Bellamy signs on for incredible 23rd Storm season
Melbourne has announced supercoach Craig Bellamy has agreed to coach the team again in 2025.
It means the 64-year-old will lead the Storm into a 23rd NRL season.
“I’ve always maintained that I will only continue coaching if the coaches, players and club think I still have something to offer,” Bellamy said in a statement on Friday morning.
“As I said last season, my focus now is helping individuals learn and grow. If we can help players and coaches improve, the team will improve.
“We have a really settled list now and I have seen this group of players grow on and off the field over the last couple of seasons. They have already shown some great improvement in the first few rounds this season, but there is a lot more ahead for them and I am excited about what that might look like.
Craig Bellamy.
“Making this decision, I also wanted to make sure it wouldn’t hold back any of our coaches who equally make this club a great place to work at.
“Our coaching group is very settled now and, in my opinion, all of them could step up at any time and coach at NRL level today.”
Bellamy took the reins of Melbourne in 2003 and led the team to three consecutive semi-finals, before losing the 2006 grand final to Brisbane.
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The Storm won three consecutive minor premierships, and also won grand finals in 2007 and 2009 but those titles were later stripped due to salary cap cheating.
Bellamy and the Storm would bounce back to win legal premierships in 2012, 2017, and 2020.
Aside from the 2010 season, when the club was not allowed to accrue competition points as punishment for the aforementioned cheating, Bellamy’s Storm have never finished a season lower than sixth on the ladder.
They also played grand finals in 2016 and 2018. Additionally, they have made it to the penultimate week of finals five times since 2010.
“In our opinion, Craig is the best coach to have ever coached in the NRL and we were prepared to give him as long as he needed to decide if 2024 was to be his last in charge,” Storm chairman Matt Tripp said on Friday.
“His approach to this season has shown he has plenty left to offer and we are extremely happy he will be leading this team again in 2025.”
Melbourne and Cronulla have each won seven of eight games this season, and face off on Saturday in a top-of-the-table clash at AAMI Park.