He is one of the most animated coaches the NRL has ever seen, but Melbourne Storm mentor Craig Bellamy has confessed his antics were once so over the top that he deserved to be punched by his players.
Since Bellamy replaced Mark Murray in 2003, he has been an NRL meme for his infamous sprays, chair-kicks, water-bottle tosses and passionate antics in the coach’s box.
He took over the role after completing a coaching apprenticeship under Wayne Bennett at the Brisbane Broncos and has been a pillar of the Storm and their success ever since.
His fury and love of expletives led to him being given a specially built coach’s box at BCU Stadium in Coffs Harbour so fans couldn’t hear him blowing up when he was coaching the City Origin team.
“How is it possible that Bellamy has his own coaching box with a great view of the field, while I have to sit here?” fielding coach Tim Sheens asked then NSWRL chief executive Geoff Carr.
“Because he swears and you don’t,” Carr replied.
Melbourne Storm coach Craig Bellamy launches into one of his trademark in-game comments
The Storm coach revealed he had to tone down his aggressive nature in training with players
But speaking on the Clubhouse podcast with Storm players Cam Munster, Ryan Papenhuyzen and Jahrome Hughes, Bellamy revealed he actually had to tone it down before a player counter-attacked.
“I’m much calmer,” he said this week.
‘I don’t know if that’s the right word for training them, but I don’t give individual sprays like I used to.
‘A couple of times it would have been fair for someone to put one on my chin.
“I’ve been a little bit calmer and some people have told me that. When Billie, my granddaughter, was born, people said I seemed more relaxed.
‘Nowadays, some of the things I said when I started out wouldn’t get away with it.
“But I’ve probably withdrawn a little bit. At the same time, that’s a bit who I am. At some point, you have to be honest with the players.
“I will convey the message in a calmer way, but I will still tell you what I think.”
Another thing Bellamy had to change during his tenure was recruiting players based solely on talent.
The Storm have built a legacy of turning fringe or top-flight players into superstars, but Bellamy said that required looking a little deeper into potential players than just their ability on the field.
‘At the beginning of my career… if (players) had problems outside of football, that didn’t worry me,’
We can fix it as long as they can play football.
‘But I think we see it a little differently today… we employ the person before the player.
‘We do a lot of research into what kind of people they are, from their school teachers to their junior year coaches.
‘We now spend a lot more time determining whether they will fit into our identity and what we stand for.
“The football club will only be as good as the quality of our people.”
Bellamy spoke on the Clubhouse podcast with current Melbourne Storm players
Cameron Munster, Jahrome Hughes and Ryan Papenhuyzen (not pictured) host the podcast
Ironically, the move might have meant Cooper Cronk would never have made his debut for the Storm had he arrived later than he did.
“When Cooper first came along, he was a bit of a… I wouldn’t say a party boy, but he liked to drink,” Bellamy said.
‘He came in as a full-back and a centre-back and played a bit in the second row. For two seasons, he came from Brisbane Norths and didn’t even make it to our team.
“But by the end of 2005, he had come off the bench and had probably played 10 or 12 games. He had come into the second line a bit and in the centre. He was our Wishy (Tyran Wishart).”
“Matt Orford had been our scrum-half but he left to join Manly and we couldn’t really find a scrum-half in the market that we were happy with,” Bellamy said.
“It wasn’t me, it was someone else who came up with the idea[of Cronk playing midfield]. We said, ‘Why don’t we give Cooper a chance?’ So I sat down and had a chat with him.”
Cooper Cronk had to work hard under Bellamy to become the champion scrum-half he became.
“I told him he’d have to improve his kicking and passing,” Bellamy said.
‘I’ve never, not even today, seen a guy kick a ball, pass a ball and catch a ball as much in a preseason as Cooper did.
‘When the season started, it was like I’d been there forever.
‘It shows how much time and effort you put in and how much hard work you put in to get to where you want to go.
‘Cooper (and Billy Slater) were self-made men. If they hadn’t worked as hard as they did, they wouldn’t have had the careers they had.’
