NRL, AFL coaches of the same page
Fremantle and rugby league powerhouses Melbourne Storm share colours and sponsors, and Storm coach Craig Bellamy believes it's only a matter of time before success can be added to that list.
Bellamy, in Perth for the Storm's NRL game against the Bulldogs at nib Stadium tonight, and Fremantle coach Ross Lyon appeared together at a function for major sponsor Programmed yesterday.
Quizzed on what builds success at a club, both delivered near-identical answers, centred on a culture of everyone buying in and committing wholeheartedly to achieving the ultimate.
Bellamy took four years to develop that culture at the Storm, breaking through for a grand final appearance against the Brisbane Broncos in 2006.
He said watching the Dockers in Lyon's first two seasons, he could see a similar culture developing here.
"Certainly since Ross has been here, first year they made the semis, last year they made the grand final, so they're certainly heading in the right direction," he said.
"He's got a lot of good players there as well, but to have every- one buy into what they want to be and how they want to be known, everyone buying into that and acting it out, that's the big thing.
"It looks like they're heading in the dead-set right direction."
Fremantle head into today's game against Gold Coast full of confidence after demolishing Collingwood by 70 points in round one a fortnight ago.
Melbourne have won their first three games of the NRL season.
Both are at the forefront of premiership betting for their respective codes, but Bellamy and Lyon admit it is pointless thinking about success if you can't develop a winning culture.
"Culture is basically the way we do things around here," Lyon said. "You should be able to see it in every meeting you go into, every training session and every performance.
"It's a culture of hard work and growth. We just talk about seeing opportunity, individually and collectively and it's simply a case of 'what do you want to be', 'what do you need to do', and continually aligning yourself back to those actions."
Bellamy said knowing what to do was one thing, but it was another that everybody at the club was buying in and performing the right actions to produce consistent success.
"To me it is simple, I think (of) things in life as simple," he said.
"In saying that, doing it is the hard part, saying it is quite easy.
"Living it day in day out, week in week out, year in year out, that's the hardest thing and that's the important thing."
