Sidelined Melbourne prop Christian Welch has hit back at fresh criticism of the club’s tackling technique.
The Storm have been bashed from pillar to post for the past decade over their implementation of mixed martial arts in defensive training.
The Victorian club is almost solely blamed for “the wrestle” infiltrating the NRL, as well as now-illegal tackles such as the “chicken wing” and “cannonball”.
Now the coaching techniques of Craig Bellamy are again under the microscope, following comments made in News Corp reports about two separate tackles made by Brandon Smith last week.
The nuggety hooker-forward dived at the legs of two different North Queensland players, before Storm teammates took the ball-carrier higher up the body and brought him to ground.
The tackles resulted in knee injuries to Kyle Feldt and Jason Taumalolo. But the tackling technique is not illegal, and Smith was not charged.
“Sadly, it’s the Sydney media bias and they love-hate the Storm because we’ve had a little bit of success,” a livid Welch told SEN radio of the criticism.
“The first thing I’d say to these journos is come down to Melbourne — they reckon we’re down here scheming and practising the dark arts — we literally train on a public oval.
“It’s Gosch’s Paddock, you’re welcome to come and watch. They might be a bit disappointed.
“It’s a contact sport, it’s a tough physical game, no one is going out there to hurt each other, but you’ve got to go out there and stop these guys. Some of these guys like Jason Taumalolo are bloody 115-120 kilo, fantastic athletes.
“If you don’t go hard at these guys, you’re going to get smoked and you’re going to potentially injure yourself. I just find it a bit of a non-story.”
