The Melbourne Storm are normally happy for Craig Bellamy to tell them whether or not he wants to keep coaching for another season. But Storm CEO Justin Rodski has revealed he’ll be asking Bellamy to make an early decision this time around amid a period of major upheaval for the NRL club.
The Storm have lost Ryan Papenhuyzen, Jonah Pezet and Nelson Asofa-Solomona from their 2025 squad, while Eli Katoa’s future is under a cloud after suffering a brain bleed in the Pacific Championships. Pezet has signed with Parramatta for 2026 (and Brisbane for 2027), while Papenhuyzen and Asofa-Solomona were both granted releases from their contracts as they consider their futures.
It’s the biggest period of upheaval the club has gone through in a number of years, and Rodski wants some clarity about what Bellamy is planning. The master-coach was recently linked to the Gold Coast Titans, where he has a number of properties close to where his daughter and grandkids live.
Craig Bellamy and his wife have property and family on the Gold Coast. Image: Getty
The Titans quickly knocked the speculation on the head and declared Josh Hannay’s job safe, although it’s believed Bellamy might still end up on the Gold Coast when he’s finished coaching. Bellamy’s five-year deal with Melbourne expires at the end of 2026, and he’s been making a call on his future on a year-by-year basis since 2022.
Melbourne are normally willing to give him as much times as he likes to decide, and waited until June this year to find out whether he’d return in 2026. But speaking on Friday, Rodski said he’ll be seeking an early answer from Bellamy next week once he returns from a holiday on the Gold Coast with his family.
“We’re talking to Craig about that at the moment,” the club boss said. “He’s obviously been on holidays up in Coolangatta, enjoying some time off as he should. When he returns in the next week or so, we’ll sit down with him and hopefully look at what extending him for at least another year looks like.
“That would take him into his 25th year as Melbourne Storm coach in 2027 if we could secure that. That’s a nice milestone … and as one of the greatest coaches of all time we’d love to talk to him about extending beyond next year.”
Ryan Papenhuyzen (far left) and Nelson Asofa-Solomona (far right) have both left the Melbourne Storm. (Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)
Storm CEO addresses player departures
Rodski said the departure of Papenhuyzen, Pezet and Asofa-Solomona gives the Storm a good chance to regenerate following a second-straight loss in the grand-final – after going down to Brisbane in this year’s title decider. “Some of those changes have been forced and some of those changes have been a good opportunity for us to reset the list, obviously off the back of two years of success, albeit not the ultimate success,” Rodski said.
“We’re really comfortable and confident in our core squad, but there’s clearly some gaps there that we need to address and we’re in the market at the moment, talking to a number of players about opportunities to come to Melbourne. That’s not just for 2026, it’s ’27 and ’28 as well and hopefully, we’ll have some updates on that over the coming weeks and months.”
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Melbourne Storm in the market for Tino Fa’asuamaleaui
Rodski confirmed reports the Storm are keen to get Gold Coast skipper Tino Fa’asuamaleaui back to the club, after he made his NRL debut for Melbourne. Fa’asuamaleaui is on a 10-year deal at the Titans until the end of 2033, but has a clause in his contract that allows him to leave in 2027. That means he’s free to speak to rival clubs as of now, and the Storm are in the market.
“I think he’s high on everyone’s list, Tino,” Rodski said. “He’s a great player, obviously a former Storm star as well, so we’ll clearly talk to Tino and talk to his management like every club would.
“Whether or not there’s an opportunity here, whether or not he wants to come here, whether or not we’ve got room in our salary cap, whether or not decisions we make for next year will impact whether or not we can get him for ’27. There’s still so many different scenarios there that could impact having Tino back here but I think everyone on our team would love having him as part of their squad.”
Complicating matters for the Storm, the Broncos are being tipped as a suitor for Fa’asuamaleaui if Payne Haas leaves to join R360. Fa’asuamaleaui would be the perfect replacement for Haas, and a move to Brisbane would mean he wouldn’t have to relocate his family from the Gold Coast.
with AAP