A Belly full of choices
Focused Williams is now just three wins from Court’s record
CRAIG Bellamy dropped the bombshell in a phone conversation late on Friday afternoon.
I rang Bellamy to check on the negotiations with the Brisbane Broncos and Melbourne Storm — the bitter rivals fighting for his services for next year and beyond. This is a serious multimillion-dollar tug of war between two financial heavyweights in what was apparently just a two-horse race.
He said he hadn’t given it a lot of thought because of an illness in his family.
“The clubs have been good and understanding,” Bellamy said. “They’ve all been real good and that’s why I haven’t yet ruled out anything.”
Bellamy never gives a away but doesn’t tell lies.
So when the conversation turned to other options, he was as upfront as always. Without naming the Sharks, he said there was a Sydney-based club that he had been talking to on the quiet for more than six months. Further inquiries, after the phone call, revealed it was Cronulla. The Storm insisted it wasn’t a shock to them.
Their chairman Matt Tripp told me: “Nothing’s changed … we knew he was speaking to the Broncos and some guys in Sydney. That’s his prerogative.
“I haven’t pushed him in any way shape or form and I won’t (because of the family illness.) We hope he stays in Melbourne but we’ll be fully supportive of any decision he makes.” lot
Those closest to Bellamy insist it is now a three-horse race.
It’s often spoken about him wanting to be based in Queensland in the twilight of his career to be closer to where his daughter lives.
Yet he has a son Aaron and three grandkids he adores in Melbourne. To add more intrigue, he’s always said the Sydney rat race was something he didn’t fancy.
The Storm surely can’t remain so patient for much longer. They found Ryan Papenhuyzen to replace Billy Slater, Jahrome Hughes for Cooper Cronk and Harry Grant for Cameron Smith.
Bellyache is a different story. If anyone in rugby league is irreplaceable it is the man who has built the most consistently successful franchise in all of Australian sport over the past two decades.
Sure, they will still have the best football manager in the business in Frank Ponissi, who will ensure the systems remain in place that turned the Storm into such a powerhouse.
They need to plan for the future and find another coach if the great man is to leave.
For the Cronulla Sharks, this is a huge story. They see Bellamy as much more than a great footy coach but a colossal figure in the game who will pay for himself by attracting corporate support. He will also be the magnet for great players.
The truth is the Sharks don’t know what to do about John Morris. He has become an issue that needs to be addressed.
There is the threat of a backlash from fans because he
has done a good job to make the finals for the past two years with just an OK roster. He is popular in the Shire.
This is why they are now talking about extending his contract for another year and going into a holding pattern waiting for Bellamy’s arrival.
It would allow Bellamy to come in, look over the football club structure and then make a decision on the coach.
■ THE South Sydney Rabbitohs are in a similar position to Melbourne Storm with Wayne Bennett.
They don’t actually want the old super coach to leave at the end of the season.
Jason Demetriou will take over as head coach at the Rabbitohs from 2022 onwards but chief executive Blake Solly has spoken to Bennett about staying on. There is a role to be created as a director of football, the same as the Broncos, Storm and the Sharks are offering Bellamy.
Bennett hasn’t totally rejected the offer from the Rabbitohs but he is not yet in a position to make a call on his future. He will wait until June when a decision will be made on the new Brisbane franchise in an expanded 2023 premiership.
AMERICAN ace Serena Williams is preparing for a remarkable 54th Grand Slam quarter-finals appearance after overcoming some wobbles to defeat Aryna Sabalenka in her fourth-round match on Sunday.
Williams, who entered the Australian Open under an injury cloud, now sits just three wins away from equalling Australian tennis legend Margaret Court’s record of 24 Grand Slam singles wins.
The 39-year-old is chasing an eighth title at Melbourne Park overall but her first since 2017.
Williams scored a 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 triumph over seventh seed Sabalenka in a match that did not all go her way. Williams’ second-set struggles rose their head again in the third set. Sabalenka fought her way back from 4-1 down to be 4-4 in the closing stages.
However, Williams lifted and unforced errors from Sabalenka was costly as the American took the final two games to get over the line.
“It was real important because I didn’t want to be out of the tournament, so it felt good to kind of clutch that in the end and get through that,” Williams said.
“I just felt like even games that I lost, I was so close to winning. Not all games, but probably most of those games. I just needed to play better on the big points.
“I knew that I could. I still hadn’t reached my peak. I was like, ‘OK, Serena, you got this, just keep going’.”
Sabalenka, 22, was born in 1998 – the same year Williams made her tour debut.
Williams’ older sister Venus, who made her debut on the tour a year earlier, was in the spectator-less stands to lend her support after her own second-round exit from the tournament.
“She’s really one of the only voices I hear,” Williams said.
“I don’t know if I zone out and she’s the only one I hear. I know when I hear her voice, it just makes me calm and confident. I think there’s something about it that just makes me feel really good.”
■ HSIEH Su-Wei, the Australian Open’s quirky quarter-finalist, had never lasted more than about a fortnight with any coach until Paul McNamee. Previously one half of the “Supermacs” with doubles partner and fellow Australian Peter McNamara, McNamee is now the “Supercoach” who has (somewhat) tamed the sport’s most unconventional character. They are entering their 10th season as a team since a mutual friend, Daniel Chambon, brought them together before Wimbledon in 2012.
The Taiwanese champion has since become the world’s No.1 doubles player and, as of Sunday, the oldest first-time singles quarter-finalist at a Grand Slam in the open era.
That achievement came only two days after Hsieh gently ribbed on-court announcer Brett Phillips for speaking about her being 35 years old.
“She’s ticked a box on the CV that needed to be ticked,” McNamee said.
“We’ve talked about it before. I told her I really believed she had a quarter-final or semi-final in her in singles – and here it is.”