Craig Bellamy was “devastated all over again” by the 2016 grand final but can only look forward

CRAIG Bellamy was “devastated all over again” when he watched a replay of the 2016 grand final but says he can only look forward as the Storm prepare for 2017.

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA — OCTOBER 02: Storm coach, Craig Bellamy looks dejected after the 2016 NRL Grand Final match between the Cronulla Sutherland Sharks and the Melbourne Storm at ANZ Stadium on October 2, 2016 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)

WHEN he finally got around to watching a replay of last year’s Grand Final, which he’s done only once, Craig Bellamy was “devastated all over again”.

But it was only a momentary state of despondence.

Bellamy had lost Grand Finals before last year’s heart-stopping defeat by Cronulla, but has won them too and going in to his 15th season in charge knows their value is limited when it comes to a new campaign.

And more so this year than others, because the post-season turnover at Storm has been unlike anything Bellamy has experienced before, and this at a club so used to saying plenty of goodbyes.

Gone, just from the Grand Final side, are Test backrower Kevin Proctor, try-scoring winger Marika Korobiete, five-eighth Blake Green and bench utility Ben Hampton. And Kiwi international Tohu Harris will miss the first half of the season with stress fractures in his foot too.

The Storm came so close to another title.

It makes watching last year’s decider even less relevant.

“I only watched it once. That was enough. It took me a while to do that, way after Christmas,” Bellamy told the Herald Sun as he prepared for Round 1.

“It was basically what I thought during the game, not a whole heap changed watching it. It was very disappointing, devastating really. But having said that, you watch the game, they were brave as.

“We had, I wouldn’t say the perfect year, but if we had of won the Grand Final, you know, we won the minor premiership, we were the best defensive team in the competition, we won a lot of big games and we had a lot of injuries. It would have been one hell of a year, it was anyway.

The Storm have endured a fair bit of player turnover this off-season.

“But if you start living too much on last year, if we’d of won that, or worry about losing, if you are in your cave for too long, it is going to affect this year. You just have to get out of that.”

Bellamy was always going to slip in to gear when pre-season training began, he’s never missed that alarm.

But he had little choice this time, with a raft of new faces to welcome, and positions to slot them in to.

“I only watched it once. That was enough. It took me a while to do that, way after Christmas,”

“It’s a new team. I can’t remember any time where a team has played in a Grand Final and lost four players out of it,” he said.

“That doesn’t seem to happen these days, but for whatever reason, it has happened to us.”

“All those guys were experienced players too … we are going to miss all those guys. But there is a lot of work gone in to looking at different players, some changing positions or roles, others just getting used to taking the place of one of those guys.

“We have persevered and a lot of guys have shown a lot of patience and worked really hard. Hopefully we reap the benefits of that hard work.”

All the adjustments were the sort Bellamy would have preferred to have avoided in a year he’ll turn 58. But he had an idea something like this was coming.

“I would rather it be a little bit easier at the moment,” he said, that rarest of things, a Bellamy smile, drifting across his face.

“It does help keep you on your toes, and you don’t stop thinking about it, which keeps you occupied too. But there have been a few too many changes this year to be enjoyable I must say.

“Some people would call it a rebuild, I don’t see it as that. It’s as close to it without being that. There are a lot of things been tried …. coming up with stuff for someone to play a different role too.

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“We have tried them all out since Christmas and nailed it down a little bit more.”

Progression and improvement remains a footballing necessity too, and no-one knows that more than Bellamy. He has travelled the world in recent years, learning from the biggest sporting groups on the planet, from powerhouse European soccer clubs to NFL outfits in the US.

He’s always armed himself with the best ways to keep getting the best out of his players.

It’s a bigger job this year than previous ones with so much new information to get in to so many players in what really is not a long amount of time.

The Storm are poised for another title tilt.

But beyond all he can do Storm’s success this year could, more than ever, be player driven.

“We have lost some experience and some good players, permanent first-graders. But they are gone and if I am not a permanent first grader that means there is a position for me,” he said.

“We’ve got a winger, a half, a wide-runner, a guy that fills a multiple positions off the bench. Anyone in our group now, there is a chance for them to go and grab a position.

“While I’ll have my ideas on who fits best here and there, but until you try them … and we have had a couple of trials and done some training, but if you get six or seven rounds in to the competition, that’s when you know who is making a grab for those positions, and who ain’t.

“There’s a great opportunity for some guys who are not regulars in our team to go grab a position, and they should be as hungry as hell.”

MELBOURNE STORM 2017

In: Josh Addo-Carr (Wests Tigers), Brandon Smith (Cowboys), Vincent Leuluai (Roosters), Jahrome Hughes (Cowboys), Ryley Jacks (Sunshine Coast Falcons)

Out: Marika Koroibete (rugby union), Josh Kerr (Dragons), Ryan Morgan (St Helens, Eng.), Blake Green (Sea Eagles), Francis Tualau (Bulldogs), Ben Hampton (Cowboys), Richard Kennar (Bulldogs), Kevin Proctor (Titans), Matt White

FIXTURES

v Bulldogs (a) Fri. 3 March

v NZ Warriors (a) Fri. 10 March

v Brisbane (h) Thu 16 March

v Wests Tigers (a) Sun 26 March

v Penrith (h) Sat 1 April

v Cronulla (h) Sun 9 April

v Manly (a) Sat 15 April

v NZ Warriors (h) Tue 25 April

v St George Illawarra (a) Sun 30 April

v Gold Coast (a) Sat 13 May

v South Sydney (Perth) Sun 21 May

BYE

v Newcastle (h) Fri. 2 June

v Cronulla (a) Thu 8 June

v North Queensland (h) Sat 17 June

v Sydney Roosters (Adelaide) Sat 24 June

v Brisbane (a) Fri. 30 June

v Parramatta (h) Sat 8 July

BYE

v Canberra (a) Sat 22 July

v Manly (h) TBC

v North Queensland (a) TBC

v Sydney Roosters (h) TBC

v Newcastle (a) TBC

v South Sydney (h) TBC

v Canberra (h) TBC

Originally published as Craig Bellamy was “devastated all over again” by the 2016 grand final but can only look forward