Craig Bellamy (rugby league)

Craig Bellamy (born October 10, 1959 in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory) is a former rugby league player and the current coach of the Melbourne Storm, which compete in the National Rugby League.

Bellamy played in the 1990 Grand Final for the Canberra Raiders as a reserve. He also had stint playing in England for Leeds in the early 90's.

Prior to joining the Storm in 2003, Bellamy was an assistant coach to Wayne Bennett at the Brisbane Broncos. On one famous occasion, Bellamy coached the Broncos in 2002 when Bennett was on State of Origin duty with Queensland. Forced to field a team full of young players due to the regular side's representative commitments, the 'Baby Broncos' upset the Wests Tigers on Friday Night Football, in no small part due to Bellamy's coaching.

The Tigers were ironically a leading candidate to sign Bellamy as their coach for the 2003 season, although he ultimately joined Melbourne after Mark Murray was sacked. The Storm have not failed to miss the finals in Bellamy's five seasons at the helm, and qualified for the 2006 National Rugby League grand final, where Melbourne finished as runners-up to the Brisbane Broncos, and the 2007 grand final, in which the Storm defeated the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles 34-8 to become the premiers of the NRL.

Bellamy was considered a leading candidate to coach the Queensland State of Origin team in 2006, but his selection was opposed by many former players, including Arthur Beetson, and was ultimately vetoed due to the fact he was not a Queenslander, despite Graeme Lowe, a New Zealander, holding the position in the early 1990s.

Bellamy was an assistant to Wayne Bennett for the Australian Test team during the 2005 Rugby League Tri-Nations tournament, and was often seen 'running the water' to players on the field.

Bellamy led Storm to a victory over Manly in the 2007 NRL Grand Final

After the NSW Blues poor showing in the 2007 State of Origin series, Bellamy will be installed as coach to add some success to the team.