Craig Bellamy claims 11th straight win over Wayne Bennett as Storm beat Dolphins
Wayne Bennett is arguably the greatest coach rugby league has seen but his greatest nemesis has continued to hold the wood over the Dolphins mentor.
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Wayne Bennett’s Dolphins have fallen short of their attempted comeback against the Melbourne Storm, falling to a 24-16 loss and continuing Craig Bellamy’s incredible record against the supercoach.
While both men are in the pantheon of the greatest coaches in NRL history, there’s no contest in the head-to-head between the men.
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Each are record holders in their own rights, with Bennett the first coach to 900 first grade NRL games and easily the most wins — nearly 200 more than Bellamy in second place.
Bellamy has the highest win percentage for any coach who has coached more than 100 games at 69.3 per cent (Bennett’s at 62.5 per cent).
But when their teams play off, it’s no contest as Bellamy is the run away leader in the head-to-head.
Bellamy has now won 30 of the 40 matches against Wayne Bennett-coached teams, including the last 11 fixtures between the legendary mentors.
It’s rare air for Bellamy as the 75 per cent win record is easily the best record of any coach against Bennett who has coached more than 10 games head-to-head.
Only David Furner who had a 2-6 match record in eight games has a comparable record.
Bellamy still wasn't happy despite the win, caught out on camera shaking his head despite leaving Suncorp Stadium with the win.
Former Storm great Cooper Cronk said the second half left a lot to be desired.
“They scored no points in the second half,” Cronk said. “Cue was in the rack. He’s a perfectionist, so every moment’s important to Craig and while it’s a dominant first half, they really invited the Dolphins back into the contest.
“To be fair, the Dolphins really weren’t in it until the last 10 minutes but the Storm did all the damage in the first half.”
Hooker Harry Grant told Fox League he was expecting to hear from Bellamy about the second half, despite the victory.
“Nah, I definitely don’t think he’ll let us off for that,” Grant said.
“It was pleasing that we could put some points on in the first half, we played a pretty good brand of footy. Second half we had a few chances but credit to the Dolphins, they scrambled pretty well and turned us away.
“But in saying that, the second half wasn’t up to the standard we would have liked.”
Despite Bellamy’s face at full-time, the Storm move into fifth but equal with the Panthers, Rabbitohs, Sharks and Broncos at the top of the ladder.
The Storm set up the win running away to a 24-4 lead at halftime but failed to go on with the result.
The Dolphins went down a man in the early exchanges after Felise Kaufusi lined up former Storm teammate Christian Welch in a shot that went wrong and will leave question marks ahead of the State of Origin team announcements.
While Will Warbrick scored first for Melbourne during the man advantage, the Dolphins hit back when Jamayne Isaako scored.
But from then, tries to Cameron Munster, Eliesa Katoa and Reimis Smith made it look ominous for the Dolphins.
Even though they didn’t claim the win, the Dolphins hit back late through Isaako and Kodi Nikorima but couldn’t close the gap any further.
Originally published as Craig Bellamy claims 11th straight win over Wayne Bennett as Storm beat Dolphins
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