“180-degree turnaround”: Storm’s 2024 coach will be Bellamy
With Craig Bellamy scheduled to meet with Storm chairman Matt Tripp on Thursday, Melbourne is hoping to hear something by the end of the week about the coach’s future.
Bellamy was granted a one-month extension by the Storm to decide whether to take on the role of director of coaching or continue leading the team for the 22nd NRL season.
In 2021, he inked a five-year contract with the option to extend at any point if he thought the time was appropriate.
According to Tripp, Bellamy thought the master mentor was almost ready to make a call, and they knew they needed to make a choice in order to get a new coach for 2024 if necessary.
Tripp told SEN, “I feel like it’s coming soon.”
Craig understands that we have less time to locate a successor the longer it continues.
“We’ll never find a replacement like the great Craig Bellamy but we’ll need as much time to run a comprehensive and thorough search in order to get the right person and he realises with each week that runway shortens.”
Tripp thought Bellamy was “done” a month ago, but he wasn’t sure which way he was leaning at the moment.
He stated that they will meet later this week in order for him to give a more detailed explanation of his plans.
“We’ve got a couple of days off and he’s going to Queensland to see his family so he will speak to them and then towards the back-end of the year we will get together for a chat and I’m living in hope we can keep him for one more year.”
Following the Anzac Day triumph over the Warriors, Tripp received a valuable autograph in the form of a four-year commitment from Kiwi Test prop Nelson Asofa-Solomona.
Due to his great demand, Asofa-Solomona received substantial offers to play for the Wallabies from Rugby Australia as well as the Dolphins.
“Nelson already has a tremendous record of achievement here at Storm and we’re sure he will continue to build on that over the coming years,” Tripp said in a statement released by the club.
“He’s in the prime of his career and is embracing his new role as one of the leaders of our forward pack and we hope Nelson will be a one-club player with Storm.”
Associated Press of Australia
