and we didn't defend as good as we have or would have liked and we paid the price."
The Storm and New South Wales Origin coach denied a finals series packed with on and off-field dramas was a factor in his side's performance.
"It's been a very long season for our guys obviously, I think the Origin period where we had a lot of players playing Origin," he said.
"Perhaps we went out pretty hard after that minor premiership and perhaps we were a little bit leg weary, and perhaps we saw a little bit of that early in the finals series."
Both Bellamy and stand-in skipper Cooper Cronk recognised the absence of Cam Smith to the Storm's structure and general direction.
Melbourne struggled without Smith, with fill-in Russ Aitken notably ineffective from acting half.
But Cronk conceded the Sea Eagles were extremely good value for their victory and the suspension of his skipper was no excuse for Melbourne's dour showing.
"Cam Smith is an integral part of what we do, he is the captain of our footy club," he said.
"You play with the cards you get dealt, you never look around for excuses or 'if onlys', that's not the way we go about it.
"We went out their with 17 players who could win the game of football and we fell short.
"At the end of the day they were deserved winners they played the house down all season.
"They were good on the big stage so hats off to them and in particular Steve Menzies."
Changing of the guard
Bellamy admitted it was a horror end to the 11-year career of club veteran Matt Geyer as well as a host of other players leaving Melbourne.
Israel Folau (Brisbane), Michael Crocker (Hull), Jeremy Smith (St George Illawarra), Antonio Kaufusi (North Queensland) all played their last games for the Storm as the competition heavyweights border on a rebuilding phase.
Bellamy said the club will be working hard for next season despite the loss of the key players and the hurt from the grand final demolition.
"That's the way the system works, it's happened to other clubs before," he said.
"I don't know how we are going to go next year to be quite honest, but I'll tell you we will be working hard in the preseason."
