Craig Bellamy's confession about 'party boy' Cooper Cronk amid heartbreaking Greg Inglis revelation
Bellamy admitted he wasn't overly impressed with Cronk when he joined the Storm.
Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy has made the staggering admission that when legendary NRL halfback Cooper Cronk came to the Storm he didn't have confidence in him to succeed. Cronk recently became one of the latest inductees into the NRL's Hall of Fame last month after a stellar career with both the Storm and Roosters which saw him win four premierships, two Dally M's and a Clive Churchill Medal.
But his former coach Bellamy said when he joined the Storm he had some serious holes in his game. "I don’t think anyone had overly high hopes, to be quite honest," Bellamy said on the Clubhouse podcast, hosted by Storm trio Ryan Papenhuyzen, Cameron Munster and Jahrome Hughes. "When Cooper first came down, he was a bit of a - I wouldn’t say party boy - but he liked a drink. He came down as a fullback and five-eighth and played a little bit at lock. For two seasons, he came down from Brisbane Norths and didn’t even make our squad.
"But by the end of 2005, he'd come off the bench and probably played 10 or 12 games. He’d come on in the second row a little bit and in the centres. He was our Wishy (Tyran Wishart)."
In 2005 Cronk was behind Matt Orford and Scott Hill in the halves pecking order and had limited game time off the bench as a utility. But 2005 marked the first season that he was given a chance to play halfback, which Bellamy said wasn't even his idea.
"Matt Orford had been our halfback but he left to join Manly and we couldn’t really find a halfback on the market that we were happy with," Bellamy recalled. "It wasn’t me but someone else came up with the idea (for Cronk to play halfback). We said, 'Why don’t we give Cooper a go there?' So, I sat down and had a chat with him."
Bellamy said at the beginning Cronk's skill set was seriously lacking but the once party boy knuckled down and used the 2006 pre-season to work on every aspect of the game that he told him needed work. And Bellamy says it was that mentality and work ethic that saw him go on to become one of the greats of the modern game.
"I told him he’d have to improve his kicking and his passing," Bellamy said. "I’ve never, even to this day, seen a bloke kick a ball and pass and catch as much in a pre-season as Cooper did. When he started the season, it was like he’d been there forever. So, that just goes to show how much time and effort you put in and how much hard work - you get to where you want to get to. Cooper (and Billy Slater) were self-made guys. If they didn’t work as hard as they did, they wouldn’t have had the careers they did."
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Craig Bellamy says Greg Inglis' exit was incredibly emotional
Bellamy also lifted the lid on some of the difficult times in his coaching career, most notably the Storm's salary cap saga which saw Greg Inglis leave the club. Bellamy said GI's exit was "one of the toughest things" he had to deal with and had him in tears.
As the Storm's salary cap breaches were uncovered in 2010, the contracts and playing futures of several stars became uncertain. One of those stars was Inglis, who Bellamy revealed personally offered to leave the club, a gesture that both touched and upset Bellamy. "That was a tough time," Bellamy said. "GI felt that because he was one of the last players there, he should be one of the first to go.
"And I said: 'Mate, that’s not the case at all'. He didn’t want to go. He was in tears when he came and saw me. He had the idea that (leaving) was the right thing to do. I remember when he came to my office. We were both in tears to be quite honest. He’s one hell of a player but one hell of a good bloke too." Inglis eventually ended up at the Rabbitohs for the 2011 campaign, where he remained until 2019.
