Hunger burns for vets
THEY total almost 100 years between them but do not dismiss what rugby league veterans can achieve.
Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy, 61, and Storm skipper Cam Smith, 37, will enter history with victory in Sunday’s NRL Grand Final over Penrith.
Bellamy will become the oldest coach to claim a title, Smith will become the oldest player and captain to have secured a grand final.
It is a remarkable achievement given rugby league’s penchant to dismiss anyone afflicted by age.
Bellamy and Smith have 98 years between them and yet the accolades and achievements keep coming.
And, ironically, a win would come over Penrith, a young exuberant, exciting and exhilarating side.
South Sydney’s Wayne Bennett was 60 when he guided St George Illawarra to the 2010 premiership.
At 37, Smith would become the oldest player to win a decider, eclipsing legendary Dragons forward, Ken Kearney, who was 36 in the 1960 grand final.
He will become the second oldest player to have contested a grand final — the oldest being Canterbury’s Roy Kirkaldy in 1947. He was 37 years old and 179 days.
Bellamy was born in October 1959, while Smith came along in June 1983. Smith was 17 when Penrith’s star centre Stephen Crichton was born in September 2000.
“It’s a testament to their longevity in the game,” said former Canberra North Queensland and Gold Coast coach, Neil Henry. “Craig’s time at Melbourne has been outstanding given how many finals and grand finals the club has been in.
“And the premierships they have won have involved his captain, Cameron Smith. Those two being involved at the one club for so long with so much success — it’s a great story.
“It does prove you can stay in the game a long time and, more importantly, be at the one club for that long.
“It’s all right being in the game for a long time when you move around with fresh faces and new challenges. But they have been able to stay at the one club and get the same results on a consistent basis. “That takes a special skill.” Smith is expected to retire after the grand final while Bellamy has another season left on his Storm deal.
It is then anticipated he will quit Melbourne — after 19 years of unprecedented success — and relocate to Queensland to become Kevin Walters’s coaching director at the Brisbane Broncos.
Bellamy and Smith have forged arguably the greatest player-coach combination in rugby league history.
“Cameron has seen a lot of players come and go,” Henry said. “The new young guys would keep him young.”
He also praised Bellamy for mentoring future coaches including Michael Maguire, Anthony Seibold, Adam O’Brien, Steve Kearney, Brad Arthur and Dean Pay.
“That’s testament to Craig’s ability to mentor as a coach and be able to reinvent things but still have that hard edge and get results,” Henry said.