Craig Bellamy isn’t always angry, but when he is the results are spectacular

NSW Blues adviser Craig Bellamy’s tongue lashing sprays are a thing of rugby league legend, but those closest to the great coach insist there’s another side of the man that the public do not see.

There’s only one altar where NSW Blues adviser Craig Bellamy worships – the coach’s box. The place where Bellamy’s tongue lashing sprays became a thing of rugby league legend.

The church is more Max King’s domain.

A devout Christian, King spent years trying to get the Melbourne coach to tag along to a church service during his time under Bellamy at the Storm six years ago.

Bellamy’s answer was always an emphatic ‘no’.

Embellished, of course, with a few choice expletives.

“When I was in Melbourne, I would always try to get him to come to church with me. He was always spraying me about it,” the Canterbury prop laughs.

“At first I was a bit scared to go back at him about it.

“But the other boys were like, ‘It’s good, he’s teasing you. It means he likes you’.

“He’d be mocking me, ‘Oh, come to church, come to church’. We’d have chews and digs at each other that way. He takes the piss out of everyone and it is actually pretty funny.”

Then one day in 2020, King got to chew out Bellamy just a little harder than anytime before.

The coach had just gone viral after then Storm skipper Cameron Smith caught Bellamy on camera haplessly trying to change a flat tire.

Storm coach Craig Bellamy is not always angry – just when the cameras are on him.

“There was one time, the boys caught him trying to change his flat tyre and he couldn’t do it,” King said.

“He was out there for an hour, he had no idea how to change it. The boys had shown the video in a team meeting and were taking the piss out of him.

“Mate, he’s like what, 60 years old and doesn’t know how to change a tyre. Are you serious?

“Then the following day he was into me, something about church again.

“I said, ‘Mate, if you come to church, I’ll show you how to change a tyre’. He didn’t ever go to church with me, (so) I guess he still doesn’t know how to change a tyre.”

King calls it the ‘knockabout’ side of Bellamy only those close enough to the premiership winning coach ever really get to witness.

“You see Craig blowing up in the box, but this what I tell everyone: he’s hysterical in the box, but he’s not like that Monday to Friday,” King said.

“I think on game day, the stakes of winning and losing get the better of him.

“Every other day, he’s laughing and joking and a knockabout kind of bloke.”

Max King spent two seasons at the STorm under Bellamy. Picture: Getty Images

But Bellamy’s reputation as a hothead precedes him.

Just ask Melbourne recruit and Blues forward Stefano Utoikamanu, who couldn’t help but be intimidated when meeting the coach for the first time during his contract negotiations 12 months ago.

“Everyone goes into those meetings blind a bit. But with Craig, you only know what you see on television, and everything about him being angry all the time,” he recalled.

“So yeah, I was a bit nervous.

“Even I was surprised the first time I had met him. Especially my first team meeting, he was just taking the piss out of the boys. He’s pretty funny if you get to know him.

“He’s always trying to put you on the gronk a little bit in front of all the boys. But it’s never personal. He’s got two sides, he jokes around a bit.

“But when it’s time to work, it’s pretty serious.”

Craig Bellamy hates losing - and chairs

Things got pretty serious for Utoikamanu pretty quickly.

It took just nine rounds for the former Wests Tigers prop to feel the wrath of Bellamy for the very first time (see the video at the top of this article).

Utoikamanu had just given away two crucial penalties, one of which left him in the sin bin for lashing out with his leg at hooker Tom Starling in Melbourne’s dramatic golden point loss to Canberra in Magic Round.

When vision showed Bellamy stalking an empty Melbourne dressing room at full-time, Utoikamanu knew exactly what was coming.

“I got sprayed on live TV when we lost against the Raiders,” Utoikamanu laughs.

“I had an in-the-red moment, where I half kicked someone but I really didn’t kick him, I just shoved him off my foot That was the only time, I hope there aren’t too many more.

