Craig Bellamy back in Wagga chasing success with Melbourne Storm

In the third installment of the NRL in the city, the Storm are the only visiting side to train in the city before the game.

Coach Craig Bellamy believes it's an important part of their preparation.

"Most times you train at home and then come but we came early (Friday) morning as we wanted to have a look at the ground as none of our players have played here," Bellamy said.

"It's not going to help a great deal but especially our back three can have a look at where the sidelines are.

"I think it's pretty important to get a feel and a view for it."

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Bellamy is no stranger to the city himself, having captain-coached Turvey Park to a Group Nine premiership in 1991, but plenty has changed since then.

Not only has Turvey Park merged with their then bitter rivals Wagga Mapgies to form Southcity, but Equex Centre was only a cow paddock with Weissel Oval the city's premier ground.

However he's impressed with Wagga's ever-improving rugby league facility.

"It's good and it's quite spongy actually," Bellamy said.

"There's plenty of grass on it and it's a great little ground.

"I haven't been here before but the surface is good."

Melbourne hit back from their lone loss of the season in emphatic style last week, taking a 44-0 win over the Bulldogs.

Bellamy wants to see the same defensive attitude against the Raiders.

"I was really happy with our defence, we scored plenty of points too and it blew out a bit with a couple of long distance tries, which you don't get too often, but I was really happy with how we defended last week and hopefully we can do that again," he said.

"We will have to with the Raiders being a strong, physical side so we will need our contact to be right on from the start."

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