'MASH Unit': Bellamy says new rules need to be looked at

Storm coach Craig Bellamy compared his side's round 14 win over the Roosters to a mobile army hospital and said the fast-paced rules in a season with no weeks off was responsible for a mounting injury toll.

While the Storm's injury woes pale in comparison to the carnage for the Roosters, a team minus stars Cameron Smith and Cameron Munster lost winger Suliasi Vunivalu to a likely broken jaw, will likely be without halfback Jahrome Hughes (groin) next week and also had back-up hooker Brandon Smith in discomfort, though he is not expected to miss any games.

"It might be the fatigue in the game. I'm not sure if there's too much fatigue at the moment with the amount of teams that have got a lot of injuries," he said.

"We had two of our most influential players out and it's not just about fatigue and soft tissue injuries, it's about when people get fatigued they start putting their body in the wrong places, making contact or absorbing the contact, you get injured from there.

"I think it's something we need to look at. It was like a MASH unit out there tonight, blokes were getting hurt left, right and centre. I'm really proud of the way our blokes stuck in there without the two Camerons.

"I thought Jahrome Hughes really stood out, Ryley Jacks was good, Paps was outstanding, Brandon did a really good job. Our playmakers really stood up tonight."

The rules are unlikely to be looked at this season with just six rounds until finals but may need to be tweaked over the off-season, Bellamy said.

"It's probably at the end of the year, we might have had something to do with the pre-season, we had two games then a longer break, that might be part of it. It just seems there's a lot of injuries at the moment to a lot of teams."

Pressed on his own squad for round 15, he hinted a debutant may be called up in the halves.

"Brandon should be OK [for next week] but the way Hughesy came in I think he's going to be missing some time which is a shame because he's really starting to find some rhythm.

"I think Cameron [Smith] will probably miss another week. I'm not 100% on that but I think he probably will.

"Munster's probably got another two or three weeks so we're going to be scratching there. Cooper Johns, he hasn't played a first grade game yet but perhaps if Hughesy doesn't play he might get an opportunity next week.

"We're trying to take the mentality that if someone misses out somebody else gets a chance and that might be the case next week."

The injury to Hughes is particularly poor timing given how he has lifted in the absence of other senior players. He produced a try, try assist, try save, seven busts and almost 500 kick metres in a game Bellamy said may just be the best of the halfback's career.

"Having those other two out he really went to another level. I thought he and Papenhuyzen were our best players tonight," Bellamy added.

"It was certainly his best game as a halfback for us. He's played fullback before but if I sat down and thought about it I'd imagine that is his best game for the club when you consider the circumstances and the strength and the class of the opposition, I thought he was tremendous."