Josh King another success story for Melbourne Storm coach Craig Bellamy

After never playing a full season in five years at Newcastle, Josh King has hardly missed a game at Melbourne Storm.

To most observers it would be assumed Josh King’s role would increase significantly in Sunday’s NRL grand final after his fellow Melbourne Storm prop, Nelson Asofa-Solomona, was heartbreakingly rubbed out of the decider by the judiciary.

But moving away from playing more than his own role would go against everything that has made King another one of master coach Craig Bellamy’s success stories, picked up as a bit-part player at Newcastle and turned into a key cog of the Melbourne machine.

King, who never played more than 18 games in a single season in his six seasons at Newcastle, played 25 after moving to Melbourne in 2022, then 26 in 2023, including a losing preliminary final, and 25 this season, one of the first picked by Bellamy every week.

The 28-year-old former apprentice electrician, who once said he’d take a week working in the mines over a single gruelling Bellamy pre-season session, still has to “pinch myself every day” about the standing he’s achieved in Melbourne, even suggesting he still “wouldn’t get a look in” at other clubs.

But his status is one gained from being nothing but consistent at his job, and even going into a grand final, he won’t be changing that.

“It’s still really surreal to me. You know, I fit into this team, and I fit into the role I play in this team,” King said ahead of Sunday’s showdown with Penrith.

Nelson Asofa-Solomona and Josh King celebrate winning the preliminary final. Picture: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

“I’m sure I could go to other clubs now, and I probably wouldn’t even get a look in. I’d be on the bench or not even in the squad in other teams in the competition.

“So I think it’s all perspective of where you are and the role you play and being happy with what I do.

“I think over these last few years, I’ve built a lot of self-belief, and that’s just from experience, from doing that role and playing consistent footy, week in, week out, and that’s all I want to do.

“That’s my job, is just to be consistent through the middle.

“I don’t need to do too much, the pretty stuff, the breaking tackles, because you’ve got plenty of blokes that are pretty good at that.

“So it’s a pretty easy job, but at the same time, it’s hard to do that consistently every week. And that’s something that I want to really hang my hat on, is being able to be consistent for a long period of time.”

King puts his body on the line every week. Picture: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

Bellamy and project props winning premierships is not a new story, with names like Bryan Norrie, Jaiman Lowe, Tim Glasby and Scott Anderson collecting rings as Storm players after minimal success at their previous clubs.

King said the super coach, heading into a 10th grand final, had a way of building belief and confidence through simple instruction that set him apart form others.

“Melbourne Storm is on a pedestal a little bit, they’ve been successful for so long, and when I was coming down here, I just wanted to be a part of that,” King said.

“When I came here, probably didn’t have a lot of confidence myself as a player, and I came here and thinking that I might play three to five games and just get an opportunity to grow under some of these coaches and some of these players.

“When Craig Bellamy, arguably one of the best coaches to have been in the game, is saying to you that he wants you in the starting 13, and people like (former captain) Jesse Bromwich, they want to play with you, and different things like that, I think that was the first time I was like, ‘Oh, God, maybe I am, you know, half a crack here’.

“I think after that, you get confidence from your experiences.

“I was able to play in, I think, my first year, every game. I’d never played a full season previously with Newcastle.

King has come a long way from his playing days at Newcastle.

“So I don’t think I’ve become that much better player, but I think I grew a lot as a person and just understanding my role within a team and how to perform that.”

Now he’ll have to perform that role in a grand final, but he has the perfect “whatever it takes” mantra to thrive.

“I’ve spoken to a lot of people that sort of said that their first grand finals, or grand finals they’ve been in, they sort of played it too early and wanted to just get to the game without actually enjoying the week,” he said.

“But on the night, whatever it takes to get the job done.”

Originally published as Josh King another success story for Melbourne Storm coach Craig Bellamy