Chapter 1: What insights does Robert Craddock share about the Melbourne Storm's performance?
Now, back to Waitley.
Probably the most embarrassed I've ever been in my footy life, to be quite honest. To play like that tonight, you know, and again, there's obviously a few things the off-field staff's doing wrong, and I'm included in that. So obviously I ain't doing my job as well as I should be.
So to come up with a performance like that, the opposition play really well, but to come up with a performance like that and a lack of effort like that on Anzac Day is embarrassing.
Melbourne Storm lost 48-6 to the Rabbitohs. They are in 16th place on the NRL ladder of 17 teams and the only team below them sacked the coach last week. This is just so unusual. We need a bit of wisdom and experience when it comes to the Storm. Hello to you, Robert Craddock.
Chapter 2: What theories are being discussed regarding Craig Bellamy's coaching challenges?
Gerard, how are you? He's the most intriguing case study in Australian sport right now, Craig Bellamy, because of what he's going through compared to what he normally goes through as a team who he's basically had in the finals for 20 years in a row.
It's just... What are the prevailing theories around, Crash? What is going on?
Well, the theory that no one has mentioned that I reckon is theory A and the root cause of it above anything else, Gerard, is that I reckon they've got a broken heart because they narrowly lost the last two grand finals, and particularly to Brisbane last year, they had that game won, and I just don't think they can climb the mountain again.
We've seen that syndrome in AFL a little bit with Sydney at times. They got thrashed in a decider. And other times when teams that have been feathered out of it as cider, but it's just after being so good for so long. And I know Storm fans will contact and say, well, we got this guy injured, we got that guy injured.
Chapter 3: How has the 'broken heart syndrome' affected the Melbourne Storm?
But their ability to rebuild, Gerard, I used to joke with you annually, didn't I, about how in our pre-season tips when they'd say, team who will fall down the ladder this year, I'd always say the Melbourne Storm because one by one their superstars left, Cameron Smith, Cooper Cronk, Craig Inglis, and yet they just kept rebuilding and turning water into wine. But suddenly the tap is off.
Suddenly they're playing dreadfully. And did you see those images of Craig, Bellamy ā Twice in the first half, storming to the back of the box behind a board. No one could see what he was up to. He would have been volcanic. Then the halftime spray when he got into it and then stormed out. And then finally after, at full time, taking responsibility, which of course makes him such a great coach.
Chapter 4: What does Robert Craddock think about the future of Craig Bellamy with the Storm?
So what becomes of them, do you think? Well, look, they're six in a row. I mean, Penrith lost five in a row last year and still nearly won the competition. But this isn't the Penrith team of last year. I think they may sneak into the eight if they can. They've still got the best spine in the competition, you know, guys like Jerome Hughes and Harry Grant, and that gives them a fighting chance.
But he has built his challenge on the spine, the halfback, the hooker, the 5'8", and the fullback. And they've always been great and they're still there, but this season has showed that sometimes you need more than that. But I repeat, Gerard, I just feel it's the broken heart syndrome.
It's that they ā I mean, Pappenhausen just disappeared from the game after last season's grand final and, you know, hasn't returned.
Chapter 5: What significance does Sebastian Sawe's marathon achievement hold in sports history?
And I just sense that all the ā
pre-season work that they do they're the hardest driven team pre-season and all that they always win round one but sometimes when you get so close you know Lee Matthews I remember once said when he lost a prelim final he said it's a long way back to where we were three hours ago I tell you and that was the prevailing sentiment after Melbourne lost that grand final it was sort of
My God, two in a row. So I'm finding their games really interesting to watch. I'm looking at expressions of bewilderment on the face of Cam Munster, who's a Category A warrior who doesn't know the meaning of the word defeat. He's flabbergasted. He doesn't know where to go now. And so it's, gosh, they're an intriguing study, Gerard.
They really are. So coming into the season, Craig Bellamy broke his usual trend and signed for two more years, so through to the end of 2028 rather than the year by year that he's gone along.
Chapter 6: How does the recent marathon record challenge perceptions of athletic performance?
What is the view in the NRL world? Is there an end point because of what's happening, or will he go all the way through and try to build them again?
There's only one categorical certainty, and that is it will be his call. They love him. And they owe him so much because he's been the cornerstone of all their success. And I just, after being there for more than two decades, but there is the question as he enters his mid-60s whether, you know, his desire will be tested by what's happened this year or it could go the other way.
knowing there's a feeling that Bellamy will not want to leave on a bad note, that his departure from the club will be, you know, well, we'll know well in advance. He'll say, this is my last year. But I don't reckon he would think this year is the year to go because it's the one bad year he's had and what a terrible way to finish, if indeed they do finish that way. But they were...
Chapter 7: What are the implications of doping allegations in athletics, particularly regarding Kenyan runners?
jared they hadn't made a line break until the 69th minute the other day and by that stage south had made 14 they were falling off tackles like i've never and that was the big giveaway that's when you know that something's wrong with their desire levels when they're falling off tackles in a way that melbourne storm never does but um yeah it's uh he's in this craig's in a place he's never been before and uh
I love the way he sort of took responsibility and his captain, Harry Grant, when a reporter said, Craig, are you certain they're buying in for you? And he said, fair question. I have to concede. And then Harry Grant jumped in and said, no, no, no, no, that's not a fair question. We buy in. Well, hang on, boys. If you're going to buy in, well, buy in.
They are a fascination at the moment. Died of a broken heart.
Chapter 8: What are the latest updates on the status of Live Golf and its future?
The Melbourne Storm, 16th of 17. Athletics crash, which has been on our mind for a few weeks now, but Kenya's Sebastian Sawe broke the two-hour mark for the marathon in London. How seismic a moment in the progress of sport is this?
Oh, it's a red letter moment, Gerard. Hey, just to get a feel of this, Gerard, I went out in my car about 20 minutes ago. and drove around my suburb at 21 kilometres an hour. Yes. And that's swift when you think of a human, not for a car. But I looked to my right and I imagined him running because that was the speed he averaged for two hours. Oh, my goodness, mate.
Gerard, I'm trying to put this in layman's language and this is the best I can come up with. You know that little song, crazy little thing called Love by Queen?
Yeah.
It goes for two minutes and about 50 seconds. Well, if you played it now, by the time they ended, he would have run a kilometre. That's what he was doing for his kilometres, two minutes 50. Now, imagine do that 42 in a row for the marathon. I mean, he was flying. And athletics is in a wonderful place. But, Gerard, the fascinating subplot to this is,
is that 140 Kenyan runners in recent times have tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs. So his sponsors, Adidas, said we've got to get ahead of the game here, as his management team did, because they feel he's clean. And before the recent Berlin Marathon, he got tested, and wait for this, 25 times, his blood and his urine.
Can you imagine that disruption to your life when they're turning up at 4 a.m.? Because they wanted to prove he was clean. Every test came back clean. So we think he's clean. But as an athletics caller, what did you make of this? Where did you rate it? Where does it sit for you, John?
It's so high. Like there are moments in time, like the four minute mile. I feel like that the two hour marathon is one of those. So Stephen Quartermain sent it to me last night and it was just gobsmacking trying to comprehend it in the way that you have done and then measure off where it sits in the, you know, the achievements of human endeavour. So, yeah, it is seismic.
And I haven't read the full details, but one of the most important things is to prove that it's clean and something that we can absolutely give our hearts and minds over to and that the framework was put around that in the lead-up is reassuring.
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