Craig Bellamy

Craig Bellamy (born 3 October 1959) is an Australian professional rugby league football coach who is the head coach of the Melbourne Storm in the National Rugby League (NRL), and a former professional rugby league footballer.

He is known as one of the greatest coaches in NRL history.

He has previously coached the New South Wales State of Origin team.

Bellamy started his coaching career as assistant coach to Wayne Bennett at the Brisbane Broncos.

He also writes a column for The Australian.

Bellamy was born 3 October 1959 in Portland, New South Wales, Australia.

He played his early junior football for Portland Colts.

Bellamy also played for Oberon Tigers in the Country Rugby League as a teenager before moving to Macquarie United in the Newcastle Rugby League in 1979.

Bellamy played his entire NSWRL premiership career with the Canberra Raiders during the 1980s, and 1990s.

In Canberra he played under the coaches Don Furner (1982–87), Wayne Bennett (1987), and Tim Sheens (1988–92).

The Canberra Raiders signed Bellamy in their début season, 1982.

He played the majority of his career in the centres but was also used as a utility player, appearing at times as fullback, winger, five-eighth and lock.

Injury midway through the 1987 season saw Bellamy miss the Raiders charge to their first ever Grand Final appearance which resulted in an 18–8 loss to the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles.

After the Raiders won the 1989 NSWRL season's Grand Final (which he wasn't selected for), Bellamy travelled with the Raiders to England for the 1989 World Club Challenge, but didn't play in the loss to Widnes at Old Trafford.

Bellamy played from the bench in Canberra's 18–14 win over Penrith in the 1990 Grand Final at the Sydney Football Stadium.

After a coaching apprenticeship as Wayne Bennett's assistant at the Brisbane Broncos, which included a win over the Wests Tigers with the "Baby Broncos" when Bennett and the teams stars were away on State of Origin duty.

After winning the 1990 premiership with the Raiders, Bellamy spent 1991 with Turvey Park in Wagga Wagga as captain/coach in the Group 9 Competition, he was also the Riverina Rugby League Captain and also had a stint playing in England for Swinton, before returning to Canberra for one last year in 1992.

In 1995, Bellamy coached the Canberra Raiders' President's Cup team to a premiership win.

In 1998 he became performance co-ordinator and assistant coach to Wayne Bennett at the Brisbane Broncos.

That year they won the 1998 NRL Grand final.

In 2002, when Broncos' head coach Wayne Bennett was on State of Origin duty with the Queensland Maroons, Bellamy gained NRL experience as a head coach.

Forced to field a team full of young players due to the regular side's representative commitments, the 'Baby Broncos' upset the Wests Tigers.

Bellamy was appointed head coach of the Melbourne Storm for the 2003 NRL season.

The Tigers were a leading candidate to sign Bellamy as their coach for the 2003 season, although he ultimately joined Melbourne after Mark Murray was sacked.

In his third season as an NRL coach with the Storm, Bellamy started coaching the Country Origin team with a loss in 2005.

His work with Wayne Bennett extended to international level when he was appointed assistant to Bennett for the Australian Test team during the 2005 Rugby League Tri-Nations tournament, and was often seen 'running the water' to players on the field.

Bellamy was considered a leading candidate to coach the Queensland Maroons in 2006, but his selection was opposed by many former players, including Arthur Beetson, and was ultimately vetoed due to the fact he was a New South Welshman.

He coached New South Wales Country to victory and his club, Melbourne won the 2006 minor premiership and reached the 2006 National Rugby League grand final, but finished as runners-up to former mentor Bennett's Brisbane Broncos.

In the post season Bellamy continued as Kangaroos assistant coach, now under Ricky Stuart for the 2006 Tri Nations series.

There he has achieved great success; winning the 2007 Grand Final over Manly and the 2009 Grand Final over Parramatta, though both of these were later stripped due to extensive salary cap breaches.

The following season Country lost but the Storm were minor premiers and reached the 2007 NRL grand final, in which they defeated the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles 34–8 to become premiers.

He was the coach of the New South Wales State of Origin team until he was sacked in 2010, the same year as the Storm's salary cap scandal, after three unrelenting seasons of disappointment which netted only two wins from nine matches.

Melbourne have played finals football every year since Bellamy began coaching the side, with the sole exception of the 2010 NRL season where the club would have placed fifth on the ladder had they not been penalised for a salary cap breach.

He has also never lost in round one of a season as coach.

Bellamy's 22 seasons with Melbourne is the longest consecutive stint by a coach at a single club.

He also led the Storm to the minor premiership in 2011, and won his first legitimate premiership as a coach in 2012 when the Storm defeated the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs.

Bellamy won his second recognised NRL premiership as coach with the Melbourne Storm after a dominant 2017 season in which the Storm lost only four games.

In 2018 the Storm had a successful year making it to the 2018 NRL Grand Final before being beaten by the Sydney Roosters.

He won his third NRL premiership with the Storm in 2020.

He has yet to coach a losing NRL season, maintaining a better than 50% win–loss ratio for each season he has coached.