No change needed for Sika despite injury - Sports News - Fanatics - the world's biggest events

No change needed for Sika despite injury

Melissa Woods 30/03/2011 05:54:47 PM Comments (0)

Storm coach Craig Bellamy will resist changing the playing style of bullocking second rower Sika Manu despite another serious leg injury.

The New Zealand international will miss their next NRL clash with the high-flying Bulldogs - he's out for up to six weeks with torn ankle ligaments, following a badly broken leg in 2009 and hamstring problems.

Bellamy said the amount of defenders needed to bring down Manu contributed to his injuries, but that wasn't something he wanted to change.

"There's not much point in him just going to ground as soon as he gets in the contact, I could go out and do that," Bellamy said.

"He's still making metres and going forward, that's the competitive nature of Sika, he just wants to go as far as he can.

"He's had a wonderful start to the season for us and he's hard to handle and I'm sure the opposition coaches tell their players, 'When he runs, get some numbers in the tackles there'."

"It's a body-contact sport and that's what Sika does well so we're not going to stop him from doing that."

Melbourne's other injury concerns, second rower Kevin Proctor (face) and winger Matt Duffie (shoulder), and Dane Nielsen (concussion) are available for selection for their second successive Monday night game, this time against the Bulldogs.

Their heavy loss to the Cowboys was their fifth Monday night defeat in succession, a statistic Bellamy was neither aware of nor concerned with.

"I didn't realise that, it's not such a great record," he said.

"But I don't think records really mean too much, we'd beaten the Cowboys the last seven or eight times we'd played them and that didn't mean anything on Monday night."

Bellamy said he didn't have time to list all the things that disappointed him in their performance, but defence was top, which he described in part as "embarrassing".

He forecast some personnel changes, but wouldn't give away whose head was on the block.

While the Storm excelled in their opening two rounds, the North Queensland loss was a confidence blow, particularly when the unbeaten Bulldogs were their next challenge.

"They're on top of the competition and playing really well," Bellamy said.

"They've got a lot of good players there, a couple of ours in Steven Turner and Aiden Tolman, and I know what they give the team.

"I imagine they're really enjoying their footy at the moment and will come down here full of confidence."

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