"You could tackle him."
Craig Bellamy delivered a withering assessment of Melbourne's ability to handle Reece Walsh as the Storm were left licking their wounds at a second-successive grand final defeat.
Melbourne couldn't lay a finger on Walsh on Sunday as the maverick fullback claimed the Clive Churchill Medal, sparking a second-half fightback as Brisbane edged a 26-22 grand final win.
Walsh has been electrifying throughout the finals series and had inspired the Broncos to comeback wins over Canberra and Penrith to reach the decider.
But Bellamy was clearly frustrated his side had failed to take notes on the livewire No.1, who finished with three try assists and scored one of his own when he pinballed through some feeble Melbourne defending.
Asked what his side could have done to stop the Brisbane fullback, Bellamy bluntly replied: "I think there's some things you can do, you could tackle him. Obviously we didn't.
"He's a good player. He's quick and he's strong. That's probably the X-factor in him, to be quite honest.
"I know everyone knows he's quick, but he's so strong in contact and we didn't do much of a job."
Bellamy and Storm captain Harry Grant were devastated at Sunday's post-match press conference as they faced up to a premiership that was there for the taking.
The Storm led by 10 points at halftime before the Broncos ran them down.
"There's going to be a lot of games of footy before the grand final next year," Bellamy said.
"We're just worried about what we're doing at the moment.
"I think there were a couple of things we thought we learned from last year but obviously we didn't. They'll be doubled down on in our pre-season."
Grant has now lost two consecutive grand finals as Storm captain and was left frustrated at how his side had thrown away the chance to win Melbourne's first premiership since 2020.
"Everyone can probably understand the pain," Grant said.
"It's hard to get here. There's a lot of work that goes into being here and a lot of people put time and effort throughout the season.
"So it's not easy to get here and you don't need to be in a rush to get back here.
"We can't get back here tomorrow. But what we do tomorrow can certainly help. I think that's painful to listen to, but it's about what's next now."
