OFFICIAL James Roberts granted immediate release

[Cult]

Okay so I guess we're throwing facts out the window now.

But I'm curious to hear the data you've collected to show how Bellamy and Storm have done more harm than good? Breaking membership records, recording profits, expanding Rugby League and all of this in a state where Rugby League barely existed if at all when they were brought in. How is that not a positive for the game?

But they brought in the wrestle and rorted the cap over a decade ago.

As for Melbourne Storm playing boring footy. It's pretty clear you don't watch them play much.

I don't like Storm as much as the next guy but to say they aren't doing positive things for the game is one of the biggest loads of shit I've ever heard.

That's all well and good but how much of that can be credited to Craig Bellamy, you know the bloke the comment was made about.. Bellamy isn't doing anything for the game. He doesn't promote the club, he doesn't run the business, and expanding rugby league to the Sunshine Coast? They're still reaping the rewards of cheating the cap by the way. I only watch every NRL game, sometimes even twice but yeah, somehow I skip all of the Storm games. They've certainly been more entertaining the last two years but there's a reason they have a reputation among fans for being boring.

Lucky we get those genius, mid game Bellamy's Bunker segments though. Thanks for your service, Bellyache.

 

[abashii]

2 reasons:
- He had that same year said he would never take a job at a club with a sitting coach under contract. (Yeah I know, suddenly direct lies are not a problem... when they're from WB's mouth.)
- He was then the one who approached the Broncos, not the other way around.

As far as I recall, the Broncos approached Bennett to return, basically Hook was getting the arse no matter what but they weren't saying so publicly before the end of the season.

Seibold did none of those things as far as I know. He was collateral damage and reacted to the uncertainty that WB's manipulations as well as "I'm going/I'm not going" bullshit brought him and his family.

Siebold has some responsibility for that too. He took a job which was filled for this year already while under contract for this year himself. If you can't handle the waves then don't go offshore when there's weather brewing.

That you'd use him being upset about his kids to defend your messiah, is really more telling about you than him.

I reckon this quote is more telling of you to be honest. If you think a bloke is the devil incarnate then anyone saying he's not that bad seems like worship. It's like the far right seppos who've gone so far off the deep end that they think the mainstream media over there is the far left.

Just because I dislike what I perceive to be unfair or unbalanced criticism of a person doesn't make him my messiah. It's nothing to do with Wayne himself aside from the fact he gets brought up regularly by a number of posters here who feel compelled to sledge the bloke for any number of reasons. Like when we started off the season in poor form it had to be the previous coaches fault, or when Siebold moved Kodi on it had to be viewed as the masterstroke Wayne couldn't make.

Hook also showed way more integrity about being stabbed in the back by Bennett, than WB about both his return and final exit of the Broncos.

I loved a lot of things about Hook, and he handled his sacking exceptionally well. I wouldn't characterise it as a backstabbing though.

So no, there is no possible comparison between the respect one or the other deserves, and I absolutely love it that Wayne will forever have "sacked by the Broncos" next to backstabber on his resume.

That seems more like the attitude I'd expect from a bitter ex than anything else. Doesn't seem healthy to have so much contempt for someone you relish any perceived black mark against their name. But again it shows something of why you'd describe Wayne as my messiah merely for trying to be even-handed.

 

[Mr Fourex]

That's all well and good but how much of that can be credited to Craig Bellamy, you know the bloke the comment was made about.. Bellamy isn't doing anything for the game. He doesn't promote the club, he doesn't run the business, and expanding rugby league to the Sunshine Coast? They're still reaping the rewards of cheating the cap by the way. I only watch every NRL game, sometimes even twice but yeah, somehow I skip all of the Storm games. They've certainly been more entertaining the last two years but there's a reason they have a reputation among fans for being boring.

Lucky we get those genius, mid game Bellamy's Bunker segments though. Thanks for your service, Bellyache.

You're obviously biased and won't listen to reasoning and fact.

Fact is, these players;

Cameron Smith
Billy Slater
Greg Inglis
Cooper Cronk

and a stack of others,

would never have hit the elite level of their game without Craig Bellamy.

As others have suggested, Bellamy might not be the greatest, but he is a great coach.

 

[Sirlee oldman]

I think there’s two major criteria that a coach should be judged on.
First: Does he get the best out of his individual players? Bellamy very often gets players who have been average at other clubs (and his champions) to perform to their potential.
Second: How consistently does he get his players to combine well as a team? Storm have probably been the most consistent side of the last 20 years.
I don’t like the guy and some of the crap he’s introduced to the game but there’s no doubt he’s been a great coach.

