As Melbourne gallop to yet another minor premiership, is Craig Bellamy about to add a sixth premiership ring to his collection?
AT THE conclusion of Round 24 Melbourne Storm sat two wins clear at the summit of the NRL ladder having just beaten second-placed Penrith Panthers 22-24.
Few predicted that before a ball was kicked in 2024 — triple premiership winners Penrith, plus the Roosters and Warriors, caught most pundits’ eye.
But it shouldn’t come as a surprise. This is just what the Storm do under Craig Bellamy. This is the 22nd season under their veteran coach that they’ve dominated by stealth.
Suspecting the Storm’s imminent downfall has become an annual tradition. Every year, though, the men from Melbourne keep on keeping on.
Each season tosses up new reasons why the Storm should struggle to maintain their imperious form — hurdles they inevitably leap over with ease.
After their 2017 Grand Final win, they lost halfback Cooper Cronk to the Sydney Roosters. Their two other keys — fullback Billy Slater and hooker Cameron Smith — then retired in 2018 and 2020 respectively.
Their 2020 and 2021 campaigns should have been derailed by COVID-19 — the state of Victoria was hit harder by the pandemic than anywhere else in Australia, which forced the team out of their homes to continue competing — but they ended up with a title in 2020 and a narrow preliminary final loss to eventual premiers Penrith 12 months later.
Ryan Papenhuyzen’s horror run with injury and the exodus of Brandon Smith to the Roosters plus Felise Kaufusi, Jesse Bromwich and Kenny Bromwich to the Dolphins might have dented their Premiership hopes in 2022 and 2023, but didn’t stop them qualifying for the play-offs.
And they look back to their absolute best this season, despite injury troubles to fullback Papenhuyzen (ankle) and standoff Cam Munster (groin).
But the Queensland Origin ace successfully returned to fitness in their win over Parramatta in Round 21 — their seventh victory on the trot — hinting that the Storm might be enjoying the sort of fortune with player availability any club needs to mount a tilt at the title.
Bellamy’s side is as well equipped as any to snatch the Provan-Summons Trophy off the Panthers this year — and you’d be foolish to bet against a man who’s achieved what the master coach has.
Bellamy has coached more than 570 matches — more than anyone besides Brian Smith, Tim Sheens and his ageless former mentor Wayne Bennett.
His winning percentage above 69 percent is better than anyone with more than 30 games under their belt, and eight percent better than Bennett’s, for reference.
He’s won five grand finals, including the 2007 and 2009 crowns that were later stripped for salary cap breaches.
Only Bennett, with seven, and Arthur Halloway, who won four as a player-coach of Balmain plus four as a non-playing coach of Eastern Suburbs between the wars, have more to their name.
On top of Bellamy’s five successful deciders, he’s qualified for another four. He’s hoarded eight JJ Giltinan Shields for finishing the home-and-away season on top of the ladder.
Since he took charge of the club in 2003, they’ve missed the playoffs just once — in 2010, when they were stripped of all their competition points for that salary cap scandal. If they weren’t, they would’ve finished fifth.
They’ve missed the top four just three times since Bellamy’s maiden Grand Final in 2006. Melbourne appearing at the pointy end of the ladder has become so common that it feels like wallpaper.
Sustaining that degree of excellence for more than two decades is a testament to the mentor’s famous intensity.
When Bellamy took the helm 21 years ago, the Catalans Dragons weren’t in the Super League, the Gold Coast Titans didn’t exist, current Queensland coach Billy Slater was a teenager waiting to make his NRL debut and Ireland rugby union coach Andy Farrell led England as a player in the end-of-season Ashes series.
While time has changed all those things, it hasn’t dulled Bellamy’s ability to win games of rugby league.
Bellamy will turn 65 years of age three days before this year’s Grand Final.
And the question of his coaching mortality, naturally, has come into focus. Unless your name is Wayne Bennett, not many people retain the clipboard once they reach the pension age.
In 2022, Bellamy extended his contract until the end of 2026, giving him the option to tell the club whether or not he’d like to continue in the top job or transition into a more hands-off coaching director gig.
Two years ago, he told the media he expected 2023 would be his final season … yet he saddled up again this year, and the results speak for themselves.
The question of Bellamy’s successor is particularly relevant with two of his former players — Slater and Jason Ryles — looming as the next big things in the coaching space.
Ryles returned to Melbourne as an assistant this year, suggesting a succession plan was in the works.
But in May, the club announced Bellamy would stick around in 2025 — then the former Kangaroos front-rower was snapped up by Parramatta in July after the sacking of Brad Arthur.
Slater also seems like a natural fit to take over the club he represented with distinction as a player, once his time as Maroons Origin boss expires.
He’s already overseen three series and impressed with the clipboard, particularly his first two successful campaigns.
Whether he’d want to take on the full-time rigours of an NRL job compared to his current diet of Origin duties plus media commitments is another question.
Articles about Storm succession plans have been wasting ink for more than a decade.
The only thing we can be sure of is that one of the NRL’s greatest ever coaches is planning an assault on yet more silverware this year and next.
Rolling the back-to-back-to-back premiers in their own backyard weeks before the finals means even the most conservative Melbourne fans will believe a sixth Grand Final win under Bellamy is theirs for the taking.
First published in Rugby League World magazine, Issue 500 (September 2024)
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