Make: CanonModel: Canon EOS-1D XDate/Time: 2013:04:13 20:30:47 Source: The Daily Telegraph
THE truth of Melbourne is not the Big Three.
It is Ryan Hinchcliffe, there on the hip of Cooper Cronk, an unlikely hole runner.
It is Bryan Norrie getting a nod on the field as he heads into a scrum, and grabbing Sam Thaiday's jersey sleeve as he comes out.
Or Gareth Widdop, a role player at Melbourne, happy to play his part, who will bankroll that into a marquee role at St George Illawarra next season.
The truth of Melbourne is the small names, the unsung, the men who every weekend have a job and, importantly, always find a way to do it.
They are the reason that, seven games in, Melbourne are still undefeated.
It is part of a winning streak that extends to 16, taking in the World Club Challenge and the eight-game streak that closed out last season with a 14-4 grand final win.
It is remarkable.
What's most remarkable is how Melbourne, confined by the salary cap like all NRL clubs, distributes its talent in a way unique to itself, and yet manages to contend for a title year after year.
They do it nothing like the other contenders.
Craig Bellamy can't really recall where or even how, but he probably worked out his formula after a lifetime of being nothing more than an average club player, playing above his weight for all of it, getting more years out of his career than anybody thought he had a right to.
The key is toughness.
No club boasts a collective trio like Cam Smith, Billy Slater and Cooper Cronk. One is probably the best to ever play his position, two are potential Immortals, the third is just the Australian halfback.
Yet to accommodate them and remain under the salary cap Melbourne has to make sacrifices, quite substantial ones, elsewhere.
Like everybody else, they have to fit all 25 players under the salary cap.
With that in mind, no club is better at finding discards, cast-offs, the under-appreciated or rookie gunslingers to fill their roster. Yet they all share the same quality.
"In those players, the Norries, Hinchcliffe," Bellamy says, picking two, "those players are tough.
"They're mentally tough and they're physically tough."
In many ways, Hinchcliffe is the true Melbourne.
"They're small for the position they play, but they're tough," Bellamy says. "That's what I look for."
Source: The Daily Telegraph
Bellamy can't remember what he saw that first drew him to Norrie, but he soon recognised it.
His recruitment process is a mixture of things.
He interviews the player, talks to people who know him, probes for a read on their character.
Character is important.
Like a horse trainer who will pick a horse because of its kind eye, or its good conformation, he believes he has an ability to read people, to see past the words that might be what he wants to hear and said for only that purpose, to see into the character of the man.
It's not so unusual. Bush people will often say they can tell a man by the look of his head. Bellamy is from Portland, near Lithgow.
There is also a gruelling vetting process. Other clubs tell how Melbourne will get 20 players to the club over the off-season and flog them all summer, watching for the ones that can stand up to it. Norrie and Adam Blair came to the club that way.
There are many qualities that make up a footballer. All are looking for talent, the first requirement. Then in different measures they look for skill, strength, work ethic, toughness, speed, size.
Probably more than most, Bellamy puts an emphasis on tough players.
"Usually, those guys are pretty consistent, week in, week out," he says.
While their highs will never be as high as the likes of more talented players, neither will their poor games ever be poor as the sullen superstars at some other clubs.
He knows those blokes will kill you in a minute. With that understood, coaching becomes easier. Not easy, just easier.
That's how Melbourne dug themselves out of trouble last week against New Zealand, when the streak was under threat. It's why they got Souths the week before, holding on for longer than the Rabbitohs were willing to hang on.
"If you know your limits in a team and your limits in a player you can work with that," he says. "When you don't know what you're getting each week, that's frustrating. But if they're tough, his best performance and his worst performance aren't usually that far apart."
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