 

[M.B.88]

Better that than a bloke who just says fit in or **** off

You're a joke

 

[broncsgoat]

You're a joke

Thanks bro

 

[Cult]

You're obviously biased and won't listen to reasoning and fact.

Fact is, these players;

Cameron Smith
Billy Slater
Greg Inglis
Cooper Cronk

and a stack of others,

would never have hit the elite level of their game without Craig Bellamy.

As others have suggested, Bellamy might not be the greatest, but he is a great coach.

His entire career is tainted by cheating. Every single one of those players need an asterisk inserted beside their name every time they're brought up. They also wouldn't have played together for as long as they did without cheating. Since his first grade coaching career started, Bellamy and Bennett have the same amount of premierships. There is no comparison between the two yet. Trent Robinson has done the same in far less time. Bellamy is the 3rd best coach currently, and the beginning of last year and the games the Storm have played without Smith are indicative of his abilities.

 

[tommy]

Like when we started off the season in poor form it had to be the previous coaches fault, or when Siebold moved Kodi on it had to be viewed as the masterstroke Wayne couldn't make.

You don't think either of these things are even remote possibilities even worthy of discussion? Pretty sure folks weren't blaming Wayne but rather the underperforming roster we had been left with.

 

[CaptainHook]

I like the Melbourne Storm.

It's not cheating when everyone is doing it.

Over the last twenty or so years has a club not been fined for salary cap infringements?

Cameron Smith has a point when he says things like the Storm should have their premierships reinstated and that the punishments were too harsh.

Certainly their 2007 title should be given back. They overspent that year by $200,000 (which the NRL knew about) and that was slightly more than the amount the Roosters admitted to spending after winning the 2002 premiership.

The Melbourne Storm admitted to overspending 1.7 million dollars over 5 years. Considering the NRL salary cap at the time was just below 4 million dollars, spread that excess amount out over those years and it's about a 10% overspend.

Is it really that bad? Is it worse than the Roosters? Or the Raiders in the nineties? Or what Cronulla have allegedly done?

I'd argue it's not.

Yet they were stripped of 2 premierships and 3 minor premierships, fined 1.6 million dollars and played an entire season for no premiership points.

That's strange, right? How on earth does that make sense?

The answer is News Limited (who partly owned the game) also fully owning the Melbourne Storm. It's a huge conflict of interest.

News Limited executives were pissed at being deceived by Storm officials. They either look complicit in cheating or incompetent for not knowing about it.

They wanted heavy sanctions to salvage the company's reputation. They also needed a huge penalty in order to show no signs of favouritism to a club they own.

So yeah. Smith and Bellamy and the Storm do have a point.

 

[Big Pete]

You're only off by 2 million, Hook.

$3.78 Million outside of the cap, and they were set to be a further a million in 2011 before they had the rug pulled from underneath them.

 

[CaptainHook]

You're only off by 2 million, Hook.

$3.78 Million outside of the cap, and they were set to be a further a million in 2011 before they had the rug pulled from underneath them.

Haha fair enough mate. I'm no maths whiz that's for sure.

I'd fit in well at the Melbourne Storm accounting department, wouldn't I?

It's a good point about 2011. Completely forgot about that.

How exactly were they caught? They could've run this rort for decades.

 

[abashii]

You don't think either of these things are even remote possibilities even worthy of discussion? Pretty sure folks weren't blaming Wayne but rather the underperforming roster we had been left with.

I don't think it's reasonable to blame the roster for our poor start, no. Before the season started we were being touted as a potential premiership threat, a few of the media had us picked for minor premiers. Then when the squad forgot how to hold the ball or tackle the narrative was shifted to Wayne left us a shit team. I'd say the team at the start of 2019 was better than 2018, with Gillett, Bird, Haas and a few others back from injury, but the players were underperforming.

Re: Niko, I'm not sure. People can discuss it until the cows get the spoon but I don't know how much light it'll shed. In my opinion it's telling that the player we picked as our replacement halfback was Tom Dearden, whk only became eligible early this year. Sean O'Sullivan and Troy Dargan who are both a few years older were considered less good than a fresh out of high school boy who had played (IIRC) three games against men. Whether that's a huge wrap on Dearden or something of an explanation as to why we didn't replace Niko sooner isn't really something anyone outside the coaching staff can know.

