It didn’t take long for Craig Bellamy to figure out that a rabbit caught in winter was worth more than one snared in summer.
“I was probably 11 or 12,” says Bellamy of his first paying job.
“I used to trap rabbits, sell the skins and sell the actual rabbit meat to the butchers. That’s how I used to get a bit of extra money for my footy boots or whatever.
“I remember we used to get our pushbikes, me and a couple of mates, and we’d go set the traps.
“We used to always do it in winter. Out where I came from it was bloody cold in winter. You’d be riding your bike in minus-two temperatures going out because the thickness of the rabbit fur was at its highest.”
It was out there, in the central tablelands town of Oberon, that Bellamy’s famous work ethic was born. It’s a trait that carried him to premiership success as a player at the Raiders despite, by his own estimation, only limited talent. And it’s the same attribute that will see him clock up a 500th game with the clipboard for his beloved Melbourne Storm, making him just the fourth NRL coach to reach the mark, behind Wayne Bennett, Tim Sheens and Brian Smith.
