The Bulldogs will kick off their 2017 season on Friday night at Belmore Sports Ground at 6pm AEST.
With an unfortunate track record at Belmore in recent times, the Bulldogs will be hopeful in turning it around against the Storm on Friday night. The Bulldogs successfully defeated the Melbourne Storm, 20-4 in the return to Belmore game in 2015.
The Bulldogs will be optimistic facing the Storm at home as the last confrontation between these two sides occurred back in Round Six during the 2016 season at AAMI Park. The Bulldogs went on to successfully defeat the Storm, 18-12.
During the week, Melbourne Storm players Cooper Cronk and Will Chambers, along with Coach Craig Bellamy expressed their views on their first game of the season against the Bulldogs at Belmore.
“It’s exciting first 6pm game, lots to look forward to. No matter how old you are or how many games you’ve played you still get that sense of nervousness and excitement. The dogs have been under a little bit of pressure after last year’s results and we have got a point to prove and hopefully we can play well in an intimidating situation.” –Storm halfback Cooper Cronk
“We’ve put in the hard work and we have to start well and it is important we start well on Friday night” – Storm centre Will Chambers
“It’s a smaller stadium (Belmore), the crowd is closer to the ground, whether that affects the atmosphere or not, I’m not quite sure. Obviously it has been the Bulldogs home ground for a long time, there is a lot of history there for the club and a lot of people in rugby league. Teams have played a lot of footy there over a long period of time. I don’t see playing at Belmore as a real big issue, at the end of the day it is a suburban ground in Sydney and you’ve got to turn up to play.” – Storm Coach Craig Bellamy
