Adam O'Brien and Craig Bellamy generally always catch up on the phone a couple of times a week.
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Two mates having a chat. Sometimes about footy, mostly about family.
But clearly not this week, right? Not when they are going head-to-head for the first time in the NRL as rival head coaches.
"Yeah, we've spoken," O'Brien says. "I spoke to Bellyache on Monday arvo. I probably didn't think we'd talk game week but he rang up and congratulated us on the win on the weekend.
"It was a normal chat. There was no real talk about the game this week. We spoke about our wives and what they were up to and it was more about making sure we get together for a bit after the game whatever happens and I just said 'yep'. That was about it. Just two mates talking."
Win, lose or draw, not much will change on Saturday at Gosford when O'Brien's Knights clash with Bellamy's Melbourne.
"One of us is going to be smiling, the other not so much,"O'Brien said. "We are both competitive and both want to win but at the end of it, someone has to win and someone has to lose.
"We are both grown men and how we're feeling will probably be dependent on how our team performs. One thing I can tell you it's not personal for me."
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The close bond between the pair was born out of 11 years of working together at the Storm. Ironically, their paths first crossed much earlier, when O'Brien was picking up a best and fairest award for the Batemans Bay Under 10's or 12's [he's not sure which] and Canberra Raiders player Bellamy was in town to make the presentation.
"He obviously didn't have a clue and I didn't remember it either to be honest but when I started working with him in Melbourne, the old president of the junior league in Batemans Bay reminded me," O'Brien said. "There's a picture floating around somewhere."
So did they hit it off immediately when O'Brien first lobbed into Melbourne and began as Brad Arthur's assistant coach with the Storm Under 20's side?
"I guess I had to get some runs on the board with him,"O'Brien answers.
"I was always in early and working hard and he was always in early too. He probably recognised I had a work ethic before anything else and after I started running the blue [trainer's] shirt for first grade, he ended up rewarding me by making me his development coach."
It was on a working trip to the US in the 2011 off-season that O'Brien and Bellamy really got to know each other socially. O'Brien knew a contact at the Oregon Ducks and arranged a meeting so they flew over together and spent some time there.
"The relationship really developed from there,"O'Brien said. "I think the following year, he made me his assistant. Now our families are really close. I'm good mates with Bellyache's son Aaron as well and my wife Sharyn and Wendy [Bellamy's wife] are really good friends."
So how alike are they? They both call a spade a spade but O'Brien says his directness and hard edge does not come from the Storm coach.
"I get a lot of mine from my dad," he said. "My dad's an old country publican and is quite direct with his feedback to his customers so that was probably instilled in me as a young bloke.
"That's not Craig rubbing off on me from coaching - that comes from my dad. Anyone who knows me and my dad will say I'm a straight out spit out of my dad's mouth. But in terms of what I've learned over the years, Bellyache's obviously been influential as far as coaching goes.
"I guess we are similar and miles apart. He's been doing it for 15 years and I've been doing it for four games."
What about their temperament in the coach's box during a game? Surely Bellamy wins that battle?
"Funnily enough, our box on the weekend was worse than Penrith and I actually apologised to Furnsy and Willie [coaching assistants Dave Furner and Willie Peters] because I was going off a bit," O'Brien said. "I can be a bit that way but Bellyache actually coaches better when he's like that. What you see on the tele when he goes off, within three seconds, he's as calm and rational as anything. He doesn't lose it and then lose sight of what they need to do. He coaches passionately and that's what works for him. If he was there stone-faced, I don't think it would work for him.
"I haven't been doing this long enough to work out what I need to do or what's going to work for me."
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