Why Storm assistant coach Aaron Bellamy is yin to his fiery father’s yang

The healing hands that helped bring Ryan Papenhuyzen back from a series of devastating injuries will be at Accor Stadium for Sunday’s NRL grand final.

But only after English Premier League giants Chelsea – with a roster valued at almost $2 billion – gave their new head of performance therapies Meirion Jones a game off for a whistle-stop, round-the-world trip, so he could watch his old Storm players live.

However, Penrith winger Brian To’o still insists the Panthers boast physios “Pete Green and Mitch Delahay – the best hands in the business”.

A 2021 premiership won with joints, ligaments and limbs seemingly hanging by a thread makes for a compelling case.

If it takes a village to raise a child, then it takes a small army to lift an NRL team to a grand final.

And in Craig Bellamy’s coaches box, his own flesh and blood is regarded as the only person capable of bringing him back from the brink of spittle-spraying, spontaneous combustion.

Storm assistant coach Aaron Bellamy.Credit: Melbourne Storm

“Most of the time, he just looks [like he thinks], ‘You’re making a dickhead of yourself’,” Bellamy said with a laugh recently of his son Aaron’s influence on the Clubhouse podcast with his star playmakers, Papenhuyzen, Jarome Hughes and Cameron Munster.

Aaron Bellamy has been at the Storm for more than a decade. He was originally hired as a data and video analyst because no one in Melbourne knew rugby league well enough, and no one who did in Sydney wanted to move to Melbourne.

Now he helps shape the Storm’s attack alongside club icon Billy Slater and assistant coach Marc Brentnall, the “premiership-winning ball boy” of 1999 now regarded as a future NRL coach.

“Chalk and cheese, [Aaron] and Craig,” Slater said. “He’s [Aaron] just a bit more reserved with his passion. But it’s right there for rugby league and his footy brain is second to none, just not as many blow-ups.”

Ivan Cleary with former assistants-turned-NRL rivals Andrew Webster and Cameron Ciraldo before the 2022 grand finalCredit: Rhett Wyman/SMH

For the past five years, no club has been able to match Penrith and Melbourne for consistency and professionalism.

The highest compliment paid is the conveyor belt of assistant coaches from their ranks – Cameron Ciraldo, Andrew Webster and Trent Barrett (Penrith), Jason Ryles, Adam O’Brien, Michael Maguire, Brad Arthur and Anthony Seibold (Storm) – to lead their NRL rivals.

Marshalling the off-field operations for Bellamy and Ivan Cleary, and deflecting all praise and mere mention of their efforts, are the best football bosses in the business – Frank Ponissi and Matt Cameron.

Brian To’o being strapped up by Penrith Panthers physio Mitch Delahay.Credit: Penrith Panthers

And Cameron credits a Cleary-led rejigging of the club in late-2019 as “the turning point” in a miserable, incident-filled season becoming an all-conquering, triple-title winning juggernaut.

“Alignment,” Cameron said, placing special emphasis on NSW Cup coach Ben Harden’s transitioning of players in and out of Cleary’s first-grade sides.

“It’s the single biggest thing we talk about in terms of having a clear understanding of what kind of footy we want to play, what we want it to look like to the casual observer ... you’re talking about 20 people in a football staff heading in the same direction.

“And there are big personalities in a football staff. So where the staff and players are vulnerable enough to say, ‘I’m not an expert at this, I need help’, that’s how you end up heading in the right direction.”

In both Accor Stadium dressing rooms this Sunday, the staff will have come from all over.

Jones was poached by Chelsea in March this year after bringing Papenhuyzen back from a badly fractured ankle and his Storm teammates through yet another gruelling pre-season.

His three-day return for the grand final has players and staff thrilled given Jones was Melbourne’s long-time physio since 2015.

Backgrounds of staffers at both clubs include NBA’s Golden State Warriors, international cricket set-ups and former Olympians and Wallaby internationals.

“And that’s what keeps it fresh, new ideas coming in, people looking at things differently,” Ponissi says.

“But at the same time, there’s a lot of continuity and love for the place. Ask any Storm old boy and the first guy they mention along with Craig is Dan Di Pasqua, our strength coach for almost two decades.

“He’s the heartbeat of the footy department, and not someone many fans would have heard of.

“But the players just idolise him for his energy and positivity, and that’s the kind of person that helps make your club.”

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