Just a few days out from the Anzac Day clash against the Warriors, Storm coach Craig Bellamy may have to turn his attention to off-field matters, as there is speculation surrounding the future of Marika Koroibete in Melbourne.
The Fijian winger has been the subject of a bid to switch codes to rugby union, with fellow AAMI Park tenants the Melbourne Rebels rumoured to be one of the interested parties according to media reports.
While Bellamy believes that teams may be interested in Koroibete's services, he hopes that the Storm can come to an agreement with the winger to keep him at the club in the future.
"He's a class player and I'm sure a lot of clubs would like to have him, so we'd really like to hang onto him," Bellamy said.
"He's been a wonderful contributor to our team since he's been here, and he's probably one of the fan-favourites here with the way he performs flat out each week, so we're certainly very keen to hang onto him."
"[If an offer has been made], Marika will have a decision to make, and at the end of the day it'll be his call, but hopefully he decides to stay with us."
On the field the Storm are preparing for the biggest game of their season to date, as the Warriors come to town on Monday night for the annual ANZAC day clash.
Bellamy knows that it's a privilege to play on this historic day, and said his side understand the importance of the match.
"Every year it’s a great honour for our club and our players to be playing on Anzac Day, to me it's the most famous day in Australia's history," Bellamy said.
"They all really enjoy playing and over the seven years we've played on this day it’s become a real part of the calendar here, it's a big day for us. The Michael Moore trophy is up for grabs as well, and that’s important to us too."
The Storm defeated the Warriors back in Round 3 this season in the two sides' last meeting, but Bellamy is wary that they'll be facing an improved Warriors side this time around.
"Round 3 was another tight contest, but the longer the season goes on I think the better the combination between the centres and the halves will be with [Issac] Luke, so we think with the more games the play the better they'll get. They've got really good experience, speed and they’ve always got good size, so it's always a tough game."
The Storm are still yet to find consistency in the outside backs after Suliasi Vunivalu debuted on the wing in place of Young Tonumaipea against the Tigers last week.
Tonumaipea is touch and go to return this week following the calf injury, as Bellamy said they'll give the youngster up until game day to prove himself.
"We'll see how he goes again this week, sometimes you can get over [a calf injury] pretty quickly, but other times they can take a couple more weeks than what you thought. Hopefully he'll do a bit of running today, and we'll test him out on Sunday."
