Storm vow not to throw in the towel

Craig Bellamy knew the letdown was coming but the Storm coach and his players have
vowed Sunday's loss to Brisbane will not be the beginning of the end in terms of the
NRL club's competitiveness this season.
On a day that was supposed to be a celebration of their new home ground, the Storm
were instead embarrassed at AAMI Park as an out of form and injury-ravaged Brisbane
side ran out easy winners 36-14.
"There was always going to be a letdown at some stage ... today wasn't the day we
wanted to have a letdown," Bellamy said of the turmoil following their salary cap
punishments.
"New stadium, all our fans turning up, we didn't need it today.
"I didn't see it coming.
"I've always said I know it's not going to be easy but at the end of the day we've
got certain standards in our club footy-wise and we didn't go near them today."
While the absence of injured skipper Cameron Smith and the fact they had several
players backing up from Tests and City-Country duties on Friday can go some way to
explaining the defeat, the magnitude raised serious questions about the commitment
of the Storm players.
With nothing to play for but pride in 2010, it was always going to be tough to keep
backing up week after week once the initial emotion of the over-payments scandal had
died down.
"I honestly don't know how to answer that question - how do we uphold our standard
when we've got nothing on the line?" said fullback Billy Slater.
"You find little things that will get you up and obviously some weeks you will get
up more than others and this week was one of those weeks that we didn't get up."
Asked if this was the beginning of the end, stand-in captain Cooper Cronk said: "We
can't guarantee how we're feeling in ten weeks time or four weeks time, but one
thing we can guarantee, and Craig can guarantee and I can guarantee, is this purple
jersey means a hell of a lot to me and my teammates, and that's going to be the
driving force.
"We obviously didn't hold it in that regard today.
"I can handle losing a game of football, but to not give our fans what they
thoroughly deserve for what they've given us the last few weeks ... today was meant
to be a payback to them and that's where I'm not too happy with it at the moment."
Veteran five-eighth Brett Finch did his best to play down the significance of the
loss but admitted there were tough times ahead for the club as they eye a trip to
Canberra on Saturday night.
"Even last year when we were playing for points, you still have letdowns," Finch said.
"Because of what's gone on people can easily attribute it to a letdown ... I'm not
too sure the reason behind it.
"It's going to be pretty tough, if there's been any ray of sunshine in our weeks
it's been that we knew that we were still playing good, we had a couple of good
wins.
"I'm sure it will be a tough week now, everybody's pretty disappointed. I guess it's
just like any week, we've got to bounce back into training and look forward."