Craig Bellamy (rugby league)

Craig Bellamy

Personal information
Born	(1959-10-02) 2 October 1959 (age 65) Portland, New South Wales, Australia
Height	175 cm (5 ft 9 in)
Playing information
Position	Centre, Five-eighth, Lock
Club Years Team Pld T G FG P 1982–92 Canberra Raiders 150 46 0 0 175 1991 Swinton 14 0 0 0 0 Total 164 46 0 0 175
Coaching information
Club Years Team Gms W D L W% 2002 Brisbane Broncos 2 1 0 1 50 2003– Melbourne Storm 577 402 2 173 70 Total 579 403 2 174 70 Representative Years Team Gms W D L W% 2005–07 Country Origin 3 1 0 2 33 2008–10 New South Wales 9 2 0 7 22
Source: [1][2][3][4] As of 6 October 2024

Craig Bellamy (born 2 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 widely regarded 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.^[5]

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

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. 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.