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When you spend a big part of your waking life studying rugby league videos and analysing the figures, occasionally you stop, go back and check, re-check, where an achievement is too good to be true.
Modern day rugby league in the toughest competition in the world, the NRL, carries a salary cap introduced in 1990 and was specifically designed to create an even playing field so that all 16 teams can be competitive.
With the top four teams all finishing the 2018 season on 34 points and teams five to eight on 32 points, the testimony is solid that little separates the best team from the worst.
Figures for over 100,000 players in various rugby league matches hit my desk during the course of the season, but the one stat that made me sit up and take notice is not from a player, but a coach.
If the Melbourne Storm defeats either the Sharks or the Panthers in the second Preliminary Final next week, it will give their champion coach Craig Bellamy an astonishing 50 per cent record for making a grand final in his 16 years of NRL coaching.
No other long term coach comes close.
To fully grasp the enormity of this potential feat, Craig Bellamy has defied logic in an era where all 16 teams can win any match on any given day.
Storm coach Craig Bellamy (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
The game’s strongest club, the Brisbane Broncos have not won a grand final since they defeated Bellamy’s Storm in 2006, and finished runners up in 2015 to a Jonathan Thurston golden point special.
Since winning in 2000, the Broncos have only made two grand final appearances.
The Storm, under Bellamy, have made seven grand finals since 2003 and are odds on the make it eight this year, or four times since 2012.
Craig Bellamy is often compared to Wayne Bennett, the only other highly successful coach practicing his art over more than ten years.
Bennett has made nine grand finals in his illustrious career as an NRL coach over 32 years – that’s 28 per cent, itself a stunning figure, which is why Bellamy’s looming 50 per cent is off the planet.
Coach Wayne Bennett (AAP Image/Dave Hunt)
Pro punter ‘Old Bar Mick’ texted prior to the Storm took on the Rabbitohs to say that he had “taken Craig on again”. Mick very rarely gets it wrong as he has a wonderful ratings system and understanding of the game, but over the last three seasons he has not taken into account that Craig Bellamy is not your normal coach and team ratings need to be adjusted with that in mind.
His team constantly out performs the market, but last week Mick was lucky.
Even though the Storm were able to win by implementing yet another Bellamy master plan, Mick was able to secure a two points start by investing into the Rabbitohs who lost by one point when Munster kicked that wobbly field goal with minutes to spare.
To put the Bellamy coaching record into perspective; ask any NRL Chief Executive what they would pay for a guaranteed grand final appearance every second year and they would offer a blank cheque.
Legendary Manchester United Manager Sir Alex Ferguson won 13 Premier League titles during his illustrious 26 years (50 per cent), but with no salary cap to hinder recruitment, the great man could buy whoever he wanted. He did not have to enter a finals series, which in NRL terms means he won 13 minor premierships in 26 seasons.
Roosters coach Trent Robinson has won the minor premiership four times in his six-year NRL coaching career, but to date has only qualified his team for a single Grand final – which he won in his rookie year of 2013.
Like the Storm, the Roosters will be odds on to make the Grand Final this year when they play either the Rabbitohs or the Dragons.
If Craig Bellamy, a confessed workaholic, hits the 50 per cent grand finals mark this year, the salary cap have forced him to do it without internationals Cooper Cronk, Jordan McLean and Tohu Harris who all played in the winning 2017 grand final team.
Next season he will lose his champion fullback Billy Slater (retiring), while his decorated captain Cam Smith has already retired from rep footy.
Wayne Bennett lookalike, Clint Eastwood sums up Craig Bellamy best when he said: “What you put into life is what you get out of it”.
Well played, coach.
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