League: Whipping up a Storm

It took just a split second for Stephen Kearney to decide to hurl away his football boots, fly around the world and join hugely respected Craig Bellamy as Melbourne Storm assistant coach.

Less than a year later, Kearney, 34, could be forgiven for thinking this coaching lark's a breeze.

With Bellamy pulling the strings and Kearney moulding the forward pack into the meanest, most feared bunch with the best defence in the NRL, the Storm have streaked to a six-point lead and are almost certain minor premiers for 2006.

True to form, the friendly giant - with Ruben Wiki and Gary Freeman the only Kiwis to play more than 40 tests - won't trumpet his own impact, but those in the Storm brains trust are in raptures. "He's brought a whole bunch of experience and respect for the legend that he is in the game," Storm football manager Dean Lance said.

"He's a very cool, calm and collected guy, he sits and listens and gets on really well with the players. They love working with him.

"He's a very important cog in the wheel and he's been signed for another two years, which shows what Craig thinks of him. I think he'll be a very, very good coach down the track.

"He's got all the attributes, the calmness, and he's very well organised. An outstanding guy."

Kearney had 13 seasons of top-flight league, starting with Western Suburbs in 1992, then the Warriors, the Storm (where he won an NRL premiership in 1999) and, finally, English club Hull.

A call from Bellamy late in 2005 made Kearney realise he'd had enough of playing.

He dropped everything, negotiated a release from Hull a year early and returned to his beloved Melbourne.

He insists he hasn't missed playing for a second: "I haven't had time. There were a couple of opportunities elsewhere but I knew this was the right way to start my coaching career.

"That's the biggest compliment that I could pay to Craig," Kearney said this week as he mused over his career change.

"My one regret as a player is not having been coached by someone of Craig's ability early in my career."

Now Kearney can't call on his on-field philosophy of "do as I do", he turns to in-depth video analysis - "do as I show you".

He picks apart opposition forwards, their strengths and weaknesses, and pinpoints where the likes of Kiwis hardman David Kidwell can do damage. Just like his playing days, they follow his lead to the letter.

The latest victims were defending premiers Wests Tigers, hammered 46-4 last weekend at Melbourne's Olympic Park base - their 15th straight win at a venue now known as "The Graveyard".

In the sheds just before kickoff, the Storm players take turns at yelling out the names of opponents and what they expect they'll do. On Sunday it's Brisbane at Suncorp Stadium, with the former high-flyers in something of a slump but still lurking in third place.

"All my energies are looking at tapes for this week. I know [prop] Shane Webcke is getting ready for retirement and his teammates will be doing their darndest for him," Kearney said.

"I'm trying to guard my troops against that. He's been the benchmark for a prop in the competition for the last 10-12 years.

"My thoughts haven't gone past this week, making sure we don't get ambushed by a team playing for a little bit of pride."

Bellamy gets most of the credit for the Storm's current form, with players like veteran forward Robbie Kearns rating him the best coach he'd ever played under. Lance says Kearney is the ideal foil for Bellamy on match day. "It's a pretty animated coaching box and Steve's role is basically to translate what comes out of Craig's mouth and put it into my ears on the sideline - then I tend to go a bit mad on the sideline as well.

"Steve's that one moment of sanity in the whole day."

Players like 200-match veteran Matt Geyer have ensured the team culture hasn't changed much since the 1999 grand final win, Kearney says.

"The personnel helps. The key for us as a group is we have a very unselfish group of players. There's been a lot of evidence of that over the last two months, we've had players miss games and other guys come in and do their job just as well."

But with the salary cap ensuring rapid player movement and club fortunes fluctuating from year to year, Kearney knows it can be a quick fall from grace.

"It's wonderful at the moment but in 6-12 months time we could be in a completely different position."

As far as rave compliments go, he won't have any of it. If there's such a term for someone lower down the food chain than an apprentice, at the moment he's it, Kearney says.

And what of the Kiwis coaching job as his ultimate goal?

"That's well down the track, if that's going to be.

"My job is just being the best assistant coach I can."

- NZPA