Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy confirms he’s been in discussions with Brisbane to replace Wayne Bennett

CRAIG Bellamy has confirmed he’s been in discussions with Brisbane and said if he was to leave Melbourne it would be at the end of the 2018 season.

CRAIG Bellamy was always coming out of contract at the end of this season, way, way before it even begun.

The master coach was also always going to get a multi-year, multimillion-dollar offer from Melbourne Storm to continue his 16-year tenure at the club which he has turned in to an NRL powerhouse.

That the 58-year-old still doesn’t know whether he wants to remain at the helm next year, given it’s 11 rounds in to the season, the situation is controllable and Bellamy, beyond all others, only worries about what he can control, should be of concern.

More concerning is that when the Brisbane Broncos pursuit of Bellamy moved beyond the annual fishing expedition to actual talks, with the coach, in Melbourne, and that pursuit became public, he still didn’t put his foot firmly in the home team’s camp.

On Wednesday Bellamy was confronted with an uncomfortable reality; the media, and fans, baying for a decision he couldn’t commit to.

He confirmed he had spoken to the Broncos, but denied, as the Brisbane CEO Paul White did, that he’d been made any sort of offer to replace Wayne Bennett.

But Bellamy, a coach who has made situational control a hallmark, said he just hadn’t had time to truly weigh up all the pros and cons of an offer from Storm, which has been on the table for weeks.

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He knows he’ll now be hounded until he does make a decision, and the impact of that continued speculation could yet be telling.

But he just hasn’t made up his mind.

Even after Wednesday’s revelations that if he was to take over the Broncos it wouldn’t be until 2020, which would require a year off because Melbourne is not going to give him a one year deal, Bellamy still said he’d make a decision when he’s good and ready.

Could Bellamy leave Melbourne behind?

And it won’t be any time before next week’s bye round, when he sits down, with pen and paper, to weigh up the pros and cons of going on.

“I know you don’t believe me but it has been a really hectic last three weeks. I really haven’t had a whole heap of time to give it the thought that it needs,” Bellamy said of the offer put on the table from Storm.

“I’m not going to say that next week you are going to get a decision either. But I’m going to go through the Storm offer and decide what I want to do.

“There’s a whole heap of things to go through, not just the dollar signs.

Bellamy is regarded as the NRL’s best coach.

“I have to make sure I am very, very clear in what I want to do. I’m not going to make a decision to get (the media) off my back, I’m going to make a decision that’s right for myself, my family and the club.”

Cameron Smith has been club captain for almost Bellamy’s entire tenure and made his thoughts on the matter clear.

“Don’t leave me Craig,” Smith screamed as he walked past the media scrum at Melbourne Airport where Bellamy was copping a grilling that wouldn’t have happened until the “secret” meeting with the Broncos got out.

It was a throwaway line, but could prove crucial because Bellamy hates coaching against his own players.

He can’t help it when they leave, but he can avoid it by staying.

That might be the first “pro” that goes on Bellamy’s list next weekend, a list that could determine the direction of one of the greatest coaching careers in NRL history, and the immediate course for two of the biggest clubs in the game.

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