Melbourne Storm coach Craig Bellamy is yet to reveal whether he will coach on into the 2024 season, but the club are hopeful he may yet backflip on previous comments suggesting this year will be his last with the clipboard in hand.
Bellamy has signed a five-year extension that will keep him tied to the club until at least the end of the 2026 season, however, the deal came with the clause that he would decide on a yearly basis whether to continue coaching, or shift into a backroom role.
It was thought at one stage that Bellamy's last year in the coaches box would be 2022, however, he made the decision in May to continue on for another season.
He is due to make a decision on whether he will continue in 2024 any day now, however, has publically spoken out suggesting this year will be his last.
Club chairman Matt Tripp has suggested the club are ready should that be the case at the end of this season.
He revealed to News Corp that the succession plan to replace Bellamy will heavily work on someone who has been in the club's system previously, earmarking Brett White, Jason Ryles and Michael Maguire as potential options.
โWe would want someone that has been in our system before and we have some able assistants that would be part of the process to replace Craig," Tripp told the publication.
โThere are assistants at other clubs that we would look at it if they were interested, guys like Brett White and Jason Ryles who know the DNA of the Storm.
โMichael Maguire is another guy that would come under consideration given his time here."
Maguire will come as something of a surprise to Storm fans given his issues in charge of the Wests Tigers, however, he is the most experienced assistant coach currently on the market.
The former Tigers boss, who won a premiership during his time with the South Sydney Rabbitohs, is known as a hard taskmaster and, after serving his apprenticeship under Bellamy, is currently waiting for an opportunity to move back into first-grade coaching while he spends time at the Canberra Raiders as part of Ricky Stuart's under pressure staff.
Neither Ryles or White have landed a head coaching role in the NRL yet, but both are rated highly.
White was a major part of the Raiders' push into the 2019 grand final and is seen as a big acquisition for the Gold Coast Titans this year as Justin Holbrook looks to turn around the struggling club.
Ryles, on the other hand, has served his apprenticeship under Bellamy and now Trent Robinson. He has privately made it clear he won't leave the Roosters until the end of his current assistant coaching deal at the end of the 2024 season, but is seen as the NRL's next coach in waiting.
It's understood the St George Illawarra Dragons have already made contact with Ryles about the idea of a possible switch into head coaching at the end of this season as they look to move on Anthony Griffin, who has struggled enormously since taking over the club at the start of 2021 and is off-contract at the end of the season.
The Storm have confirmed he will have until May, as he did last year, to make his decision, and chairman Tripp is hopeful that the super coach will change his mind.
โCraig has given every indication that this year will be his last year and this time I believe him compared to years gone by,โ Tripp said.
โHe suggests this year is his last and I have to take him on face value.
โHe still has the energy for it. He is the first there and last to leave, he is around the clock and he eats, sleeps and breathes it.
โIt's going to be hard for me to process if he says โI'm not going on'. It would be such a strange feeling for everyone at the club.
โI'm clinging on at the moment and living in hope that he decides to coach on for another year.โ
What is clear is that, one way or another, Bellamy won't be changing clubs, and would move into the backroom role in the Victorian capital should he step down from coaching.
A report suggested the Dragons, who are exploring all options, may have shown interest in Bellamy, however, the Storm have confirmed Bellamy plans to see out his contract, even if not on the sideline.
Bellamy has coached the Storm in over 500 games, having originally taken over the club in 2003 after serving his own apprenticeship under Wayne Bennett at the Brisbane Broncos.
