No pressure on us: Bellamy

Craig Bellamy is putting no pressure on his Melbourne team that will line-up for Friday’s trial match.

Bellamy has named a squad containing a number of young players and new signings to take on Brisbane Easts and Ipswich Jets in a combined friendly clash.

And despite his considerable achievements with the club in the past, the former NSW Origin coach has no lofty expecations of the Storm this time out.

“Everyone’s looking forward to Friday night who’s playing,” said Bellamy.

“I must say we’re playing most of our young guys and the guys that are new to our club this year.

“As a coaching staff and a club we’re certainly looking forward to it to see where we’re at footy-wise and there’s a few things we’ll see on Friday night that we can improve on.

“But it will give us an idea of how many of these guys can force their way in to our top 17 for that first game.”

The Storm have lost a host number of influential players in Aiden Tolman, Jeff Lima, Ryan Hoffman, Brett Finch, Brett White and Greg Inglis.

The Storm have made a total of 13 signings, many of whom have not experienced the rigours of the NRL, and Bellamy admits the trials will be a good test.

“I’m pretty confident I know what they can do at training, but what they can do in a game I’m not confident of,” said Bellamy.

“There’s guys we’re confident will be able to reproduce out there on the playing field, but until they do that under the systems that we’ve got here and playing the way that we want to play, we’ve got to see if they can handle that.”

Melbourne have additional trials against Canberra Raiders on February 19 and Brisbane on February 26 before their opening round clash with Manly.