Bellamy throws rocks despite his glass house

"At times they were just laying on, laying on, laying on." Melbourne Coach Craig Bellamy told reporters at his post match press conference. "Having said that, good luck to them. They got away with it."

Even allowing for his prefacing comments acknowledging that other club's accuse his team of slowing down the play, this was an astonishing complaint from the Storm boss. Renowned throughout the competition as a man forever searching for new ways to slow down the ruck, his team professionally and consistently do just that each and every week of the season.

If this didn't put these claims on shaky ground already, the fact that Suliasi Vunivalu was sin-binned for cynically preventing an Eels player from regaining his feet, should have done so. This is the crux of the situation though isn't it, rather than an impassioned plea of a wronged coach, this is nothing more than second rate showmanship to divert attention away from a loss and perhaps influence future referees.

by Matthew Boyle

Jul 09, 2017Jul 09, 2017 REAL SPORT

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Replies

Parramate2 July 9, 2017 at 8:47pm

I'm glad a journo had a crack at Bellamy. If this makes the refs more bias towards us than the already are to us its time we burn down the ref and NRL headquarters!
- Yobz > Parramate2 July 9, 2017 at 8:57pm
  
  Not sure I would really classify him as a journo.
Kramerica July 9, 2017 at 8:57pm

I thought we were getting off 'em pretty quick. He said he thought the game was slow but I didn't notice it.

I suppose if Smith had of been there dictating to the refs things may have been different. But he wasn't, was he. LOL
Thooper Dooper Maltese Sparrow July 9, 2017 at 9:12pm

Matthew Boyle from 'Real Sport'?

Top shelf journalism right there.

Bellamy whinged, we won, who gives a rats?
Half a chance July 9, 2017 at 9:17pm

I wish a jurno reminded him last night who was the first coach to introduce a wrestling coach. Looks like Bellamy has lost his marbles.
- Mitchy > Half a chance July 9, 2017 at 9:31pm
  
  Agreed with all here...and I've said before Bellamy introduced this crap. It's been going on way too long....we had the grapple etc to begin with..remember 2 contracts being out of the GF? Then we had the lock wrestle; cannonball; and now we are at the tangling play the ball / and holding players up hence to slow the ruck. Bellamy as smart as he is struggled to coach at Origin level...was this due to the wrestle being cut down with Smith playing for QLD. WHo knows but he has IMO messed the game up to the extent where the ruck is a joke, and being coached too much. Refs are making inconsistent calls on slowing the play down and also lost ball.
Speech July 9, 2017 at 9:53pm

Simple storm take 5 seconds to get off a player if eels do this they are penalised. Game was much faster when storm had possession. Also scum feeds where given incorrectly to Storm when they lost the ball and numerous incorrect penalties.
ZipZip July 10, 2017 at 8:40am

That's a bit rich coming from Bellamy, I was of the opinion that the Storm were holding Parra down for longer all night.
Not only that, they received more penalties on the night, so Bellamy can bugger off!
Michael Ericson July 10, 2017 at 9:05am

I was going write something similar to this in response to the other Bellamy rant blogs. It's obviously tactical, Bellamy has based a whole game philosophy around controlling ruck speed and he also does well to influence the whistleblowers where he can to limit the penalties against his side that may result.
Ed July 10, 2017 at 9:30am

Bellyache can eat a bag of dicks