Craig Bellamy and Ricky Stuart are committed to a traditional pre-game catch up between old friends despite their teams preparing to go into an NRL finals battle.
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Stuart and the Canberra Raiders will be aiming to snap the Melbourne Storm's six-game finals winning streak at home when the team's clash on Saturday night.
The match will pit two former Raiders against each other in finals for the first time since 2016, when Bellamy's Melbourne crushed Stuart's grand final dreams in a preliminary final.
But their friendship extends beyond the finals rivalry, Bellamy saying the ex-teammates still plan to see each other before they become enemies.
"We haven't got any set rules or contracts signed that show you can't say that," Bellamy said.
"We are just two old footy players, we talk about old times, old games, a little bit about family ... not too much about the game gets spoken about."
The Raiders are chasing the rare feat of beating the Storm at home twice in a single season after a shock come from behind win in Melbourne last month.
Just two teams have managed a double victory in Victoria since Melbourne moved to their new stadium almost a decade ago.
But Bellamy is wary of stoking the Canberra fire, refusing to weigh into the Hudson Young eye-gouge saga after the Raiders forward was banned for eight games on Tuesday night.
The footage of Young's hands making contact with Adam Pompey's face divided rugby league opinion, with some calling for Young to be banned for 12 months.
"No one wants eye gouging in the game, but that's not my decision so I just stick to my job," Bellamy said.
"Everyone has got their opinion on what was fair and what was not fair, but I haven't really given it any energy at all, because it is none of my business.
"I am coaching the Melbourne Storm, so that is my job and I don't want to be distracted."
The Storm have won five of the past six games against the Raiders and Canberra hasn't played in the finals since losing to Melbourne three years ago.
Star Melbourne playmaker Cameron Munster is yet to fully test his injured shoulder but Bellamy remains confident he will play in Saturday's NRL qualifying final against Canberra.
On the advice of the club's medical staff Munster has sat out some of the Storm's training drills as a precautionary measure.
Munster missed Melbourne's final round win over North Queensland after injuring the shoulder in a monster tackle by Manly's Jorge Taufua in the previous match.
While there's a preliminary final berth up for grabs Bellamy says the Queensland five-eighth won't play at AAMI Park unless he's 100 per cent.
"He didn't do all the session but he did what the medical staff wanted him to do, so we're pretty confident he's going to be playing," Bellamy said on Wednesday.
"But he needs to get through another couple of sessions yet.
"We're not going to play him if it's going to affect him at all."
NRL QUALIFYING FINAL
Saturday: Canberra Raiders v Melbourne Storm at Melbourne, 5.40pm.
Raiders squad: 1. Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad, 2. Nick Cotric, 3. Jarrod Croker (C), 4. Joey Leilua, 5. Jordan Rapana, 6. Jack Wighton, 7. Aidan Sezer, 8. Josh Papalii, 9. Josh Hodgson (C), 10. Sia Soliola, 11. John Bateman, 12. Elliott Whitehead, 13. Joe Tapine. Interchange from: 14. Bailey Simonsson, 15. Dunamis Lui, 16. Corey Horsburgh, 17. Ryan Sutton, 18. Sam Williams, 19. Emre Guler, 20. Siliva Havili.