Craig Bellamy

Dual premiership-winning NRL coach Craig Bellamy is widely considered the game's finest coach in the rugby league world. The 2008 NSW Origin coach and former Canberra Raiders player – Bellamy chalked up 148 first-grade matches with the Green Machine before entering the coaching world in 1993 – masterminded the Melbourne Storm’s 34-8 victory over Manly in the 2007 NRL decider.

This more than made up for the disappointment a year earlier when the Storm was beaten 15-8 by the Brisbane Broncos in the NRL grand final.
Once he retired from playing - in 1992 - Bellamy set his sights on succeeding as a coach. He joined the Raiders coaching staff immediately as President’s Cup coach and, after guiding the team to a premiership in 1995, was appointed the club’s strength and conditioning and reserve grade coach (1996) and first-grade assistant coach to Test great Mal Meninga (1997).
He moved to Brisbane in 1998 as first grade assistant coach to Wayne Bennett and earned widespread acknowledgement for his contributions to the Broncos’ grand final triumphs in 1998 and 2000.
In 2003, Craig Bellamy was appointed head coach of the Melbourne Storm. Three years later the Storm, after having won the minor premiership by a record eight points, progressed to the grand final, only to be beaten 15-8 by the Broncos. The following year (2007) the Storm made amends in devastating fashion, whipping the Manly Sea Eagles - after again claiming the minor premiership title.
For his efforts, Bellamy was named the Sydney Morning Herald’s 2007 Coach of the Year. In selecting Bellamy, the newspaper recorded that the Storm coach “is everything he was as a player – known for his passion, dedication and commitment”.
Craig Bellamy, who was the Australian Kangaroos assistant coach in 2005 and 2006, and NSW Country Origin coach from 2005 to 2007, is contracted to the Melbourne Storm to the end of the 2013 season.