Craig Bellamy - genius

[adamkungl]

They picked Canterbury apart. No other team has been able to figure it out all year and the Storm destroyed their entire structure. f**k they played well. Perfect.

How many times did the wingers knock the ball down on the last pass? 4 I think.

Perfect coaching. Absolutely sensational.

BUt but but there werent 16 tries, BOOOOOOOOOOOORING

 

[Spanner in the works]

I f**king hate your club.

But, excellent game plan from the coach, and the players executed it to a tee.

One of the best Grand Final performances in a long time.

Another thing Melbourne has to be respected for is that they schooled all three teams they played in the Finals, and those teams were 1st, 3rd, and 4th placed on the ladder.

And people wrote them off not long ago. I can't think of a better coached or more clinical team in the last 30 years. It's a big game team surrounded by players who do their jobs religiously.

 

[southwalesrabbitoh]

Should we be given back our 2007 Premiership now? The 2009 one, well we were even further over the cap, and it was close and Parra were very good in the final 12 weeks.

 

[Evenflow]

Another thing Melbourne has to be respected for is that they schooled all three teams they played in the Finals, and those teams were 1st, 3rd, and 4th placed on the ladder.

This. All we heard from the so called experts was it wasn't the fact that Melbourne had played very very well those first two weeks, it was more a case of the Rabbitohs and Manly just not turning up to play. Or it was the Rabbits who got stage fright given their inexperience and Manly were tired and playing busted. Anyway i think it's fair to say that myth is well and truly busted by now.



As for Bellyache, most people are now just working out now what Storm fans have known for a very long time. He's not just a very smart coach tactically but also excellent at man management, the players love him and just want to play for him. There's been countless of examples of him turning average fringe players into good, solid first graders and often better than that.

He's just a consummate professional in every aspect and no doubt before the end of the week he'll be back in his office planning for next season.

 

[Ronnie Dobbs]

This. All we heard from the so called experts was it wasn't the fact that Melbourne had played very very well those first two weeks, it was more a case of the Rabbitohs and Manly just not turning up to play. Or it was the Rabbits who got stage fright given their inexperience and Manly were tired and playing busted. Anyway i think it's fair to say that myth is well and truly busted by now.



As for Bellyache, most people are now just working out now what Storm fans have known for a very long time. He's not just a very smart coach tactically but also excellent at man management, the players love him and just want to play for him. There's been countless of examples of him turning average fringe players into good, solid first graders and often better than that.

He's just a consummate professional in every aspect and no doubt before the end of the week he'll be back in his office planning for next season.

Yeah. And hes got a busy off season coming up standing in as Martina Navratalova's stunt double too.

 

[kia ora storm]

There is a story that does the round every year that Bellamy was woken up in his office by the cleaners asleep under his desk as he had being watching opposition games for 48 hours straight !.

This was in his early days but it showed his determination to succeed.

 

[ShaiGuY]

Firstly I am not a Storm supporter but was at the game.
You have to say that Bellamy did extremely well. Maybe for those not there you couldn't see but his tactics included the following:
- nullifying Barbra (who still had a good game) by getting his centres to rush up on him with other defenders covering. Yes, there were breaks but the most damaging ones where Barbra gets through (e.g. the time he got through), whereas cover defenders had the speed on the other attackers e.g. forcing Morris etc. to come in field.
- Cameron Smith made heaps of dummy half runs directed at the front rowers which sapped their energy
- Bulldogs had a defensive strategy to rush in and up quickly which worked most of the first half preventing the pass to the overlapping winger etc.. Cronk/Bellamy figured this out and therefore put the chip kick into the corner.
- Bombing to Barbra on every opportunity and trying to hammer him when he caught it.
- Targetting Bulldogs right side defence.

Very well done to Bellamy.