THEIR inability to settle on a halfback is seen by most as the one glaring weakness of the 2018 edition of the Melbourne Storm.

And yet they won the minor premiership and skipped ahead to the preliminary final with an inspired victory over Souths last weekend.

So, maybe we shouldn’t laugh when Craig Bellamy says the No.7 rotation has worked out well for them.

“Our strategy has probably been week in, week out to be quite honest Ben (Ikin),” Bellamy said on NRL 360.

“There was no sort of plan at the start to give Brodie five weeks, and then play (Ryley) Jacksy for seven and then play (Jahrome) Hughesy for another seven or eight as well.

“Basically we’ve taken it week by week... we would’ve preferred to have nailed one down a little bit earlier but I think it probably has worked in our favour a little bit to be quite honest.”

Bellamy says it has allowed them to easily cover for injuries, particularly at the back-end of the competition.

“Towards the end of the season, you know Crofty got hurt for that last game, Jahrome was out two games before injured, so it probably has worked out reasonably well for us,” he continued.

Obviously we’d love to have a halfback that we’ve had there all year but it was always going to be hard to replace Cooper Cronk, and we knew we weren’t going to replace him with a Cooper Cronk that’s just impossible.”

Despite Croft starring against the Rabbitohs, Bellamy wouldn’t guarantee the 21-year-old will get the nod for the preliminary final.

“If we think one option is a good fit or the best option for this week we’ll do that, we’ve been doing that all year. So we’re not going to change that if we think it’s the best thing for the team,” he said.

That surprised Mark Gasnier, who said Croft had done enough to secure the No.7 jersey for the rest of the finals series.

“Jahrome Hughes is a lot better one-on-one tackler but Brodie Croft brings a little more with the ball,” the Fox League expert said later on the program.

“I like what (Croft) does, he’s more of a natural halfback.

“With Jahrome Hughes there’s a lot of pressure... put it this way if I’m coming up against the Storm and Jahrome Hughes is halfback I’m going to put a hell of a lot more attention on Cameron Smith and Billy Slater, wherever they are I’m putting an extra defender on them plain and simple.”