Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy has predicted that Saturday night's season-opening clash against Cronulla at Toyota Stadium will be 'a real physical game'.
By the time the game gets underway the majority of the Storm squad will have had just 10 days back in Australia following the club's World Club Challenge success last week against Leeds Rhinos at Elland Road.
And while Bellamy expects the Sharks to provide a bigger test than their 15th-placed finish from 2009 would suggest they are capable of, he's confident that it won't be any tougher than facing the reigning English Super League champions.
"It is a tough start, without a doubt but we were aware of this in November or October or whenever it was (that the fixture was released), so we've planned for that," Bellamy said.
"The toughest thing is when every team has their first home game that seems to be a really big game for everybody, so we run into Cronulla this week and I think Newcastle have their first home game against us as well (in Round 2)."
"We know in the first couple of rounds we're going to play against fired-up teams who are ready to go out there and make a statement so we need to prepare for that."
"I think it's pretty similar to what we faced against Leeds to be quite honest, we expected a real physical game against Leeds and we got it and we expect a really physical game against the Sharks and I'm sure we'll get it."
Having watched tapes of Cronulla's pre-season trials, Bellamy also expects Ricky Stuart's men to adopt a slightly different game plan in 2010 as they look to keep the play going.
"They've changed their style a little bit it looks like they've got a lot of offloaders in their team, and that's the one area they're probably looking to sharpen up their attack a little bit by offloading the footy," he added.
"They've had guys that can certainly offload in the club before ... but adding Adam Cuthbertson there, and I've noticed (Kade) Snowden and young Luke Douglas they've been offloading a lot in the trials as well."
"That seems to be a bit of an emphasis for the Sharks in their pre-season so it's something we'll have to be aware of on Saturday night."
Turning his attention to the make-up of his squad for the game, Bellamy gave little away other than to confirm that skipper Cam Smith is likely to start at halfback in the absence of regular playmaker Cooper Cronk, with Ryan Hinchcliffe to start at hooker after being used off the bench in 2009.
"It worked reasonably well for us (Cam playing in the No.7), so we're looking at that for this week," Bellamy said.
"(But) we've got a couple of options there, young Luke Kelly, who was the captain of the 20s, he's an option."
"(And) Gareth Widdop, he's an option if we put Brett (Finch) in at halfback."