Craig Bellamy's telling confession about Nelson Asofa-Solomona after grand final heartbreak

Craig Bellamy says his Melbourne side lacked punch through the middle without forward leader Nelson Asofa Solomona in the Storm's heartbreaking NRL grand final defeat to the Panthers. Penrith completed an incredible four-peat of NRL premierships on Sunday night with a 14-6 victory over Melbourne in the decider.

A regular theme of the night was Penrith's dominance through the middle of the park as the Storm pack struggled to make any serious metres. Melbourne's forward stocks as a whole were largely ineffective, with the likes of Harry Grant, Ryan Papenhuyzen, Jahrome Hughes and Cameron Munster consistently having to take hit-ups to make their side metres as the gruelling nature of the contest saw Melbourne's forwards gasping for air.

No Storm forward ran for more than 100 metres, while every single one of Melbourne's backline did and Bellamy believes the match could have gone differently if enforcer Asofa-Solomona had been free to play. "We did miss him (Asofa-Solomon), without a doubt," Bellamy said. "I'd be lying if I said we didn't miss him because we were struggling to make metres early and that's one of his real strengths."

Asofa-Solomona failed to overturn a charge at the NRL judiciary to allow him to feature in the grand final after being slapped with a four-game ban - upgraded to five after a failed appeal - for a high shot on Lindsay Collins in the opening tackle of the Storm's preliminary final win over the Roosters. He could have escaped with a fine if the incident was deemed grade-one by the match review committee but they came down hard on the Storm forward, slapping him with a grade-three charge. After failing to get the charge downgraded at the NRL judiciary, Asofa-Solomona was rubbed out of the grand final and will also miss the opening few weeks of the 2025 NRL season through suspension.

Craig Bellamy wants grand final defeat to fuel Storm in 2025

Speaking after the crushing grand final defeat, a disappointed Bellamy said he hopes the loss can give his side an extra bit of motivation for 2025. Penrith's march to four-straight premierships was fuelled by the 2020 grand final defeat to the Storm and Bellamy hopes in a similar way the loss can springboard his troops into lifting the premiership next season.

"Hopefully we'll be wiser for tonight," Bellamy said. "We can learn a few things and I don't think we're going to lose too many of our squad.

"There's a theory you have to lose one to win one because at the end of the day, we were outplayed. They stuck to what they know they're good at and they were just that little bit better than us."

While Storm captain Grant said there were plenty of lessons to take out of the defeat, namely how to handle the big moments. "We've had an incredible season and I think we learned how hard it is to get here over the last few years," Grant said.

"We thoroughly enjoyed this week, but we probably learned what this week's all about and what it takes to take your game to the next level. Once you do get here, it's even harder to win and it just goes to show Penrith for the 'been here, done it'.

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"You've got to give them a lot of credit and a lot of respect for what they've done over the past four or five years. For our guys, this was the biggest game of our careers, so that's a real lesson. We're keeping our squad together. We're adding to our squad and we'll be more experienced and better for the run next season."