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Legendary Storm fullback Billy Slater has lifted the lid on Craig Bellamy's master plan, which put the breaks on Manly superstar Tom Trbojevic during Melbourne's win over the Sea Eagles tonight.
Melbourne's 40-12 thrashing of the Sea Eagles has the Storm one game away from a second consecutive grand final appearance.
While much was made about Melbourne's dominant all-round performance, just as impressive was the Storm's ability to shut down Trbojevic, the superstar fullback who is considered a strong chance to take out Dally M Player of the year honours.
Trbojevic had notched back-to-back hat-tricks heading into week one of the finals but was severely limited tonight as Melbourne stood tall in defence.
The Manly No.1 was unable to score and didn't register a single try assist or line-break, instead producing two errors.
Slater credited his former side for their preparation leading into the game.
"No one does their homework better than the Melbourne Storm," Slater told Nine.
"When Tom [Trbojevic] gets the ball and gets the ball in the situations you want to give him the ball, and that's in the corners... when he got the ball, you see the attention around him.
"You see the urgency [from Melbourne] to get him and make the tackle. There are players coming three, four, five and six metres away just to get into the tackle.
"There's no doubt there would've been extra attention around Tom Trbojevic in their preparation."
Slater, who played in seven grand finals during his career with the Storm, said his former side's shutdown of Trbojevic reminded him of when Melbourne took a similar approach against exiled former NRL players, Jarryd Hayne and Ben Barba.
"Craig Bellamy has a saying, 'You can't flick a switch and play well in the finals'," Slater added.
"You've got to practice and build your muscle memory through the whole season. That's ingrained in the Melbourne Storm.
"I remember when we played in 2009 in the grand final against Jarryd Hayne and he was in this incredible form, and we shut him down. It wasn't any individual, it was collectively as a team.
"Then in 2012 - the Bulldogs in the grand final and Ben Barba was in this purple patch of form. Craig Bellamy came up with a system to shut it down.
"This is not the first time Craig has done this and it certainly won't be the last. It's a collective team effort, it's not an individual thing."
