Wayne Bennett has lost his last 12 games coaching against Craig Bellamy's Melbourne and ending the drought on Saturday night is crucial to the Dolphins' finals chances.
The two supercoaches share a bond dating back to when Bellamy was Bennett's assistant at Brisbane. The Storm mentor learned plenty at the Broncos before taking the helm in Melbourne in 2003 and winning three titles and five minor premierships.
Bellamy has a remarkable winning record over Bennett of 31-10. The 31 wins is the most of any coach over another in the grand final era, dating back to 1954.
Bellamy has not lost to a Bennett-coached team since 2016 when his former boss was at the Broncos.
The Dolphins, on 26 points and two points outside the eight, travel to AAMI Park needing a win to keep their finals hopes alive while the Storm lead the competition and are on the cusp of another minor premiership.
Bennett coached for 21 consecutive years at Brisbane until 2008, winning six grand finals, before going on a magical mystery tour of the NRL at St George Illawarra, Newcastle, the Broncos again, South Sydney and now the Dolphins.
Bellamy has stayed put at the Storm.
Bennett said Bellamy's success had a lot to do with the ability of the coach and the structures in place.
"It is just (Bellamy's) system," Bennett said.
"Long-term coaches have a great advantage because you can build teams and continually maintain the standards. You know the players that you want and the players that are worth keeping.
"They have always had quality players and he has done a great job with them. He has kept his standards high and keeps the pressure on the players to perform.
"It is just getting the consistency that you need and more importantly the time you need at a club to do that as well.
"You have also got to be able to coach and Craig can coach. He's made them a very successful team for a long time."
Bellamy said he could not have had a better start as a coach, learning initially from Tim Sheens at Canberra and then Bennett.
"I took some things from (the Broncos) without a doubt. If you went to the Broncos for five years and didn't learn anything you're walking around blindfolded and with your ears plugged up," Bellamy said.
"Wayne is a wonderful coach and has been a wonderful coach for a long period of time but there were also a lot of really good players around there then and you learn things off players as well."
Bellamy was humble about his record against Bennett.
"I don't think it's coach versus coach. It's team versus team," he said.
"We (coaches) probably play only a small part. It's 13 on 13, 17 on 17, that's what gets you results."
Bennett said he was unsure why he'd struggled to win against the Storm.
"I don't know. I can't answer that question for you. We go down there and we have prepared well," he said
"We played a great game against them up here (in a 30-24 loss in round 16) and took some confidence out of that,
"We know the challenge down there. We've got to do the job. There is no-one else to do it for us so we will be there at 5.30pm tomorrow to get it started."
The Dolphins have lost prop Tevita Pangai Jnr (hamstring) for the clash. He will be replaced by Josh Kerr.
