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Should I spray or should I go? Bellamy’s Farnham-like long history of toying with retirement

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Expert
25th March, 2022
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For anyone expecting Craig Bellamy to hang up the coaching clipboard at the end of the season, don’t get your hopes up. 

Bellamy has threatened to give the coaching game away more times than John Farnham has had farewell tours. 

Farnham retired in 2002 with his Last Time tour, the same year Bellamy made his NRL coaching debut. 

He then returned a few years later for a concert series with Tom Jones (Farnham, not Bellamy), leading to a disgruntled fan lodging a complaint with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. 

Bellamy’s current multimillion-dollar contract with the Storm runs until the end of 2026 but allows him to make the transition from head coach to an overseeing role at a time of his choosing. 

He was supposed to make a call for 2023 by the end of this month but the Storm are not holding him to the deadline and Bellamy seems in no rush to commit as yet. 

Heading into Saturday night’s clash with Parramatta his more immediate concern is finding an available hooker with Harry Grant and Tyran Wishart in COVID isolation and Bronson Garlick breaking his leg last week. 

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - FEBRUARY 16: John Farnham performs during Fire Fight Australia at ANZ Stadium on February 16, 2020 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Cole Bennetts/Getty Images)

John Farnham performs during Fire Fight Australia at ANZ Stadium on February 16, 2020. (Photo by Cole Bennetts/Getty Images)

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Brandon Smith is now a decent chance of making an early return from a fractured hand but Bellamy said on Friday his fitness is down so even if he does play, he won’t last the match so they’ve brought Tyson Smoothy into the mix for the AAMI Park assignment from Sunshine Coast Falcons

The uncertainty over Bellamy’s future is weighing on the mind of Cameron Munster, according to his agent Braith Anasta, as the star five-eighth, along with Jahrome Hughes and Harry Grant enter the final stages of negotiations on long-term contract extensions.

Bellamy said he hoped the trio would ink their deals soon but his own future will not be sorted for a while.

Assistant coach Marc Brentnall is being groomed as the three-time premiership-winner’s replacement if and when he does call it quits.

It’s often said by sportspeople that they will know when the time is right to retire but clearly the 62-year-old has never reached that point despite toying with the notion several times during his superlative career which reached 500 games with last Thursday’s win over South Sydney.

Brandon Smith looks to pass.

(Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)

Bellamy’s history of eyeing off retirement, in his own words

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Like a lot of people who can’t give up an aspect of their life which is something of an addiction, Bellamy has constantly hinted at being in the coaching game for a good time not a long time since taking over at the Storm two decades ago.

He has flirted with a potential switch to Brisbane a couple of times and even conceded he thought about quitting altogether at the height of Melbourne’s salary cap scandal in 2010.

Bellamy after signing his first extension in 2004: “I signed [my first contract] for two years because I want to see how it goes. This is my first go at senior coaching. I didn’t want to sign a long-term contract and be a burden to the club or the club be a burden to me.”

In 2008 after rejecting Brisbane’s offer to replace Wayne Bennett, re-signing until 2013: “As time goes on you sway to and fro, I don’t know how close but at a couple of stages there it was 60-40 I was going to go. It was a tough decision, I don’t think there’s been any secret, my attraction to going back to the Broncos was my kids live up there.”

Craig Bellamy wears a Gatorade shower following the NRL Grand Final victory

Craig Bellamy takes a Gatorade shower after the Storm’s 2012 grand final win. (AAP Image/Ben Zonner)

Talking about potentially walking away from coaching in the aftermath of the 2010 after salary cap scandal: “`I don’t know about close but I certainly thought about it.” 

In 2012 after the Dragons made a huge play for his services: “The Storm has been very good to me but I am 50-50 in my thinking as this will probably be my last contract.”

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In 2014 after re-signing with the Storm until the end of 2016: “I’ll be retiring after this one, I don’t think I’ll be going much longer past this contract. Five years ago, I said I’d be finished after my last contract and I’m still here.

In 2018 when asked about the possibility of him taking a year off before returning to Brisbane when Bennett moved to Souths: “If I do move on it will be at the end of this year. I’ve never had a year off. You could look at it in two ways. It could be refreshing and you can go and have a look at other organisations and pick up some things.”

Also in 2018 when asked about his long-term plans: “I’m not thinking ‘I don’t want to do this anymore because I’m heading into my 60s’. If I don’t want to coach it’ll be because I don’t want to do it.”

In 2020 before guiding Melbourne to the premiership: “If you ask me six weeks after I finish, I might have a different answer, but I’m thinking that [the 2021 season] will be my tenure as a head coach, without a doubt. I’m pretty sure that at this time next year I will be close to finishing.”

In 2021 after signing a five-year deal with unique transition clauses: “I will be the head coach next year and then I will sit down with the club at the end of each year and talk about what role I might play. I think I’m getting close to that part-time role. The flexibility is anytime during the contract at the end of the season, any of those five years, if I want to pull the pin I can.”

Farnham footnote: “Whispering Jack” continued performing after The Last Time controversy before concerts were cancelled during the pandemic, claiming he never actually retired and that the title of the tour was simply a reference to one of his songs. 

To save you a Google search, his official website has nothing listed in the upcoming tours tab but that doesn’t mean he won’t be back. On a serious note, the 72-year-old has revealed he suffers from tinnitus – a ringing in the airs – so maybe the last time he performed in the 2020 bushfire relief concert was indeed The Last Time.

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