Bellamy not certain of big-three return

Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy is hopeful Billy Slater, Cooper Cronk, Cameron Smith and Will Chambers each return in the NRL next week but he is not certain.

(L to R:) Cooper Cronk, Cameron Smith, Billy Slater

Craig Bellamy is not certain his rested State of Origin stars will be ready to return to the NRL. (AAP)

Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy is not certain his rested State of Origin stars will be ready to return to the NRL against Brisbane on Friday night.

Billy Slater, Cooper Cronk, Cameron Smith and Will Chambers all missed Melbourne's 25-24 golden-point loss to the Sydney Roosters on Saturday.

They will each be monitored before a call on whether they face the Broncos at Suncorp Stadium.

While Chambers was ruled out due to concussion, a coy Bellamy refused to detail which of his big three could be under an injury cloud headed into the match.

"We'll have to check on a couple of them during the week," Bellamy said.

'"We've got a six-day turnaround. A couple of them could be touch and go but we'd like to think they will line up there."

When pressed on which of the players could be in doubt, Bellamy didn't elaborate beyond Chambers.

"Will Chambers with his head knock will be one," he said.

"A couple of the other guys have got a couple of knocks so we'll just check them."

Bellamy said he made the decision to rest his big three based largely on their age and the Storm's hectic Origin schedule.

Just as Cronk and Smith would have been forced to play three games in eight days had they not been rested after Origin I, that workload would have shifted to three in nine days if they played both the Roosters and Broncos.

"I'm not sure that's great for them at this stage of their careers and this stage of the season," Bellamy said.

"Obviously with their age I wanted to try and look after them a little better."

The main trio were desperately missed on Saturday night.

The Storm surrendered a 20-6 second-half lead to lose to the Roosters, while they lacked their regular control in the back-end of the match.

It marked the second week in a row they had given away such a lead - although they escaped with a golden-point win over North Queensland last week.

Fullback Jahrome Hughes impressed in his third NRL game against the Roosters - and first for the Storm - with a try, three linebreaks, eight tackle busts and 163 running metres.

The heir to the Cronk throne, Brodie Croft, also scored while fellow 19-year-old Curtis Scott busted through five tackles at centre.

"We had a lot of inexperience out there who hadn't played in a lot of games," Bellamy said.

"Jahrome Hughes was outstanding.

"I just thought that with that last 10 minutes last week we could've done that a whole heap better."


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Source: AAP



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