Someone can interpret that as me digging to find any way to protect my messiah but I don't see whether or not Bennett would have made a decision having much to do with whether Siebold made the right call anyway. The decision stands on its own regardless of whether any other coach would have made it. For the record I reckon it was the right one, but I don't need Wayne to be a shit coach or a bitter old **** who handgrenaded our team out of sheer spite and ego to think Siebold's going to be a good coach and the right choice over the long term.

 

[Big Pete]

Haha fair enough mate. I'm no maths whiz that's for sure.

I'd fit in well at the Melbourne Storm accounting department, wouldn't I?

It's a good point about 2011. Completely forgot about that.

How exactly were they caught? They could've run this rort for decades.

The 1.7 Million figure comes from their fine.

A former staffer tipped the NRL off and they did a thorough investigation.

 

[lynx000]

His entire career is tainted by cheating. Every single one of those players need an asterisk inserted beside their name every time they're brought up. They also wouldn't have played together for as long as they did without cheating. Since his first grade coaching career started, Bellamy and Bennett have the same amount of premierships. There is no comparison between the two yet. Trent Robinson has done the same in far less time. Bellamy is the 3rd best coach currently, and the beginning of last year and the games the Storm have played without Smith are indicative of his abilities.

I tend to agree with you about this, but how about Tim Sheens, his record is 5 grand finals for four wins and over two clubs, from 1985 to 1996 his teams made the finals every year other than for three of those years. His stint at NQ was abysmal, but you could raise an argument that he should sit second behind Bennett.

 

[Big Pete]

I tend to agree with you about this, but how about Tim Sheens, his record is 5 grand finals for four wins and over two clubs, from 1985 to 1996 his teams made the finals every year other than for three of those years. His stint at NQ was abysmal, but you could raise an argument that he should sit second behind Bennett.

Taught Bellamy how to cheat the salary cap as well, so you certainly can't question his influence.

If Bennett wasn't careful, he could have turned out exactly like Sheens. A brilliant coach in his day, but somebody who just lost touch with the game. Sheens tried to be ahead of the game, but just ended up being further behind. If he had have ridden off into the sunset in 2005, he'd be in that conversation, now you've got to pause like people do with Des and Chris Anderson.

 

[M.B.88]

Far out bye weeks are shit.

 

[tommy]

I don't think it's reasonable to blame the roster for our poor start, no. Before the season started we were being touted as a potential premiership threat, a few of the media had us picked for minor premiers. Then when the squad forgot how to hold the ball or tackle the narrative was shifted to Wayne left us a shit team. I'd say the team at the start of 2019 was better than 2018, with Gillett, Bird, Haas and a few others back from injury, but the players were underperforming.

Re: Niko, I'm not sure. People can discuss it until the cows get the spoon but I don't know how much light it'll shed. In my opinion it's telling that the player we picked as our replacement halfback was Tom Dearden, whk only became eligible early this year. Sean O'Sullivan and Troy Dargan who are both a few years older were considered less good than a fresh out of high school boy who had played (IIRC) three games against men. Whether that's a huge wrap on Dearden or something of an explanation as to why we didn't replace Niko sooner isn't really something anyone outside the coaching staff can know.

Someone can interpret that as me digging to find any way to protect my messiah but I don't see whether or not Bennett would have made a decision having much to do with whether Siebold made the right call anyway. The decision stands on its own regardless of whether any other coach would have made it. For the record I reckon it was the right one, but I don't need Wayne to be a shit coach or a bitter old **** who handgrenaded our team out of sheer spite and ego to think Siebold's going to be a good coach and the right choice over the long term.

Good post. To me Wayne's comments when Kodi was moved on were pretty telling too though. Goes to show how we all interpret things differently. It's Seibold btw,

 

[abashii]

Good post. To me Wayne's comments when Kodi was moved on were pretty telling too though. Goes to show how we all interpret things differently.

Aye, I can see where you're coming from. The media don't help, their aim is to maximise conflict and get those headlines so they'll go to Bennett for a quote about anything that happens at the Broncos. Even when he played it with a dead bat and pretended he didn't know we were playing each other next week they still had to hype it up and spin it as Bennett Disses Broncos or some similar bullshit.

It's Seibold btw

Well now you can see why I don't rate him as a coach. The silly bastard doesn't even know how to spell Siebold properly, and it's his own fucken name. Say what you like about our former coach, I bet he's never tried to style himself as Wayne Bnenett.