Melbourne will offer Craig Bellamy an upgrade worth $3 million following premiership triumph
MELBOURNE are set to table a $3 million contract upgrade to Craig Bellamy following his latest premiership triumph.
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THE Storm will table Craig Bellamy a $3 million upgrade in a bid to ward off advances from NRL rivals.
The Courier-Mail can reveal Melbourne hierarchy will open discussions with Bellamy to extend his tenure at the Storm in the wake of the club’s premiership win.
Next year will be Bellamy’s 16th season in charge of the Storm juggernaut and the final of his current deal.
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Bellamy will be one of the NRL’s hottest coaches on the open market in 2019, but Melbourne powerbrokers are keen to lock him up with a new three-year deal.
“We will begin talks with him now that the season is over,” Storm CEO Dave Donaghy said.
“He is contracted for next season but we want to go beyond that.
“The whole organisation loves Craig. He is the best in the business and we are going to work bloody hard to make sure he stays around even longer.
“It’s up to him but we want him to keep going. He is in career best form as a coach and has plenty left in the tank. He just keeps on working and improving.
“We have a good relationship. Craig will go away and relax and when he returns we’ll pick up negotiations in due course.”
Bellamy, who turned 58 on Tuesday, proved he is still at the top of his game by piloting Melbourne to one of the most dominant seasons in NRL history this year.
He was named Dally M coach-of-the-year after the Storm only lost four games on their way to claiming the minor premiership before blowing the Cowboys away in last Sunday’s grand final.
Melbourne has made seven grand finals, and won four, since his tenure started in 2003, although the club was stripped of the 2007 and 2009 premierships for salary cap rorting.
Bellamy’s greatest test could arrive in the coming years with halfback Cooper Cronk leaving Melbourne and Billy Slater and Cameron Smith nearing the end of their careers.
However, Donaghy believes the next generation of Storm talent could be enough to keep Bellamy in Melbourne.
“This is the end of an era with Cooper leaving and the appeal of working with the next generation of Storm players is hopefully enough for him to continue,” Donaghy said.
“There is so much exciting young talent here.
“He has such a care for his players and his staff and he has built such a strong system around him, hopefully it will be enough for him to want to continue.”
Melbourne lost last year’s decider to Cronulla and emerged early in 2017 as the team to beat.
The Storm barely showed any weakness throughout the season and overcame some patchy form during the finals to rack up a 34-6 win in the grand final.
“We had a good shot last year, but we were shattered, absolutely shattered,” football boss Frank Ponissi said.
“I have never been with a more devastated group of players.
“The turning point was our pre-season camp in Geelong in January, we sat down and spoke about it. We watched the game. We said we needed to get that out of our system and this is two years in the making.
“We talked honestly about the loss and how devastating it was. We lost just five games last year so we were dominant then as well.”
Originally published as Melbourne will offer Craig Bellamy an upgrade worth $3 million following premiership triumph