Melbourne Storm coach Craig Bellamy reveals the simple secret to having a strong club culture

EVERY coach in every sport claims a strong culture. Even the failing clubs. The irony is most coaches get it wrong because they over-complicate it. Craig Bellamy’s secret at Melbourne Storm is simple. BLOG LIVE WITH PAUL KENT FROM 11AM.

Craig Bellamy has created a truly strong culture at Melbourne.

CRAIG Bellamy was out a few weeks ago talking to business leaders from a Melbourne company. The conversation got around to what it always gets around to, the grand secret.

Leadership.

Bellamy is not only blessed with the best culture in rugby league, the Storm are the greatest team in Australian sport. They are a club comparable to the best of any team around the world.

A lot of credit for Melbourne’s culture goes to the senior playing group. It is almost a jealousy, a quiet dismissal that culture is easy to drive when you have a playing group like Cameron Smith, Billy Slater, Ryan Hoffman, Jesse Bromwich and Cooper Cronk.

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Bellamy got to talking to these business leaders about leadership and environment and all those buzzwords that must be part of these conversations.

“When you’re coach or captain and you’ve been at the club a long time, I reckon the club values, basically, are your values,” he said.

Craig Bellamy has created a truly strong culture at Melbourne.

“Because you’ve been in charge for that long, that’s your responsibility. You’ve got to run this.”

Culture is one of the great misunderstandings of sport.

Every coach in every sport claims a strong culture at his club. Even the failing clubs.

To suggest anything else is a great insult. Tell a coach his team’s culture sucks and you might as well tell him he doesn’t know tactics or you are sleeping with his wife. They suffer the insult equally.

The irony is most coaches get it wrong because they over-complicate it. They set standards and try to wriggle around them when the wrong player breaks the rule. The first thing the players then realise is that the non-negotiable standards are completely negotiable, and often depending on your level of talent.

Bellamy’s secret is simple. Consistency and simplicity.

“My values are simple but they are black and white,” he said. “There ain’t no grey areas there.”

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Originally published as Melbourne Storm coach Craig Bellamy reveals the simple secret to having a strong club culture