{"id":640435,"date":"2026-04-30T11:14:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T11:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/640435\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T11:14:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T11:14:09","slug":"melbourne-storm-coach-craig-bellamy-diagnosed-with-neurodegenerative-disorder-melbourne-storm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/640435\/","title":{"rendered":"Melbourne Storm coach Craig Bellamy diagnosed with neurodegenerative disorder | Melbourne Storm"},"content":{"rendered":"

Craig Bellamy has been diagnosed with an unspecified neurodegenerative disorder but will remain as coach of Melbourne Storm<\/a> in the immediate future, the club has said.<\/p>\n

The club issued a statement 24 hours out from Melbourne\u2019s NRL<\/a> clash with the Dolphins in Brisbane, with the 66-year-old Bellamy recently undergoing a series of medical tests.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver recent weeks, in consultation with specialists, Craig has undergone a series of medical tests and has since been diagnosed with a form of neurodegenerative disorder,\u201d the club said in a statement on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is receiving the best possible medical treatment and has been advised by specialists that his diagnosis will not have an impact on his ability to coach the team in the immediate future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neurodegenerative disorders include Alzheimer\u2019s, Parkinson\u2019s disease, multiple sclerosis and Motor Neurone Disease (MND).<\/p>\n

Melbourne have had an unsettling run of health and injury issues since their grand final loss to Brisbane in 2025.<\/p>\n

Eli Katoa underwent surgery to stop a brain bleed<\/a> last November after a series of head knocks and is ruled out for the entire 2026 NRL season<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Fellow Storm forward Tui Kamikamica is also sidelined after suffering a stroke last month and undergoing brain and heart surgery.<\/p>\n

Cameron Munster reacts after Melbourne concede a try during against South Sydney. Photograph: Joel Carrett\/AAP<\/p>\n

In February, Bellamy signed a new contract through until the end of the 2028 season, with the grandfather of four working alongside his assistant coach son Aaron at the club.<\/p>\n

He has coached 614 NRL games, only behind Wayne Bennett and the retired Tim Sheens, and boasts a win rate of almost 70 per cent, while he also played 150 matches for Canberra.<\/p>\n

But the Storm are enduring a horror season, dropping six successive matches for the first time since Bellamy took over as coach in 2003.<\/p>\n

A seventh-straight loss in Brisbane would equal the all-time club record set in 2002, with the usual title heavyweights sitting second-last on the NRL ladder, having won only two games.<\/p>\n

Melbourne chair Matt Tripp said he believed Bellamy was still up to coaching at NRL level.<\/p>\n

\u201cDespite our recent results, I firmly believe Craig is still coaching at an elite level and I have no doubt he is the right person to drive the club forward,\u201d Tripp said.<\/p>\n

\u201cCraig has the full support of the board, players, coaches and staff to continue leading the club as he has done for the last 24 seasons.\u201d<\/p>\n

Melbourne skipper Harry Grant defended his coach following their loss last round against South Sydney when Bellamy was asked if he still had the \u201cbuy in\u201d of his team.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah he does, that\u2019s a silly question. You don\u2019t need to ask him that,\u201d Grant said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a modest guy and he\u2019s probably going to look to himself for these results, but at the end of the day no one works harder than Craig.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou come into the club every morning and he\u2019s in here working.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Craig Bellamy has been diagnosed with an unspecified neurodegenerative disorder but will remain as coach of Melbourne Storm…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":640436,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-640435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=640435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640435\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/640436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=640435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=640435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=640435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}