Melbourne Storm coach Craig Bellamy breaks his silence on the hotly awaited decision on his future

Melbourne Storm fans can breathe a sigh of relief as the club announced on Friday that head coach Craig Bellamy is ‘not going anywhere’.

Bellamy will continue as Melbourne coach for a 23rd year in 2025, opting not to move to a new role at the NRL club or retire.

Bellamy, 64, signed a five-year contract with the Storm in 2022, meaning he can decide each year whether he will continue in the position of head coach or move into the role of coaching director.

With Melbourne currently in second place on the NRL ladder, he announced on Friday his decision to stay next year.

“I have always maintained that I will only continue coaching if the coaches, players and club believe I still have something to offer,” Bellamy told melbournestorm.com.au.

Bellamy [right] hoists the NRL premiership trophy in 2017 with then-captain Cameron Smith

“As I said last season, my focus now is on helping individuals learn and grow. If we can help players and coaches improve, the team will improve.

‘We now really have a solid list and I have seen this group of players grow both on and off the field over the past few seasons. They’ve already shown big improvement in the first few rounds of this season, but there’s a lot more to come for them and I’m excited about what that could look like.

“When I made this decision, I also wanted to make sure it wouldn’t hold back any of our coaches, who also make this club a great place to work.

“Our coaching group is very stable now and in my opinion they can all step up at any time and coach at NRL level today.”

Bellamy is one of the best coaches in the NRL era and has achieved a 70 percent record during his long tenure at the club

Bellamy took on the senior coaching role at the Storm in 2003 and led the team to a semi-final in his first year.

Since then, the Storm have played in twenty finals series, winning the grand final five times and the minor premiership seven times.

Since his debut as head coach in 2003, Bellamy has developed into one of the most successful coaches in the NRL era.

He has managed the team in 555 games, winning 387 with an impressive 70% win rate, while also winning three premierships (2012, 2017 and 2020) and five minor premierships (2011, 2016, 2017, 2019 and 2021). put his name.

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