Weekend Read: Craig Bellamy’s famous Melbourne Storm pre-season camps and why Dally M rules need to be changed
BRENT READ gets insight into the method Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy employs to work out what kind of player he has on his hands – the infamous ‘IDQ’ camp. Plus, how this year’s Dally M’s highlighted flaws in a system that needs reviewing.
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Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy reckons he can tell pretty quickly what sort of player he has on his hands. Whether he has a bloke who will be there in the trenches or whether he needs a bit more time to learn what is required to be a success at the Storm.
The quickest way Bellamy can peer inside a player’s soul is in the pre-season when the new faces are put through what has become a tradition at the Storm: the IDQ camp, better known as I Don’t Quit.
Every newbie is forced to endure three days where their body and mind are pushed to the limits. After the club’s preliminary final win over Cronulla, Shawn Blore spoke with sadistic delight about what would be waiting for former Tigers teammate Stefano Utoikamanu when he arrived in Melbourne over the off-season.
In a nutshell, it is three days and two nights of attrition.
The second night is generally the worst, although one suspects it is all relative. Allow Tyran Wishart to enlighten those in the dark.
“There is one thing and it is pretty public, a lot of people do know, you have to stay awake the whole second night and pretty much stand guard,” Wishart said.
“It is a mental thing. I know a lot of clubs do army camps and I did one at the Dragons and that was tough, but that was only a day and a half.
“This is a full three days. To this day it is the hardest thing I have done in my life. Not only physically very painful, but mentally.
“They get a lot of the physical stuff out of the way but then the lack of sleep, they put you through little tasks to break you mentally.
“I guess that’s what they want – they want to see what character you are to see if you will break.”
Christian Welch spoke about standing guard a couple of years ago while he was on the camp. The next day the players who fell asleep were forced to stand in a circle and watch on as the players who managed to stay awake enjoyed one hour’s sleep, albeit on the dirt.
On another occasion, Welch recounted how the bus pulled over and the players were told to do dips on a barbed wire fence until their teammates, who had fallen asleep, licked the chocolate off a tim-tam.
The lesson was not to let your teammates down or everyone pays a price.
Wishart arrived at Melbourne midway through the 2021 season and then he missed the 2022 camp, so in the end he waited 18 months for his turn.
The sense of dread he felt was only matched by a bolt of anticipation.
“You almost get a burst of energy,” Wishart said.
“I went home and I couldn’t sleep. For me it was more pride and a sense of accomplishment that you have done it.
“When you come to the club it is in the back of your head and a weight on your shoulders, but once you have finished it, you are done.”
The Storm have become the flag-bearer for sorting out the playing wheat from the chaff over the past 20 years under Bellamy.
The art of Bellamy is that even when he finds himself with chaff, he often turns it into wheat.
Bellamy and the Storm have a way of extracting the very best from even the most modest of talent. They push players to the edge in search of their breaking point but when you have Bellamy’s trust, he wraps his arms around you.
The philosophy helps shape their salary cap, roster and their club.
They once built their side around Cameron Smith, Cooper Cronk and Billy Slater – spending millions on their spine and surrounding them with players capable of doing their role.
The model has stood the test of time. The current squad is built around the spine again – Ryan Papenhuyzen, Cameron Munster, Jahrome Hughes and Harry Grant.
They are surrounded by players who have come to the Storm searching for an opportunity and managed to convince Bellamy that they can make a contribution.
Often, the IDQ camp has hinted at what was to come.
You can imagine the likes of Josh King, Eli Katoa and Nick Meaney thriving in a challenging environment.
“Part of it is to help them to see what their threshold is,” Bellamy said.
“If we don’t think it is what it should be, we learn to let them know that.
“It helps me with new guys in the club – I go out there for those three days and I reckon I learn more about them in those two or three days than I would in 12 months.
“In three days I can work out whether we have a tough p … k here or a guy who will do anything, as opposed to we might have to put a bit of work into this other bloke.”
Bellamy hesitates when asked over the years who has stood out in IDQ. Three names, however, eventually spring to mind – Smith, Cronk and Slater.
Three blokes who became the foundation of a dynasty.
*****
The Dally M awards rarely go by without a dash of controversy and this year’s night of nights was spared the ultimate ignominy by the barest of margins.
Melbourne halfback Jahrome Hughes was clearly the player of the season.
The Dally M judges certainly believed so as they showered the Storm No. 7 with votes over the second half of the season, culminating in his nailbiting victory over James Tedesco.
It was only one point in the end but it highlighted the flaws in a system that needs to be reviewed. Hughes sat out two games for suspension and was docked six points as a result, keeping Tedesco in the race when it should really have been over.
The system has been tinkered with over the years but Wednesday night illustrated that it needs further refinement. Hughes paid a significant price for bumping into the referee in the shape of missing two games.
That was two games where he couldn’t help his team, let alone pick up any Dally M points. The fact that he was docked six points as a result only rubbed salt into the wounds.
It was overly penal and almost cost him a chance to win an award he richly deserved. Surely we need to find a better way.
The same goes for the Dally M rookie of the year award.
No disrespect to Dolphins winger Jack Bostock, but Wests Tigers five-eighth Lachlan Galvin was the breakout player of the season.
Bostock’s Dolphins teammate Max Plath should have been in the mix as well yet both were ruled out due to suspensions.
The system needs to be overhauled.
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Originally published as Weekend Read: Craig Bellamy’s famous Melbourne Storm pre-season camps and why Dally M rules need to be changed
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