Storm players will go after Jarome Luai to make some tackles in prelim final

Melbourne Storm coach Craig Bellamy laid down the challenge for his players to get returning Panthers star Jarome Luai to “make a few tackles” as he declared his own halfback Jahrome Hughes would deliver in the NRL preliminary final showdown.

Hughes hit the track at AAMI Park on Thursday morning with his teammates but did not participate in the full session as he trained lightly with his calf strapped.

His return from the calf strain that kept him out of the Storm’s semi-final triumph over the Roosters comes as Penrith coach Ivan Cleary confirmed Luai would return on Friday night four weeks after dislocating his shoulder.

Cleary said on Thursday he expected the Storm to target Luai’s left shoulder “a fair bit” during the clash, and just two hours later Bellamy said his players would certainly put pressure on the five-eighth.

“We’d like to see him make a few tackles, so we’ll see how that goes,” Bellamy said.

Bellamy said neither of the teams would be bringing back their stars if they weren’t confident they could last the game.

“We’re not going to take a big risk, and I imagine Penrith wouldn’t take a big risk either,” he said.

“You don’t want those guys starting the game and getting hurt in the first five or 10 minutes, that puts a lot of pressure on the rest of the team, especially in the positions that they play.

“We’re not going to play Jahrome if we don’t think he’s very, very close to top fitness, and I imagine Penrith will do the same (with Luai).”

Bellamy said while Hughes did not participate in the final training session before the Storm fly to Sydney, he ticked every box required to play.

“We’ll just have to see how he pulls up, but he got through most of it (on Thursday), so we’re really confident he’ll be OK,” Bellamy said.

“He didn’t do all of it … but we didn’t plan for him to do all of it either. Whatever we planned for him to do, he’s done.”

The coach would not provide an update on winger Xavier Coates’ fitness as he again missed selection with an ankle injury.

“We’ll just worry about this week first, we’ll worry about next week, next week,” he said when asked if Coates would be fit to play if the Storm advanced to the decider.

Bellamy said the sight of reserves players wearing opposition kit at training was not unfamiliar at AAMI Park after cameras caught players wearing Panthers tops at sessions this week.

“We do that four or five times during the year,” he said.

“It’s nothing new. When we face good opposition we just remind the players who we’re playing … what their strengths are and who their players are.

“Having our reserve grade guys just wear the T-shirts of the opposition … we’ve been doing that for 10 years and it’s probably the fourth or fifth time we’ve done it this year.”

Bellamy said the resilient semi-final win had given the players an “uplift” as they try to take down the minor premiers at Accor Stadium.

“Everyone was excited after the game, winning a game like that is obviously special, but having said that we were probably fortunate,” he said.

“Either team could’ve won it, but we did and it took a great play from Munster and Warbrick to score that try.

“I think it’s given everyone a bit of an uplift, knowing that we can hang in and still come home at the end.”