WHEN Jay Hoffman and Craig Bellamy catch up these days they rarely discuss modern football, preferring to instead reminisce about ‘‘old faces and old names’’. The same can’t be said for Hoffman’s son, Ryan, whose chief interaction with Bellamy consists of discussing the latest game plans he must execute as a back-rower for the Melbourne Storm. Ryan Hoffman will be a key member of the Bellamy-coached Melbourne Storm team which will attempt today to win its second NRL premiership in three years.
The pair have worked together since late 2002, when they both joined the Storm. But their association goes back far further than that. Right back to when Bellamy and Jay Hoffman were playing together at the Canberra Raiders in the 1980s. Jay was the first player the Raiders signed in 1982, while Bellamy was also part of Canberra’s inaugural team in 1982.
Ryan was born two years later and was a frequent onlooker at Raiders trainings and games until Jay finished his career at the end of the 1987 season. Bellamy hadn’t been appointed as coach when Ryan signed with the Storm, but Jay said he had been thrilled to learn his former teammate would take charge of his son’s career. ‘‘I must admit Craig and I, when we talk we don’t talk much about current football, we talk about old faces and old names,’’ Jay Hoffman said. ‘‘But Craig was the sort of guy that when you send your 18-year-old son off to live in another city, you certainly knew that he was in good hands going into any sort of environment Craig Bellamy had something to do with. ‘‘
It’s been proven that he’s been able to take young fellas and bring them on and not have big heads. ‘‘He’s done a fantastic job. I’m rapt that he’s been a big part of Ryan’s life for the last seven years.’’ Today will be Ryan’s third grand final appearance, after the 25-year-old missed last year’s 40-0 loss to Manly with an ankle injury. Coincidentally Jay has also felt the anguish of being sidelined from a team that lost a premiership decider to Manly, after he was an unused reserve during the Raiders’ 18-8 grand final loss to the Sea Eagles in 1987. ‘‘That was great to be in the [Raiders’] first grand final after being there from the start, but I didn’t actually get to play,’’ Jay said. ‘‘To miss any grand final is really tough. ‘‘It was very hard [on Ryan], it took him a little while to come to grips with it.’’ Ryan revealed how tough missing last year’s grand final had been this week, when he told reporters it was worse than being part of the Storm team that lost the 2006 grand f i n a l to Brisbane.
But Ryan does have one up on his old man, after being part of Melbourne’s 2007 premiership-winning team. Jay had already left the Raiders by the time they started their golden era by winning the 1989 premiership. But he said he saw plenty of characteristics in the famous Canberra teams of that era in the Storm side his son has become such an integral part of. ‘‘From 1989 right through the early 1990s they were the dominant football team,’’ he said.
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