Melbourne won’t give coach Craig Bellamy a one-year deal if he’s going to leave for NRL rivals Brisbane afterwards, says Storm boss Dave Donaghy.
Brisbane have approached Bellamy about joining their club on a four-year deal to replace Wayne Bennett, who is contracted until the end of 2019.
Bellamy, who comes off contract at Melbourne this season, is considering a three-year offer to stay with the defending premiers.
Donaghy has told SEN radio the Storm wouldn’t consider retaining him for just one year to fill the gap before he headed to the Broncos in 2020.
Donaghy made it clear that if Bellamy didn’t want the three-year deal they would look elsewhere for a coach who did.
“We’re not in the business of short-term planning,” Donaghy said.
“We’ve made three year offer to our coach and that was off the back of a discussion with the coach.
“There’s lot of confidence in our football club in terms of what we offer and we’re not in the business of being someone else’s feeder team.”
The chief executive said the Storm had given Bellamy a “significant” three-year offer around a month ago and the deal had no time constraints.
He said that despite the big Broncos offer he was “still optimistic” it would be accepted.
“He knows how we feel about him … it goes without saying he’s the best coach in the game and I think the offer reflects that and we’d like to see him stay so he’s got a decision to make,” Donaghy said.
“We haven’t set one (a deadline for him to sign).
“For us it’s a confidence thing – we’re a confident organisation; we’re confident with what we do the structure, system, and environment and the people and Craig leads those people in the football department.
“It’s a wonderful system around him and I know he sees that.”
Donaghy said they had a succession plan in place for Bellamy but pointed out that it was normal business practice and his board would also have one for him.
Donaghy said as well as the ongoing success of his club he believed Bellamy would be enticed to stay due to the young talent in the playing ranks and benefits of avoiding the constant NRL spotlight by being in Melbourne.
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