**Storm in nervous wait for Blair decision**
Stathi Paxinos
April 8, 2011
MELBOURNE Storm coach Craig Bellamy yesterday said his door was always open for forward Adam Blair to give him a decision about whether he will be staying with the club next year.
**However, it is believed that Storm officials have privately resigned themselves to losing Blair, who is off-contract this year, as the club cannot match the big-money deals that the New Zealand Test vice-captain has been offered, with the Wests Tigers now in prime position to snare him.**
Blair re-signed with the Storm three years ago on a comparatively modest contract and with the 25-year-old, who can play in the front and back-rows, in the prime of his career and regarded among the best forwards in the NRL, he would now command a much greater wage.
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The Storm is expecting Blair to inform them of his decision within the next couple of weeks.
They are more confident about keeping emerging talent Matt Duffie however, believing that he will turn down the overtures of Sunday's opponent Parramatta, now coached by former Storm assistant Stephen Kearney and his assistant coach Brad Arthur, who guided the Storm under-20s team, of which Duffie was a member, to the 2009 premiership.
Bellamy yesterday said he could only wait for the classy forward's decision.
''I've heard the rumours like everybody else but it hasn't been confirmed so I can't shed any light on that,'' Bellamy said. ''Adam knows he can come and talk to me at any time so if that [decision] is the truth I imagine I'd hear from him soon. At the end of the day it's his decision and he'll let me know when it's the right time.
''We've gone pretty hard to try and keep him but if the rumours are true we obviously haven't gone hard enough. He's a wonderful player and we'd love to keep him but at the end of the day it's his decision and we know it's a big decision.''
Bellamy yesterday admitted losing a player the club has nurtured from his teens was disappointing.
''I think we got him when he was about 16\. We brought him over from New Zealand so it's really disappointing if that's true but we'll just wait and see and see what happens,'' Bellamy said.
Meanwhile, Bellamy said he had not given too much thought to matching wits with his former assistant Kearney on Sunday.
But he admitted that Kearney and Arthur would have more insight into the Storm systems than other opponents.
''I imagine he'd be a bit wiser about what we're going to do this week [compared] to people who haven't been at this club but at the end of the day if you start worrying about that and you start doing things that are not going to suit the team then that's not going to help anyone,'' Bellamy said.
''We'll just stick to what we think will work this week and go from there. I've always been proud of Steve for what he's done. He was a wonderful player at this club and a wonderful coach while he was here as well and he's done a great job with New Zealand.''
