Craig Bellamy's legacy more than the 'Big Four'

Fil. After looking at most of the negatives from the other readers, I am glad I am a Storm Supporter, if just to piss the most of you off. a great Club, great Coach, a wonderful group of Players, and in their entry to the NRL scene a record that will not be bettered for a long time yet. On the positive side the Storm has boasted the game of Rugby League in the State of Victoria ten fold and given its Supporters a tremendous amount of pleasure. with more to come!

I have been watching Rugby League Classics on Foxtel. Some great matches there from the 80's and some very entertaining play and yet the players were only required to stand back the 5 metres. Only one referee, only two players in a tackle, players allowed to get to their feet, refs not afraid to blow penalties and the biggest one of all...touch judges who actually did something for their money. Sure, the game changed with the Canberra Raiders becoming the first professional team in 1989, with other clubs following. The game has gotten faster but the response to this has been to slow down the game. Bellamy has been at the forefront of this and do you know why? Because the Storm are not good enough when they are forced to play within the rules. They really struggled at the start of the season. They were 20-0 down to Manly and the refs panicked. 7-2 count in the second half and all the possession got them home. Dogs thrashed them because they played 'in your face' defence and quick ball movement. Raiders beat them the same way. Panthers should have beaten them but Ashley Klein ensured that wouldn't happen. People shouldn't ask, 'why did bellamy introduce the crusher tackle, chicken wing, etc?' question should be, 'why are they still allowed to do it?' The Storm have won plenty of matches but they win at all costs, seldom play attractive football and most of their points come from Cronk kicks for Slater or Waqa. Very rarely do you see the Storm put on a decent attacking move that requires skill and intelligent ball movement. as for the salary cap, they all would have known what was going on, especially Bellamy. How on earth did he think he was going to hang on to the Big 4 in Inglis, Slater, Smith and Cronk in addition to Crocker? And then you have Smith coming out and saying the 2007 and 2009 teams won the premiership fair and square. Not only that but they got to keep their premiership rings while people like Nathan Hindmarsh lost his last chance at a premiership, losing to an illegal team. The Melbourne Storm represent nothing good or the game, yet the NRL continues to kiss Bellamy's and Smith's backside. Bellamy's 300 games represent nothing except how to corrupt and rort the system. A professional criminal in every sense of the world.

Only bought two... Which they were stripped of... and fined...and will forever be known as the greatest salary cap cheats of all time in the nrl...

Pomoz - when the Bulldogs wore fibreglass shoulder pads in the mid 80s they weren't technically illegal. Was that innovation and a way to "get an edge" or was it grubby and immoral ? The underam delivery wasn't illegal when it was bowled in 1981 - was that just G Chappell trying to "get an edge" ? or was it grubby and immoral ? Bellamy's tactics are no different.

I disagree - players would need little or no extrinsic motivation to perform well the next year after being stripped of all points and called cheats.

He’s overseen the creation of the grubbiest tactics in the history of the game. The grapple, chicken wing, rolling pin, etc are all to stop a player getting up and playing the ball under threat of serious, illegal injury. He was in charge during the biggest, most systematic rorting of the salary cap – a system in place to keep the competition fair. His performances week after week in the coaching box are a disgrace. Talk about bringing the game into contempt. Screaming, swearing, spit flying every time a decision goes against him. Puerile. If a player behaved like he does in public they’d be in all sorts of trouble. He also blows up about refs and decisions more than anyone else If you’re going to be an unapologetic cheat at least have the good grace not to be a whinger to boot. Is it him that turns average schmos into good players or is the fact they play in a team with Smith, Cronk, Slater and Inglis in key positions? Absolutely zero class or credibility. Good coach who rorted the system to have four of the best players of the modern era in his team.

For years the Bulldogs developed their own talent only to have them poached by other clubs like the Roosters. Now they are just doing what every other club does to win a premiership.I'm not happy about it but it's all buisness these days

Mate, EVERYONE has belted my team a fair bit!

"The storm never ever bought themselves a premiership." Best. Comment. Ever.

That doesn't move away from his ability as a coach, Melbourne basically recruited these players and developed them from the bottom and turned them into brilliant first graders. We all know what happened but something needed to be done to stop poachers like the Bulldogs and the Roosters who just try to buy premierships.

Bellemy is a champion. I read his autobiography and if you don't like him i suggest you give it a good read! Absolute legend

Agree with Will, and Curtis i'm not so sure that "if it wasn’t Melbourne, someone else would have started doing it" justify's the mentioned “innovations" Melbourne have brought to the forefront of the modern game. They also cheated the salary cap twice under Bellamy which of course he had no knowledge of but I guess it's ok because if it wasn't Melbourne someone else would have done that also.

Spot on Peeko - lets face the facts News Ltd knew that for a Rugby League team to carve out a niche market in Melbourne it would have to be a winning team...they couldn't afford it to drift along like say The Warriors have.

You did realist that they were bankrolled by news limited and had by far the biggest budget to buy young talent( the so called nobodies)? Other scouts couldn't compete with the news money

Great coach but for a majority of those years with an illegal assembly of talent

Geez Will, you hate tall poppies don't you Storm must have belted your side a fair bit

I have seen all the stories of Craig Bellamy, Billy Slater and Cameron Smith on the various footy shows and they can all be very proud with how their lives have been in and out of the game. Massive role models in a sport with a history of off field indiscretions. (obviously it does happen in other sports too, i'm not a code-basher)

I hope craig writes a book in the near future, i would pay $200 for a copy, one of the most inspiring stories in sporting history. part of the problem today is the big money involved in the game. the storm never ever bought themselves a premiership, they developed their own players from nothings and nobodies, and made a lot of people eat humble pie by winning the 2012 grand final., after the issue of players being overpaid. and having to regroup with players having to leave . its also interesting to note ,you don't see their players abusing women or getting headlines for all the wrong reasons, do ya. theres a lot of cheats and liars and dirty players in the game now causing a lot of stoppages,,penalties, rather than the pure honest free flowing stuff of the reg gasnier days. when a man meant what he said and said what he meant, unlike the sissies [and bullies] we so often see today lol

Beat me to it. How many rules have been brought into the game because Bellamy's stars have forced the NRL to protect player safety? Do we forget the Storm captain missed a grand final because finally the NRL HAD to make a move to stamp this stuff out? Don't forget the crusher tackle another one of the newly named dangerous actions that didn't just creep into the game as it evolved. All these actions were ruthlessly coached into his players to serve no other purpose other than to injure other players. Let's not also forget the Billy slide in with the feet move that's been outlawed also. While you can argue until you're blue in the face that Bellamy didn't have a hand in the salary cap scandal. You won't convince me that the disgusting actions of Storm players over the years weren't explicitly done to hurt players and the 'stars' that take the like light away from Bellamy need to hang their heads in shame that they went along with it.

Thanks Curtis - just jumped online and ordered it. I still can't believe how quickly the whole thing was swept under the carpet. I reckon Brian Waldron will one day tell his story too, and that would be very interesting to hear.