The backing of senior Melbourne players helped persuade Craig Bellamy to go around for a 24th year, extending his record as the longest-serving coach at one NRL club.
Bellamy announced before Storm training on Thursday he will take up the final year of his unique five-year contract, which allows him to make a call on his future each year.
"It always seems to be the same answer every year but I'm enjoying myself working with the group we've got here," the 65-year-old said.
"There's obviously considerations with the footy and with the club and also private things as well ... sometimes it takes a while to work it all out, but this is where we've come to."
He still has two years to match Kevin Sheedy's AFL coaching stint at Essendon, while among long-standing global coaches Alex Ferguson managed Manchester United for 26 years.
Taking on the Storm job in 2003 and overseeing 588 games, as well as two previously when he was an assistant at Brisbane, Bellamy said he hadn't made a decision beyond next season, when his contract ends.
"I'm just taking it a week at a time, that's how I take my life and footy as well so I'm not getting too far ahead of myself," he said.
Cameron Munster usually makes an annual pilgrimage to his coach's office to help convince him to sign on and while the star playmaker didn't this year, Bellamy said he still sought the opinion of some of his players.
"A couple of guys I did talk to, they were quite happy for the decision as well," he said.
"I said to them, just tell me what you really think, tell me the truth, so they were quite happy for me to go on as well so I think that's a sign because if they weren't, I wouldn't have."
In perhaps a pointer to his future, Bellamy admitted he had revelled in his recent role as an advisor to the NSW State of Origin team.
The Storm are hopeful that when he does step down from a full-time coaching role he will remain with the club in a similar consultancy position.
Bellamy has already been linked to such a role with the Gold Coast Titans in 2027.
"I really enjoyed it," he said of his week in Blues camp.
Asked if he had any difficulties taking a back-seat to head coach Laurie Daley, he said it was "easy as, no problems whatsoever".
"It was different certainly, but I didn't have any problems with shutting my mouth.
"I offered my opinion if I thought it was worthwhile, but other than that I just tried to assist the coaches and, like I say, it was an enjoyable week."
Last year's losing grand finalists, Melbourne are currently in fourth spot on the NRL ladder and in the hunt for a 22nd finals series on Bellamy's watch.
But ahead of their clash with sixth-placed North Queensland on Friday night, he said they needed to find some winning consistency having gone win-lose since round six.
"We're in a pretty good position on the table, if you only look at that, but, our consistency hasn't been where we'd like it or where it should be.
"So, that's an area we need to sort out and get a bit of consistency into our preparation and hopefully that will show up on the field."