Bennett quietly confident about Storm

Melbourne's air of invincibility has been eroded to the point where Brisbane coach
Wayne Bennett says his players have nothing to fear in Saturday night's blockbuster
NRL semi-final.
Melbourne have not been at their intimidating best recently with last week's shock
18-15 loss at home to the Warriors putting their quest for back-to-back premierships
in jeopardy.
The triple minor premiers head into Saturday night's grudge match with Brisbane
having lost two of their last three games and are just 80 minutes away from being
knocked out of the finals.
Brisbane meanwhile have won their last four games and Bennett was quietly confident
his players could "get the job done" despite the drama of having sexual assault
allegations still hanging over the heads of three star players.
The allegations have rocked the club along with unsubstantiated claims of poor
behaviour by skipper Darren Lockyer at a Brisbane hotel earlier this month.
"We've got nothing to fear from them because we're in such great form ourselves,"
said an upbeat Bennett, showing no signs of strain from the club's horror week of
off-field dramas.
"I think we've all learned a little bit in the last couple of months by the way
teams have changed the way they play against them.
"We've all picked up little pieces along the way about different ways to play them.
"There's a number of little characteristics there, but I don't want to give those
away today."
Storm strike forward Ryan Hoffman (ankle) had a private fitness test in Brisbane and
from all reports is a good chance of playing.
Melbourne meanwhile booked a late afternoon training session but would not reveal
the venue and said it was "closed" to the media.
While Bennett acknowledged Melbourne had been the best team in the competition in
recent years, he was more than happy to put his premiership hopes on the line
against them on Saturday night.
"There couldn't be a more opportune time for us to play them actually," he said.
"We're in great form, everybody is fit. In another week you don't know what players
you could have missing.
"And we've got them at home which is much better than going to Melbourne."
Melbourne won't be banking on Brisbane's horror week or Brisbane's 0-5 finals record
at Suncorp Stadium since 1995, to help them survive the sudden death path to the
grand final.
The pain and heartbreak of losing the 2006 grand final to Brisbane is a constant
reminder to Melbourne of exactly what a full strength Broncos side backed by a
52,000 sellout crowd is capable of.
They've beaten Brisbane six of their last seven meetings, but the one they
desperately wanted in 2006 slipped through their fingers.
Bennett labelled the blockbuster as close to a grand final as you could get without
it being a decider.
"It's pretty special actually," said Bennett.
"I think the players are all excited by it.
"It's not a grand final but it's as close as you'll get to one without being in one."
With Saturday guaranteed to be Bennett's final game at Suncorp Stadium before
joining St George Illawarra in 2009, the Broncos coach of 21 years denied he would
pull out the "emotion card" again after his official farewell two weeks ago against
Newcastle.
"You can't keep putting us on emotion," he fired.
"We've got a game of footy tomorrow night. If the game of footy can't get us up,
nothing is going to get us up.
"It's a great occasion so keep the rest of the rubbish out, it's totally irrelevant
from where I come from and from where the players come from.
"It's what you dream about but it doesn't happen in real life.