Craig Bellamy admires the Cronulla Sharks.
Melbourne’s premiership-winning coach spoke glowingly of the job his friend – and grand final rival – Shane Flanagan has done with the Sharks at the NRL press conference on Thursday afternoon.
The Sharks have had one of the most successful seasons in their history, which included a club-record 15-game winning-streak and a challenge for the minor premiership.
And the resurgence of Cronulla after the ASADA investigation and subsequent last-placed finish in 2014 has not gone unnoticed by Bellamy.
Melbourne have been through their own tough times, stripped of the 2007 and 2009 premierships after the club was found to have paid $1.7 million to its players outside the salary cap over a five-year period.
“I admire what [Flanagan’s] done. It hasn’t been a smooth ride for them the last couple of years,” Bellamy said.
“I really admire what they’ve done this year. I think I’ve mentioned it a few times, and I don’t want Flano getting a swelled head, but to win 15 games in this competition in a row I just can’t imagine how they’ve done that.
“Obviously you’ve got to be a really quality side and have a lot of quality people and a lot of quality players in your organisation to do that. It’s not just about the 17 [grand final players], they would have used a lot more players than that.
“It’s not just about Flano either. It would be his staff and his assistant coaches and physical staff as well.”
Cronulla have gone from strength to strength since the dark days, bouncing back to make the finals last season before they were beaten by eventual premiers North Queensland.
And Bellamy, a veteran of 370 games as a first grade coach with Melbourne, said Cronulla were worthy grand final opponents.
“As a club they’ve done a wonderful job this year and to win 15 games in a row at this level is unbelievable,” he said.
“They’ve had a great year and I think they’re a little bit like us, to be honest. I think the way our guys have handled this year under some adverse conditions we deserve to be where we’re at.
“And I’m sure Flano and Gal and Chris [Heighington] and Luke [Lewis] are all thinking the same about their team after what they’ve done this year. They’d see themselves as deserving to be there and I think they do as well.”
Bellamy said he would settle on his final 17-man squad for the decider after training on Saturday.