I would love to see Bellamy not coach an elite side and see how he goes. Everyone thought Belichick was the best coach ever until Brady left and he was exposed.
Hey gordy, Bellyache won during both the Brady eras of Smith / Cronk / Slater era, then Munster / Hughes / Grant).
How was he exposed?
Grant was a Townsville schoolboy then Wynnum Manly and then the Tigers pounced.
Unfortunately for us he went to the Storm. Bellyache had to have had something to do with his NRL transition of discipline and work ethics.
If I can recall, before joining the Storm and Ballyache, Cameron Smith was skinny lighly regarded hooker, Billy Slater was thought to be too small and was rejected by clubs like the Broncos, Cooper Cronk was a bench utitity (Matt Orford and later Scott Hill were ahead of him in the halves), Jarome Hughes was a fullback but Craig converted him to be one one the worlds best halves, a masterstroke by bellyache, Harry Grant only had played 4 NRL games and bellyache developed him, Josh Ado Carr was an indisciplined fringe winger and Bellyache turned into an elete winger att. and Nelson was more of a loose canon before belly ache got a hold of him.
Ryan Papenhuyzen, an injury prone Tigers junior has flourished down there.
Will Chambers was so undisciplined at the gold coast and Craig turned him in an awesome back imo, still a hothead but his footy improved
Jesse Bromwich wasn't considered anything more than a good bookend but Craig turned him into a club captain and rep player.
There's so many more that came to the Storm as potentially good players but Craig turned them into awesome players, Kaufusi, Finucane, Meaney etc etc.
The whole club buys into bellyache's coaching. Sook and your gone.
Craig Bellamy has made the finals in virtually every season since he started coaching Melbourne Storm.
I for the life of me can't understand why people can't see him as the GOAT of CLUB COACHING. Not the goat of coaching but at club level.
If Craig coached us from 2006 and the front office kept out of his way, I can assure you, we would have made the finals and never have got those spoons...period.
From ChatGPT:
2010–2012: playing with reserve-grade depth under cap penalties
2011 whilst still under roster disruption and limited recruitment they came
4th
2016–2019: constant turnover, still top 4
2023: no Munster for long periods, no Grant at times, still competitive
Other clubs with injuries collapse. Storm adapt.