Craig Bellamy at a recent Storm fan day. Photo: Melbourne Storm Facebook.
As a player with the Canberra Raiders in the 1980s to early 1990s, Craig Bellamy was a battler.
Performing well above his weight in the star-studded Raiders team of the late 1980s, Bellamy was the hardest trainer I have seen in my 36 years of covering the team.
A utility player capable of performing anywhere from fullback to lock, Bellamy pushed himself to the extreme in an effort to extract the maximum out of his body. He was also extremely competitive.
He went on to play 150 games for the Raiders, as well as coaching the Presidents Cup team to the premiership in 1995.
Michael Maguire battled injury for a fair portion of his two stints with the Raiders, playing 13 games after switching from rugby union.
The fact that he managed to break into the star-studded Canberra backline was a feat in itself.
Maguire went on to become the Raiders’ assistant coach under Matthew Elliott.
Maguire and Bellamy have much in common.
Both were battlers as players driven by sheer tenacity rather than skill. They both had a second-to-none competitive approach to the game, working harder than most to achieve success on the field, which has obviously held them in good standing as coaches.
They were also coached by Tim Sheens.
Sheens probably doesn’t get the credit he deserves, considering so many of the players under his charge in Canberra went on to become great coaches.
His record in his time as Raiders coach includes 219 games, three premierships and a 68 per cent success rate. This compares favourably with the current giants, Bellamy (69 per cent success rate) and Ivan Cleary (73 per cent success rate).
This season alone, there were four coaches who were players under the Sheens era in charge of NRL teams.
Ricky Stuart led the Raiders to their first minor premiership since 1990 before bowing out in the second week of the finals. Cowboys coach Todd Payten was only with the Raiders for one season under Sheens in 1996; then there are Maguire and Bellamy, who will face off in Sunday’s grand final game.
That is just a snapshot featuring NRL coaches this season emerging from the Sheens era in Canberra.
Laurie Daley is the current NSW Origin coach; Mal Meninga, who went on to coach the Raiders, Queensland and Australia, is now charged with guiding the Perth Bears.
Then, of course, there is a lengthy list of Sheen’s protégés, beginning with Kevin Walters, Ivan Henjak and David Furner.
Former Raiders players Andrew McFadden, Neil Henry and Anthony Seibold, although with a strong Canberra connection, fell outside the Sheens era of influence.
Sheens was all about football, with a passion for everything about the game I have rarely seen matched.
But perhaps the two coaches in charge of the teams in this weekend’s decider come very close.
It’s also probably fair to say there will be no prouder person watching on this Sunday than Tim Sheens. Both owe a great deal to this great coach.
