The former Oberon Tigers halfback is celebrating perhaps the high point of his coaching career after his Storm side clinched their second NRL premiership in three seasons on Sunday evening.

The Portland-born mastermind surely affirmed his status as being the competition’s best coach, save possibly for St George-Illawarra mentor Wayne Bennett, in guiding the Melbourne side to a fourth consecutive decider, one they were able to win 23-16 in a controversial match against Parramatta.

Facing an Eels team who had won a slew of matches in their run to the grand final after being a wooden spoon candidate mid-way through the season, Bellamy’s game-plan worked to perfection for over an hour at Sydney’s ANZ Stadium.

With Ryan Hoffman opening the scoring in the sixth minute, Melbourne controlled the match from the start before a barnstorming run from Fui Fui Moi Moi sparked a Parramatta revival late in the match.

A controversial penalty against Moi Moi with seven minutes left halted the charge though and a wobbly Greg Inglis field goal secured Bellamy a piece of coaching immortality.

It wrapped up a watershed day for the Storm as a club, where they justified four years of home-and-away dominance that had hitherto been rewarded with just one title, and their under 20s side broke new ground in winning the Toyota Cup.

“To have our club in a foreign land down there in Melbourne win two titles is a huge wrap for our club, a huge wrap for the people in our club and a huge wrap for the systems and processes we use,” coach Bellamy said.

“To make these four grand finals was a huge effort that – [greatness] is for other people to judge.

“I just know tonight I could not have been more proud of what this club has done the last four years.”

Bellamy lauded his side for their ability to handle the occasion and for their continual run of form despite losing plenty of stars to rival clubs during the course of the last four years.

“They produce when it counts – whether we won tonight or not – I couldn’t be prouder of them,” he said.

“As far as a coach goes this is probably the best feeling I’ve had as a coach to be honest. To me it is [the sweetest].

“Back in 2007 we went through as minor premiers easily and we had a wonderful side that year. This is a wonderful side too but there’s a lot of unknowns.

“It’s nice to prove people wrong when they’re not saying nice things about you or they’re not giving you any chance.”