Paul Kent: Why Craig Bellamy’s presence is more important than ever to Melbourne Storm

Even allowing for the gradual loss of the Big Four in recent seasons, Melbourne Storm has never been so vulnerable, writes PAUL KENT.

Craig Bellamy. Digital art: Boo Bailey

The Storm believe in his silence, there is a strength. Kind of like a protest at the racetrack; the longer it goes the more chance it has of being upheld.

The rejuvenation is becoming something of an annual event.

Storm has watched Craig Bellamy go from summer exhaustion to something like being up on his toes as the season neared, excited about what might come next.

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On Saturday night, it is the Wests Tigers, who don’t quite share the same excitement.

The Storm have not lost a season opener since 2001. Bellamy, if it counts, has never lost one.

Storm coach Craig Bellamy flanked by Melbourne co-captains Jesse Bromwich and Christian Welch. Picture: Alex Coppel.

Yet the bigger game being played behind the scenes is the countdown to the end of the month when Bellamy, who simply has to be the final link in Melbourne’s extraordinary two decades of dominance, decides whether he will continue coaching the Storm beyond this year or finally take a step back.

It has become an annual event in recent years as Bellamy, who ages but is still stoking the fire within, finds new ways to motivate himself.

The future of the Storm is at stake, at least as we know it.

Off-field the club is in a strong position. Healthy sponsorships and 40,000-strong in membership, the club is profitable like few others.

But then they also have to be. If, after all the success the Storm has had for all these years, it was not generating a profit, then the experiment would be a bust.

Now, though, the club realises how much hinges on the coach. If not all.

Chairman Matt Tripp says nothing, with no indication what Bellamy will do.

Tripp made his money bookmaking, where it is the quick and the dead, so he has quietly drawn up a hit list of potential replacements. Those from within the Storm system and others, with a preference for the untried.

So, the clock ticks down and Bellamy so far says nothing.

Instead, he walks around the joint like the worried professor. Stressed about Saturday night’s first game, rushed to ensure everything is in place.

Once again, this is the season the Storm has been tipped to begin its slide down the ladder.

Never mind, the pundits have been tipping it for years.

Craig Bellamy has a big decision to make this season on his future at the Storm. Digital art: Boo Bailey

When Greg Inglis got busted in 2010 with a boat in his garage and no sales receipt to show for it, many wondered if Storm was about to come undone.

Not just the record books; in the playing sense.

Yet Melbourne continued without pause, winning three more premierships in the next decade.

Over time, the Big Four became the Big Three, until Cooper Cronk resigned in 2017, reducing the number to two, and then Billy Slater took it down again a year later, when everybody was by now sure they had reached its tipping point.

But then it won another title in 2020, with Cameron Smith left as the last man standing.

Surely it was all done once Smith retired, right?

But he is gone now and, without him last season, the Storm went on a 19-game winning streak to equal the longest streak in the game’s history, finally falling a game short of the grand final when beaten by Penrith in circumstances that still brings grumbling inside Storm headquarters.

So, Bellamy looks to be the reason, after all, meaning so much depends on his decision on March 31 when he must tell Storm whether he will continue or step back into an advisory role and give Tripp six months or so to find a new head coach.

The difficulty is, even allowing for the gradual loss of the Big Four, the Storm has never been so vulnerable.

The club is under siege.

Already missing from last year’s squad are Dale Finucane, Josh Addo-Carr and Nicho Hynes.

And Brandon Smith has already committed to the Roosters for next season, while Jesse and Kenny Bromwich, as well as backrower Felise Kaufusi, have all committed to play for the Dolphins for 2023.

On top of that, the Dolphins are also pursuing Harry Grant and Jahrome Hughes.

For years, Storm has run a production line like no other.

Slater retired and Ryan Papenhuyzen emerged.

Brandon Smith will join the Roosters in 2023. Picture: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images

When Cronk moved on, Hughes was manufactured into a halfback.

As Cameron Smith neared retirement, Brandon Smith and Grant were on the rise. When Cameron Smith refused to retire, hanging around longer than a bad mother-in-law, Bellamy found a way to play Brandon and keep Grant interested long enough for positions to emerge.

The only constant has been Bellamy. Yet now, the production line is under threat.

Brandon Smith’s loss hurt the club. There is a belief within Storm that most who leave the club also leave their best football at the club, yet Smith’s loss will be felt against the Storm for years to come.

The Storm is hopeful it still has the talent flowing through but that is countered by the worry there will be a critical mass of developing players still learning the Storm way.

At the very least, they will be young and vulnerable.

It makes Bellamy, the silent worrier, more important than ever.

SHORT SHOT

It will be interesting to see how the NRL’s new go-soft policy at the judiciary filters through the game.

Such a thought might be just occurring to many of them inside the walls at League Central after a review of the judicial process has brought about changes that will see players serve less time for offences that — in something of a bitter irony — are often responsible for the other big problem in the game, the growing concussion debate.

But let’s keep everyone happy, right?

When the Magic Round crackdown on foul play was launched last year there was a hard and long outcry. Too much, most who watched the game said. They moaned the game was getting soft, and all that.

ARLC chairman Peter V’landys has backed the judiciary changes. Picture: Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images

Yet for many at the grassroots, it was a blessing.

The trickle effect was felt almost immediately.

Not only were high shots in junior football instantly on the downturn, as that’s what the kids saw in Friday night footy, but when the junior referee saw one and penalised it – sparking an outcry among angry parents – his immediate defence was that he was acting only under the orders of what was happening above.

Now, the NRL’s decision to weaken the judicial process, because heaven knows we don’t ever want the game getting soft, will have an immediate effect.

Not necessarily for the better.

Sometimes, the game needs to remind itself that it administers the game for players at every level, which includes the kids.