Craig Bellamy (rugby league)

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Craig Bellamy
Personal information
Full name Craig Bellamy
Born 3 October 1959 (1959-10-03) (age 49)
Portland, New South Wales, Australia
Playing information
Position Centre, Five-eighth, Lock, Wing
Club
Years Team Pld T G FG P
1982–1992 Canberra Raiders 148 46 0 0 175
Coaching information
Club
Years Team Gms W D L W%
2003– Melbourne Storm 156 107 0 49 69
Representative
Years Team Gms W D L W%
2005–2007 Country 3 1 0 2 33
2008– New South Wales 3 1 0 2 33
As of 11 September 2008
Source: NRL Stats and Rugby League Project

Craig Bellamy (born 3 October 1959 in Portland, New South Wales) is a former rugby league player and the current coach of the Melbourne Storm and New South Wales team.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Playing career

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

The Canberra Raiders signed Bellamy in their debut 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.

Bellamy played in the 1990 Grand Final victory for the Canberra Raiders as a reserve. He spent 1991 with Turvey Park in the Wagga Wagga competition before returning to Canberra for one last year in 1992. Bellamy also had a stint playing in England for Leeds in the early 90's.

[edit] Coaching career

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

Prior to joining the Storm in 2003, Bellamy was performance co-ordinator and assistant coach to Wayne Bennett at the Brisbane Broncos. In 2002, Bellamy coached the Broncos when Bennett was on State of Origin duty with the Queensland Maroons. Forced to field a team full of young players due to the regular side's representative commitments, the 'Baby Broncos' upset the Wests Tigers.

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. The Storm have not missed the finals in Bellamy's five seasons at the helm, and they reached the 2006 National Rugby League grand final, where Melbourne finished as runners-up to the Brisbane Broncos, as well as the 2007 grand final, in which the Storm defeated the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles 34–8 to become the premiers of the NRL.

In April, 2008, Bellamy signed a five-year contract extension through to 2013 with Melbourne despite interest from the Brisbane Broncos.[1] This signing means that Bellamy will become the first 10 year coach in the Storm's history.

In the latter stages of the 2008 season, Bellamy cost his club $50,000 after he was fined for disclosing scathing remarks and views on the NRL's decision to suspend Cameron Smith over a controversial "grapple tackle" on Brisbane's Sam Thaiday. Bellamy claimed that the administration was corrupt and that bookkeepers already knew that Smith would be denied the opportunity to play for the rest of the season and furthermore along with Melbourne's CEO questioned the NRL's integrity in their opting to sideline Smith and not others who were guilty of committing similar tackles.

He coached Melbourne to their 3rd successive NRL Grand Final in 2008, but could not repeat the feats of the previous year as his side suffered defeat to Manly.[2]

[edit] Representative coaching

Bellamy has coached the Country Origin team since 2005. He has one win, in 2006, from three games.

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,[citation needed] and was ultimately vetoed due to the fact he was not a Queenslander, despite Graeme Lowe, a New Zealander, holding the position in the early 1990s.

Bellamy was an assistant to Wayne 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. After the New South Wales Blues' poor showing in the 2007 State of Origin series, Bellamy was appointed as coach for 2008.

[edit] References

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ Stathi Paxinos (2008-04-18). "Bellamy sticks with Melbourne", Fairfax Digital. Retrieved on 18 April 2008. 
  2. ^ "Grand final: As it happened". Fox Sports (2008-10-05). Retrieved on 2008-10-05.
Preceded by
Mark Murray
2001-2002
Coach
Melbourne Storm

2003-
Succeeded by
incumbent
This is an extract from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia
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