The mind games kicked off early leading into Friday's grand final rematch and Storm coach Craig Bellamy has poured further fuel on the fire by describing recent Roosters' comments as condescending.
On Monday, Roosters captain Boyd Cordner shoved the favourites tag for the Good Friday clash on to the first-placed Storm and in-form five-eighth Luke Keary went even further two days later when he compared Melbourne to Spanish football giants Barcelona.
Neither of those comments sat entirely well with Bellamy, with the veteran coach coming out swinging at the Roosters at his weekly press conference in Melbourne on Thursday.
"This week a few of their players have come out pumping our tyres up," Bellamy said.
"Obviously they have sat down earlier in the week and worked out between themselves 'we will pump up their tyres and will come down and blow them away with shotguns on Friday night'.
"We found it a little condescending to be honest, but that's what they want to do."
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Roosters coach Trent Robinson wouldn't add further spice to the debate as he remained focused on helping his side to a fifth consecutive victory in 2019.
"I don’t think you will ever hear me talk about that kind of stuff," Robinson said in Melbourne on Thursday.
"I don’t buy into who is favourite ... that’s never been my boat.
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"It is about playing our style of football. The odds are for the spectators and it’s not for coaches."
The Storm have won five of their last seven matches against the Roosters, but lost the important one when they were beaten 21-6 in last year's grand final at ANZ Stadium.
Despite the fact both teams have a different look to their squads in 2019, they appear well ahead of the rest of the Telstra Premiership and on track to potentially meet in a second consecutive grand final.
Bellamy said last year's result in the premiership decider counted for nothing on Friday and believes a new year has brought fresh opportunities for his side.
"What happened last October we can’t change," he said.
"We would like to, but we can’t. This is a new year and a new team.
"We haven’t got the same team as last year and we don’t want to be going on about 2018 as this is about our team tomorrow night."
While Robinson is hopeful the Storm still have some mental scars from last year's premiership decider, he remains focused on having his side well prepared for the big contest.
We found it a little condescending to be honest, but that's what they want to do.
Craig Bellamy
"You can’t cross your fingers about last game and what's going to happen for the next game," he said.
"We are very focused on us as a group, but we have evolved as a group and we are trying to get better than what we were last year.
"It is up to Melbourne how they think about that game ... we are focused on producing our best performance of 2019."
