When Melbourne Storm's first premiership captain Glenn Lazarus was asked to describe his good mate Craig Bellamy in the lead-up to Sunday's NRL decider, his assessment was as simple as it was glowing.
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"If you look up super coach in the dictionary, you'd probably have a photo of him," Lazarus said.
Given Lazarus also won premierships under modern-day super coaches Tim Sheens at the Canberra Raiders and Wayne Bennett at Brisbane, it's an emphatic endorsement.
In his 15th year at the Melbourne helm, Bellamy is aiming at a fourth grand final win when his side takes on North Queensland at ANZ Stadium, although two of those successes were subsequently taken away from the Storm for salary cap breaches.
![End of an era: Craig Bellamy with Cooper Cronk. Photo: AAP End of an era: Craig Bellamy with Cooper Cronk. Photo: AAP](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/93612fd3-705a-4755-8d48-88c4f33cd7e2/r0_0_2000_1180_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
The seeds of his coaching prowess were sown more than three decades ago, when Bellamy joined the fledgling Canberra Raiders as one of the club's foundation players in 1982.
Bellamy was forced to play in almost every position in his time at the Raiders, and when Lazarus joined Canberra in 1987 he instantly saw potential in the future Storm coach.
"He was super competitive whether he was playing first grade, reserve grade or whatever. He tried his guts out, he played a lot of different positions and he played them well, he was like the super sub," Lazarus said. "He has obviously taken those attributes into his coaching. He's learnt under Wayne [Bennett] and he's willing to learn, that's a real trait you've got to have as a coach.
"You've got to be willing to learn off other people and off other areas in other sports and other coaches.
![Bellamy during his playing days with the Canberra Raiders. Bellamy during his playing days with the Canberra Raiders.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/67a186f7-e67d-442a-9a03-2f8b8392984e/r0_0_1598_2000_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
"His players love him. One of the attributes that Wayne and Tim Sheens had is players wanted to play well for them, and obviously Craig's got that same attribute where players want to play well for him and play under him, and players from other clubs want to play under him and become better players."
The only time Bellamy missed the finals as Melbourne coach was in 2010, when the club was stripped of its competition points for its salary-cap breaches, which also cost them the 2007 and 2009 premierships.
![Melbourne Storm captain Glenn Lazarus with the NRL trophy in 1999. Photo: Andy Zakeli Melbourne Storm captain Glenn Lazarus with the NRL trophy in 1999. Photo: Andy Zakeli](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/41854048-a3eb-45a6-9e74-6e8216ac5c50/r0_0_1152_1728_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Otherwise, Melbourne have been an unwavering constant in the finals. Bellamy's win percentage is 67 per cent, and he has never won fewer than 14 games in a season as head coach.
Bellamy also boasts the uncanny knack of turning struggling NRL players into representative stars.
"They go there because they know they'll be given every opportunity to be the best player they can possibly be," Lazarus said. "I go down there on and off and it's just a really nice environment to be around. It's professional, not only the coaching staff and players but the front office and all that, they're all lovely people.
"The team and the club's very successful and professional. You've got wonderful players like [Cooper] Cronk, [Cameron] Smith and [Billy] Slater who are wonderful leaders.
"It's nearly a perfect working environment for a rugby league player in Melbourne."
Sunday's grand final will be the last time Melbourne's big three play together, with Cronk moving to Sydney at the end of the season.
But Smith and Slater will both be there in 2018, and neither look like slowing down. Slater scored two tries in the Storm's preliminary final win over Brisbane, while Smith was awarded his second Dally M Medal on Wednesday, 11 years after claiming his first.
"I would be very surprised if he [Smith] is not an immortal in the very near future. I know there's rules and regulations around it, but it's just a matter of when with him," Lazarus said.
"We have a Melbourne old boys' weekend every year where we go down, we mingle with the players. He's always approachable, he approaches you and talks to you, none of these raps that he gets goes to his head, he's just a really lovely guy.
"I sat there one day, it was the Melbourne old boys' weekend and they were playing Manly and I just watched Cameron. He doesn't walk around the footy field at all, he's running everywhere and he's involved in most tackles. He's just a machine."