{"id":3265,"date":"2026-05-02T06:23:42","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T06:23:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/3265\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T06:23:42","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T06:23:42","slug":"melbourne-storm-football-boss-frank-ponissi-steps-in-for-craig-bellamy-after-loss-to-dolphins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/3265\/","title":{"rendered":"Melbourne Storm football boss Frank Ponissi steps in for Craig Bellamy after loss to Dolphins"},"content":{"rendered":"

Craig Bellamy won\u2019t quit his post and is committed to coaching on for the rest of the NRL<\/a> season and turning around the Melbourne Storm\u2019s<\/a> fortunes.<\/p>\n

That was the heartwarming news about the legendary coach relayed by Storm general manager of football Frank Ponissi after Melbourne\u2019s 28-10 loss to the Dolphins on Friday night<\/a> in Brisbane, a club record seventh defeat in a row for last year\u2019s grand finalists.<\/p>\n

Bellamy, 66, has been diagnosed with an unspecified neurological degenerative condition, news which was made public by the club on Thursday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today Arrow<\/a><\/p>\n

Ponissi is Bellamy\u2019s loyal and long-serving lieutenant and he fronted the post-match press conference after the Dolphins loss alongside captain Harry Grant.<\/p>\n

Ponissi said Bellamy would not have attended the presser \u201cwin, lose or draw\u201d but was emphatic when asked if the coach was intending to see out the rest of the 2026 season.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbsolutely no doubt. The fire is in the belly,\u201d Ponissi said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been hard for him the last few weeks, but he is as committed as ever.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou just had to be in that dressing room now to see the passion he\u2019s got and the commitment. He doesn\u2019t like where we are at the moment. None of us do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ponissi had just spent 10 minutes with Bellamy in the sheds at Suncorp Stadium and shed light on his mindset.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was leading the discussion and thinking about next week and Wests Tigers already,\u201d Ponissi said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has been through a lot with his family but in terms of the way he coached tonight … he is quite remarkable.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is tough but he is purely about the team and trying to fix where we are going wrong and trying to get a win. He is already working on next week. That\u2019s what we love about him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bellamy and his family have been overwhelmed by the support he has received within the club, externally and all around the world.<\/p>\n

\u201c He is exceptionally grateful for all the support,\u201d Ponissi said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow he just wants to focus on coaching and getting us back winning.\u201cNone of us are happy with (seven straight losses). We are embarrassed, frustrated, disappointed … all those emotions rolled into one.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe works as hard as he has ever done before and he\u2019s got a great group of assistants and wonderful football staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe certainly won\u2019t throw in the towel. We will work even harder looking for that first win and once we get that first win we can hopefully get on a run.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Storm are in 16th position on the ladder.<\/p>\n

Grant said the Bellamy health news was \u201ca bit raw and a bit real\u201d but he added that the coach was looking ahead in a \u201cbusiness as usual\u201d mode.<\/p>\n

For four-time premiers the Storm, that means winning footy games, not losing them.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is looking forward to next week and righting some wrongs and as a playing group we have got to buy into that and back him up by working hard at training and turning that into a performance,\u201d Grant said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Melbourne Storm issue shock health update on Craig Bellamy<\/p>\n

2 min read<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Storm slump to all-time losing streak after coach\u2019s diagnosis<\/p>\n

2 min read<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Craig Bellamy won\u2019t quit his post and is committed to coaching on for the rest of the NRL…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3266,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[227,260,1269,1406,595,261],"class_list":{"0":"post-3265","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-melbourne","8":"tag-lifestyle","9":"tag-melbourne","10":"tag-melbourne-storm","11":"tag-nrl","12":"tag-sponsored-content","13":"tag-sport"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3265\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}