Bellamy satisfied with minor premiership

Melbourne Storm coach Craig Bellamy says the club's third successive minor premiership is the most satisfying.

Speaking after the reigning premiers had thrashed South Sydney 42-4 on Sunday night at Olympic Park, allowing them to leapfrog Manly into top spot, Bellamy was quick to point to the representative drain the club has endured in 2008.

As well as being without its coach in the 10 days leading up to each of the Origin games after Bellamy was late last year appointed New South Wales coach, Melbourne also played without nine, 10 and nine of its players in the games preceding each of the Origins.

And while clubs like the Brisbane Broncos have had to battle similar problems in matches ahead of Origin encounters, Bellamy believes the Storm's achievement in overcoming that adversity makes this JJ Giltinan Shield all the more special.

"I think it's probably our best," Bellamy said before reflecting on the three losses to St George Illawarra, Gold Coast and Parramatta in the games Melbourne played without its Origin stars.

"The one in 2006 no one really expected too much of the team that year, I remember early in the year we were about 33-1 to win the premiership and it was when we lost a couple of players, Matt Orford left and Steve Bell and Kearnsy (Robbie Kearns) retired."

"I think this year the guys have earned it … more than any other year in that we've played … before three Origin games without nine and 10 players. I don't think any team's ever done that, to actually play three games during Origin without that many players."

"I know some teams have done it for one or two, perhaps, but certainly not three. And as I said these guys have been ultra consistent and they really deserve this minor premiership this year I believe and I think it's probably our hardest-fought one."

But while the achievement 'means a fair bit' to the coach and his players, with the club becoming the first since the NRL was formed just over a decade ago to do so, Bellamy will quickly switch his focus to the upcoming finals.

The Storm open their campaign for back-to-back titles against the Warriors at Olympic Park on Sunday boasting 41 wins from their past 43 games at The Graveyard, but one of those two defeats was to the Auckland-based side.

And Melbourne's overall record against the Warriors isn't as strong as it is against other opponents, with 11 wins and a draw from 21 games, the most recent battle of which resulted in an 8-6 win to Ivan Cleary's men at Mt Smart Stadium six weeks ago.

Just as pleasing to Bellamy was the fact that the team responded from its shock 17-16 loss a week earlier to a more desperate Newcastle with a far more complete performance to go into the finals in hot form.

"I thought it was good, I'm just happy with any win to be quite honest but to finish in the top two I think's a real advantage in this competition so to do that was great but to win the minor premiership was obviously some icing on the cake," he said.

"We had to prepare pretty hard this week because we were pretty disappointed in our performance last week … there were some things we didn't do so well and we worked really hard on those this week, that was what our focus was."