But Bellamy has equal admiration for players in his own Storm side, namely Cameron Smith and Cooper Cronk.
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The Cowboys were determined to stay right in the contest and replied just minutes later when Justin O’neill crossed over.
The Storm battled hard after the restart and put some pressure on the visitors, but they were rocked 15 minutes into the half by two tries in four minutes to Cowboys five-eighth Michael Morgan.
ST HELENS, England – Reigning champions St Helens ended the regular Super League season on a low with a 32-16 home defeat to Warrington that means they finish fourth and face an away tie in next week’s semi-finals.
Whether it’s Wayne Bennett’s men or Paul Green’s, there will few TVs tuned to anything but the NRL grand final on Sunday, and we can’t wait for the game.
Thurston is set to miss Monday’s Dally M function in Sydney as he turns all of his focus towards securing a maiden NRL title.
An NRL spokesman said alternative arrangements were now being made to ensure the Cowboys players took part in the awards ceremony from Townsville.
“When people start knocking your team or your team’s ability, I think you take a bit of offence to that”.
Thurston finished Saturday’s match on the sidelines with a leg injury but declared himself a certain starter in the October 4 grand final against Brisbane, in what will be the first all-Queensland decider.
“This has probably been the lightest workload when we have won the first week and gone straight through to the prelim”, Bellamy said.
“It’s great the city has embraced the opportunity that we’ve got with no AFL in town”, he said.
The only time he was a spectator was in 2010 after the NRL forced Melbourne to play the season without being able to earn premiership points as part of a penalty for serious salary cap breaches in previous years.
Bellamy will only make a decision on replacing Koroibete if he is ruled out, but the coach did try several different combinations at the team’s Sunday training session.
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Thurston’s absence at The Star will also cast doubt on the attendance of new Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who was expected to crown the victor.
