Storm keen for Queensland home games at Sunshine Coast

Craig Bellamy is calling on the NRL to consider the Storm playing some of its games at Sunshine Coast Stadium (SCS) since his club is now in camp in Queensland at nearby Maroochydore.

"We'd love that to happen. We're in the throes of trying to play the Titans game here," Bellamy said of the upcoming round 10 match due on July 17 at a venue to be confirmed.

Locations for matches are only confirmed up until round nine. The Storm play the Roosters at Suncorp Stadium on Thursday in round eight and then are due to play the Raiders away in round nine - most likely at GIO Stadium but that has yet to be finalised.

It's understood the NRL is looking into the feasibility of playing the Storm-Titans game at SCS but is in the middle of consultations with the local council.

If the logistics can't be worked out the game – a Storm 'home' match - might be shifted to Cbus Super Stadium because the Super Rugby season would have begun and the Queensland Reds are due to host the Western Force at Suncorp on that date.

The Storm might be spending longer at the Twin Waters resort in Maroochydore than the two weeks originally planned, since the COVID-19 clusters in Melbourne have worsened.

The local Super Intrust Cup side the Falcons is one of Melbourne's feeder clubs and has SCS as its home ground.

Storm have held two field sessions and a weights session there this week.

"I'm not quite sure what has to happen for that (Storm-Titans game) to happen but they've obviously played there before," Bellamy said on Wednesday.

"If we're going to be here for a whole heap of time we'd love to play all our home games here because it will cut down our travel of having to go to Suncorp.

"There are going to be a couple of clashes with the Reds with their season starting up (this weekend)."

The Rabbitohs and Warriors played a sold-out NRL game at the venue in 2019 and were due to play there again in round 10 this year before the coronavirus pandemic hit.

The Sharks were also due to play the Cowboys there this season and the Women's State of Origin game was set for June. Both have obviously been cancelled.

Turning to Thursday night's game against the Roosters at Suncorp Stadium, Bellamy foreshadowed Cameron Smith again spending some time in the halves, allowing Brandon Smith to come into the No.9 role as happened against the Warriors last weekend when Munster left the field.

"There could be a couple of swaps around at some stage," Bellamy said. "With Brandon on the bench he adds a lot to our footy team not only at dummy half but playing in the ruck.

"Sometimes your plans don't go to plan but we can put Cameron into the halves if we need to."

Later Bellamy told NRL.com that while he was pleased for Wests Tigers recruit Paul Momirovski and his two-try haul in his Storm debut last week, he had to keep fighting to stay in the centres.

"There's also Brenko (Lee). He's the one that really gave Paul his start after he damaged his hamstring the previous week," Bellamy said.

It's a far cry from where Bellamy found himself in the pre-season, quite lean on centres after losing Curtis Scott to the Raiders and Will Chambers to rugby union.

"Again Paul Momirovski has made a good impression with his attitude and work ethic and it was great he scored a couple of tries.

"But there's a couple of things we still want him to do defensively that we need him to work on. But it's obviously a very promising sign what he did (against Warriors).

"And you could say the same thing about Justin (Olam) last week. Although he's been playing pretty good he's got things to improve on defensively as well.

"It's healthy competition as we've got Marion Seve there too and Brenko has been solid."