Dec 11th, 2019

Dec 11th, 2019

Melbourne Storm coach Craig Bellamy reckons he could quit coaching when his current contract ends in two years.

Asked by former Canberra Raiders teammate Laurie Daley if he would still be coaching in five years' time, Bellamy, 60, said on Sky Sports Radio: "Nah, nah, I don't think so.

"I've said it a few times before, but I've got another two years to go on this contract here, so I see that as (a likely end). But again, I probably shouldn't say that, because that might change.

"I've been doing it for a fair while now and there's probably a couple of other things I'm thinking I might like doing in a couple of years' time.

"We'll see what happens, but I'm thinking that will be basically the end of my career as a head coach, anyway."

Melbourne Storm head coach Craig Bellamy. (Getty)

Bellamy has been head coach at Melbourne since 2003 and by the end of this contract, will have coached the Storm in nearly 500 NRL matches. He has won two recognised premierships (2012 and 2017), plus the discredited 2007 and 2009 grand finals, and notched a stunning win rate of 68 per cent.

Extraordinary consistency has been his trademark. He was named Dally M Coach of the Year this season for a fifth time, after his team won the minor premiership with just four losses; which had a stunning combined margin of just eight points, the lowest since a 1959 St George team partway through an 11-premiership streak.

While Bellamy has had champions like Cameron Smith, Billy Slater, Cooper Cronk and Greg Inglis in his teams, he has also displayed an uncanny knack for getting the best out of modestly-talented players. His secret?

"I think one of my strengths as a coach is that I wasn't a very good player," said Bellamy, who nonetheless played 149 first-grade games and won the 1990 premiership at Canberra.

"Throughout my career ... being not such a star player, just a bit of a toiler, I've got a bit of empathy for guys that are exactly that. I don't expect miracles from everyone in the team, I don't expect everyone to be the best in their position (in the NRL) or the best in the world in their position. Sometimes you can expect too much from players.

"So I've got a good eye for what they're capable of and then really working towards achieving what they're capable of but making sure they're having a positive spin on it as well. If you want to be the best you can be, you'll need to work hard for it, because no one's going to give you anything on a silver platter.

"As players go through injuries, sometimes they have an up and down in their form, I went through those things myself and I can understand where they're at an hopefully help them."

Craig Bellamy playing for the Canberra Raiders in 1983. (Sydney Morning Herald)

Bellamy is also astute in his handling of young players, from the moment they walk in the door. Rookies at Melbourne work for the first two weeks of their tenure; regular jobs, to give them some perspective of their privileged opportunity.

"It was my idea and the idea at that time was simply, 'Hey, you've got an opportunity here to make a career in rugby league but if you don't, this is what you're gonna be doing'. You're going to be mixing mud for brickies or digging holes for plumbers, whatever they were doing," Bellamy said.

"That was my sole reason, but it's gone a little bit further than that now. I think the other thing is now, I want players to have an appreciation that, as rugby league teams and especially us, you can end up in a bubble.

"I think sometimes we see rugby league as the only thing happening in the world, and it ain't. There's other people out there working and other people with other occupations see that as really important in their lives, too.

"I want them to have a bit of appreciation that other people to different things. But because you might get your name in the paper and they don't, that doesn't make you a better person than them.

"And so I think having that bit of a bubble, especially here in Melbourne - not too many of our guys in our first-grade squad come from Melbourne, they come from New Zealand, Queensland, NSW - so besides relying on each other for support footy-wise, we rely on each other for social support as well.

"It has happened a few times where these guys have gone out and worked with other people, and they've made friends with them as well. I think that's a good thing, to have some friends or some social activities with some people outside the rugby league bubble."

Craig Bellamy this season won his fifth Dally M Coach of the Year award. (Getty)

That superb groundedness is at odds with the image many NRL fans would have of Bellamy: the volcanic-tempered lunatic they see in the coaching box during games. It is an outpouring of the extreme competitiveness that lies beneath Bellamy's usually-measured exterior, triggered by on-field lapses in his meticulous coaching plans.

After two decades at the top, his inability to control his emotions during games leaves him somewhat uneasy.

"I get a little bit embarrassed at times. I think, 'You're a dickhead, what are you doing that for?" Bellamy admitted.

"I think earlier in my career I accepted it a little bit, I'd think, 'That's who I am', or whatever. But I'm 60 now, 60-year-old's shouldn't be acting like that.

"It's a little bit embarrassing. I like to get out of my seat at times and walk up the back, take a couple of deep breaths and hopefully I can zero back in again."

Bellamy's nuclear 'miscommunication' blow-up

Whatever the method, Bellamy's achievements speak for themselves. And not just in the win column, but his influence on NRL coaching.

Bellamy did his apprenticeship under Wayne Bennett at Brisbane. He has taken the mantle of mentoring bosses like Bennett and Tim Sheens and turned it into a juggernaut, spawning a whole new generation of head coaches at the elite level.

Of next season's NRL coaches, more than one-third come from Bellamy's Melbourne Storm system: Anthony Seibold (Broncos), Michael Maguire (Wests Tigers), Brad Arthur (Eels), Dean Pay (Bulldogs), Adam O'Brien (Knights) and Stephen Kearney (Warriors).

"It certainly does (give me satisfaction). All those guys were really good guys," Bellamy said.

"All those guys have been a really important part of our team and our squad when they were here, and it's great to see that they've gone on to bigger and better things."

Those coaches, and every rival mentors, have stolen from the Bellamy playbook. Wrestling. Rigid attack and defence structures. Brutal pre-seasons. His fingerprints are everywhere in the modern game.

There are also good raps on current Storm assistants such as Jason Ryles, the former Australian Test prop, while Queensland coach Kevin Walters was also previously at Melbourne under Bellamy.

Bellamy recently had Smith's presence confirmed for next season; 411 games and counting for the long-time captain. Should Smith retire after 2020 and Bellamy in 2021, the Storm dynasty will truly have ended, having already endured the exits of Cronk (2017) and Slater (2018).

O'Brien was once tipped as Bellamy's successor, only to move to Sydney Roosters and now Newcastle. Whoever takes the Melbourne job will have incredibly large shoes to fill.