Craig Bellamy inches closer to making the decision that could change the rugby league world

ON Friday, Craig Bellamy and Wayne Bennett met as friends. But the Melbourne coach has a decision to make that could alter the rugby league landscape as we know it writes ROBERT CRADDOCK.

McCullough to play like Smith MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA — MAY 03: Craig Bellamy, coach of the Storm looks on during a Melbourne Storm NRL training session at Gosch's Paddock on May 3, 2018 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Scott Barbour/Getty Images)

THE decision which could change the landscape of modern rugby league could be made by a man standing on top of Uluru for the first and last time in his life.

“I have always wanted to stand on top of it since I was a kid and I have never done it,’’ said Craig Bellamy.

“I am turning 60 soon so now is the time to do it before they stop people climbing it at the end of the year.’’

ADMIT: Bellamy says he didn’t get Origin

WILL HE OR WON’T HE?: Bellamy says he won’t steal Bennett’s job

The solitude of Australia’s great isolated icon, which Bellamy will visit in a few weeks during Melbourne bye weekend, might be the perfect setting for him to make the last and perhaps biggest call of his decorated coaching career.

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Brisbane or Melbourne? If he’s leaning one way he is keeping it well hidden.

On Friday at a function at the Toowoomba Turf Club, with Wayne Bennett seated two metres away, he dropped hints that could have been interpreted both ways.

The function was a notable event and its just a shame that there are not more afternoons like it for they are wonderful for the game.

Bennett’s brother Bob, who works at the turf club, recruited both men.

His relationship with Bellamy goes back to the year 2000 when he signed him up as a trainer for the Papua New Guinea side he was coaching and they spent a month together in an army barracks in PNG.

Ticket sales for the lunch were initially slow and Wayne eased the financial pressure by saying to his brother “I will do it for nothing.’’

The crowd hung onto every word from the star coaching duo.

Then Bob got the break which would have rival sports promoters turning green.

When the Broncos made a major play for Bellamy and the coaching jigsaw involving the two Killer B’s was exposed, ticket sales jumped from 200 to a sold-out 330.

The silence of the crowd as John McCoy peppered both men about their futures was telling testament to the significance of the occasion.

In many ways they are men of contrasts. Bellamy is so animated in the coaches box you half expect his heart to explode right of his chest. Stone-faced Bennett could be cut from granite.

“I get quite embarrassed at times when I am watching the review — sometimes I just fast forward it,’’ Bellamy said of his behaviour.

“I have tried to change it but I can’t. Sometimes when I think I am going to explode I walk up the back of the box for a while. That helps.’’

Bennett said the difference between them was less than it looked.

“I am like that but I keep it on the inside. It’s all happening, believe me.’’

What will Bellamy do?

Asked by McCoy what he said to himself during emotional moments Bennett said “don’t be an idiot Wayne’’ to which Bellamy piped up with “I say ‘I was an idiot’.’’

Bennett may be the game’s most successful coach but he well remembers the tough early years when his Souths team were thrashed by Wynnum-Manly in the 1984 Brisbane grand final.

“That was my most embarrassing game of my life,’’ Bennett said.

“I can remember leaving Lang Park and I was hiding in the back of the car and my mother-in-law who was sitting in the front said ‘why don’t you give up coaching’ and I said ‘I am better than this and I am not giving up’.’’

Asked whether, when he coached Bellamy at Canberra, he saw the makings of a master coach, Bennett quipped an emphatic “no.’’

“He used to work at the leagues club and did not do much work there and used to go and have a sleep in the back room like a lot of his teammates but he got away with it because Don Furner was running the club,’’ Bennett said.

Bellamy and Bennett worked together at the Broncos in the late 1990s.

“But he was a good bloke who was liked by his teammates.’’

The two had different perspectives on the merits of the modern game.

Bennett conceded that watching old games with his son Justin had convinced him that the late 1980s with more ball movement, quick play and often just two men in the tackle was an especially attractive era while Bellamy is so consumed with the present he rarely looks back.

Bellamy said when Bennett joined Canberra it was the first time he had been subjected to serious skills coaching. He learnt well.

The tuition inspired him all the way to Uluru and the decision which will shape two clubs.

THE GOOD: Great to see Wayne Bennett and Craig Bellamy heading to Toowoomba to delight fans who don’t see enough of the game’s biggest personalities.

THE BAD: NSW’s blue and black State of Origin suits which look too much like the ones worn by Human Nature to give the Blues any hope of being taken seriously in next week’s Origin.

THE UGLY: Brian McIntyre, coach of American boxing superstar Terence Crawford, saying he wants his man to “kill’’ Horn. Really? No wonder boxing is on the nose worldwide. It sounds as if Horn is being underestimated … again.

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Originally published as Craig Bellamy inches closer to making the decision that could change the rugby league world