“Yeah, I saw him just pacing the dressing room waiting for someone to come in.

“As soon as I got in, he sprayed me straight away.

“There was a lot of swearing but he was telling how that’s not how you win a game and how it was really stupid. Which it was, it ended up costing us the game.”

With three title wins and an illustrious 30-year coaching career, Bellamy has risen to one of the greatest minds in the game.

But the 65-year old’s legacy runs far deeper.

Few coaches have been as successful in taking outcasts, rag tags and players coasting beneath their potential and turning them into genuine NRL stars.

And there’s no greater example than King.

He spent two seasons in Melbourne in 2019 and 2020, where he played minimal minutes off the bench but, still today, credits Bellamy for his rise into the Origin arena in 2025.

“What got me into this position was hard work and that’s the biggest thing I learned from Craig and the Melbourne system,” King said.

“That working hard means more than anything else.”

King insists he’s never been on the receiving end of a Bellamy rebuke but that might be because the Melbourne mentor struck a sense of fear in the then-fringe forward.

“It wasn’t just my offload that I was too scared to throw, I was too scared to make any errors on the field,” King said.

“But that’s not to put him in a bad light. What I learned was, he is not going to yell at you if he had seen you training and practising a play during the week.

“My fear was more about coming into a good side that was winning, my thing was, ‘Do not drop the ball, do not stuff up.’

“So when I went to the Bulldogs everyone was like, ‘Where did this offload come from?’

“But at Bulldogs, with where we were at, we were probably going to lose so I thought, ‘I’ve got to play free flowing footy’.

For the record, King threw 33 offloads in his first season at Belmore in 2022.

He only dared to make two during his entire time in Melbourne.

NSW coach Laurie Daley pictured with assistant Craig Bellamy. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

As NSW coach Laurie Daley’s right hand man, Bellamy has taken a step back from the hands on approach at club level.

“It’s a different role for him. Normally he is barking at everyone, telling them what to do,” Utoikamanu laughs.

“He only really says anything if he feels like has to, or if he’s got any feedback for you. This is Loz’s team, Craig is here to help anyone who might need it.

“But I’m sure the boys love having here and seeing a different side to him.”

Bellamy’s smaller role hasn’t made his presence less significant, especially to Blues players that had little to do with Bellamy before this year’s Origin series.

“Aura. He’s just got this aura about him,” Blues centre Stephen Crichton explains.

“That was the biggest thing.

“The way he talks, everything that he does. You know when he is talking, it’s something important. When he talks, the whole room listens and goes quiet.”

Four-time premiership winner Jarome Luai says Bellamy simply commands respect.

“Whenever he has spoken, you can tell the respect the boys give him,” Luai said.

“Whatever he is, he hits the nail on the head. He never drags on, he doesn’t have to say too much. He can get his point across directly and really clearly.

“That’s what I love about him the most and everyone here hold his opinion in the highest regard.”

Craig Bellamy has a word with Payne Haas on the sidelines of a NSW training session. Picture: Rohan Kelly

Last month, Bellamy committed to coaching Melbourne for a 24th consecutive season in 2026.

Bellamy has designs to eventually go into a coaching director role once he finally gives up the coach’s clipboard.

In a poetic way, Bellamy’s ‘behind closed doors’ Blues role is the perfect apprenticeship for the next phase of his coaching career.

“He’s not as hands-on as people think, he’s helping out Loz behind closed doors I’m sure,” Angus Crichton said.

“But after sessions, I’ll pick his brain a bit and ask, ‘What are you seeing? Where could I be better?’”

But with the Origin shield at stake in Wednesday night’s decider at Accor Stadium, Daley needs the master coach that is Bellamy more than ever.

“His resume speaks for itself,” the Blues backrower said.

“Every player that has been coached by him, sings his praises and loves playing for him.

“We’ll take every nugget of gold he has for us.”

Originally published as Craig Bellamy isn’t always angry, but when he is the results are spectacular