Melbourne will assess the fitness of Cooper Cronk and Will Chambers before throwing the weary State of Origin players into a bruising top-of-the-table NRL clash with Cronulla.
The grand final rematch with the second-placed Sharks at Southern Cross Group Stadium on Thursday night will be Cronk and Chambers’ third game in eight days.
The Queensland pair were given four days off after playing against NSW and Newcastle, within 48 hours, last week.
“We’ll see how they pull up and make a decision from there,” Storm coach Craig Bellamy said.
“Three games in eights days… is a hectic schedule, especially with a real quick Origin game, so we’ll just check on them and see how they’re going.”
Captain Cameron Smith is set to return after skipping last Friday’s game against the Knights.
“He was drained basically, you could see it in his face,” Bellamy said.
“I knew it was time to give him a rest.”
The Storm have struggled of late against last year’s premiers, with Melbourne winning one of their past four encounters against the Sharks since the start of last year.
Melbourne were kept tryless last time they hosted Cronulla this season and were pipped in the 2016 grand final.
But Bellamy isn’t out for revenge this week.
“At the end of the day, that game was round six… at lot of water has flowed under the bridge since then,” Bellamy said of the 11-2 loss that ended the Storm’s unbeaten start to the season.
“You can take a bit out of that game but no two games are ever the same.”
Conan of Cooma
Roar Rookie
A pity, I wanted to see that for a third time in a row.
Squidward
Roar Rookie
Just scared of Wade Graham giving him the once over for a third time in a row
BigJ
Roar Guru
Third game in eight days, hah i used to play 4 games in 2. Harden up boys.!!!!
Joe
Roar Rookie
If the weather is rain might as well rest the both of them. No use risking it and seriously 3 games in 8 days is just ridiculous especially when one of them was a belter of an Origin game which had probably one of the fastest 1st halves I've seen. Still a long way to go in the season, might as well throw Riley Jacks in there for Cronk and there's a lot of options for Chambers in Curtis Scott, Jeremy Hawkins or Justin Olam...or play Tohu Harris at centre and K. Bromich can start. Playing against a well rested Sharks will be just asking for a long term injury. I wouldn't mind if Cam Smith took a break as well...they really need to look at the long game here. End of the week they'll still be either 1 or 2 on the ladder.