Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time.<\/p>\n
Craig Bellamy is about to coach his 50th finals game.<\/p>\n
The Storm mentor, who also made three play-off appearances as a player – including Canberra\u2019s 1990 grand final win against Penrith – will reach the magical mark in Friday\u2019s preliminary final against Penrith at Accor Stadium. Only Wayne Bennett, with 74, has coached more often in the post-season.<\/p>\n
The prospects of adding further to that tally this season improved after halfback Jahrome Hughes overcame a calf complaint in time to be declared fit.<\/p>\n
Storm general manager of football Frank Ponissi, who has been Bellamy\u2019s right-hand man for most of the coach\u2019s career, said the latest play-off appearances are all the more remarkable given the loss of star forwards Brandon Smith, Jesse Bromwich, Kenny Bromwich and Felise Kaufusi during the off-season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve seen some other stats, I think it\u2019s our 10th prelim in 13 seasons post the salary cap [scandal] and in Craig\u2019s time he\u2019s been in 14 prelims in his 21 years,\u201d Ponissi said. \u201cThat is pretty impressive. This is another year, on the back of some others, where we have lost some players.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast year, to lose the players we did to the Dolphins and also Brandon Smith to the Roosters, I don\u2019t remember a period where we lost so many players in one position. We lost four key forwards, four from our starting team. To now sit in a prelim with a shot to go through to the grand final, I think that speaks volumes.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Melbourne Storm coach Craig Bellamy has a stunning finals record.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Getty Images<\/cite><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s incredible. I feel that it reinforces his decision to continue coaching [next season]. It\u2019s just my opinion, and I\u2019ve told him this personally, that he has got so much more to give.<\/p>\n \u201cCertainly his effectiveness has been proven on the back of what happened last year. It\u2019s not waning one bit, it\u2019s strengthening.\u201d<\/p>\n While Bennett has coached more play-off games, no mentor from the modern era can eclipse Bellamy\u2019s win ratio. Bellamy has a 63.3 per cent post-season success rate, pipping Ricky Stuart (62.5 per cent), Phil Gould (61.1 per cent), Ivan Cleary (60.9 per cent), Jack Gibson (60.7 per cent), Tim Sheens (59.4 per cent) and Trent Robinson (58.3 per cent). Bennett is a couple of rungs down on the list at 51.4 per cent.<\/p>\n Bellamy decided to continue his incredible coaching career into next season, but for a long period he contemplated making this year his last. A conversation with star five-eighth Cameron Munster proved the turning point.<\/p>\n Source: Champion Data<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cIn the off-season last year when we went away on our annual trip, he conceded to me that was it,\u201d Ponissi said. \u201cThis was going to be his last year, he was quite adamant. I was pleasantly surprised when he said he was going to give it another year, I didn\u2019t think that was going to happen.<\/p>\n \u201cMunster led the revolution with a couple of players to make him realise he has a lot to offer. There would have been some personal and family stuff, but if you had to pick one moment from my discussions with him, the Cameron Munster chat was certainly pivotal. For that, we have Munster to thank.\u201d<\/p>\n Bellamy is hopeful of orchestrating one of the great finals upsets against overwhelming favourites Penrith.<\/p>\n \u201cOur players have done a great job this year to get to where they have got to, but that doesn\u2019t mean we are not real hungry to go that extra step,\u201d Bellamy said in his pre-game press conference.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have had a bit of an up-and-down year too with some of our consistency. But losing the players we lost in the off season – we lost four forwards who took about 800-900 games of experience out of our team – that was hard to replace.<\/p>\n \u201cThe way they have really strung it together over the last month or so \u2026 to hang in how we did last week and come back at the end shows they have a lot of belief in each other. If we put that effort in tomorrow night, we\u2019ll see what happens from there.\u201d<\/p>\n Stream the NRL premiership 2023 live and free on <\/b>9Now<\/b>.<\/b><\/em><\/p>\n Sports news, results and expert commentary. <\/i><\/b>Sign up for our Sport newsletter<\/i><\/b>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n Source: Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Finals win percentages for coaches during the modern era<\/h3>\n
\n
Most Viewed in Sport<\/h2>\n
From our partners<\/h3>\n