For Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy, it’s surreal a skinny kid called Cameron Smith went on to play more NRL games than anyone else.

Smith’s qualifying final win over Parramatta on Saturday was his 356th NRL match to surpass Brisbane great Darren Lockyer.

Bellamy was involved in the captain’s jumper presentation before the milestone game and the coach said he felt the honour should have gone to a legend of the game.

“I felt really inadequate making the presentation to the player who’s played the most games in history,” Bellamy said.

“While it’s not possible, it would have been very appropriate if a guy like Clive Churchill and Jack Gibson could have presented the jumper to him because that’s how big an occasion it is.”

Bellamy, who has been Smith’s coach for 14 of his 15 Storm seasons, said he didn’t see it coming when they first met.

“Who would have thought a skinny little hooker 15 years ago would come to a club that’s five years old and break the record for the most number of games in the NRL?

“If someone said that when I first met him I would have been rolling around on the ground laughing.”

Asked if Bellamy still bossed around the record-setting Smith, he said not as much as he used to.

“It used to be I’d tell him but for a fair bit now it’s more of a conversation and we’ll sort it out from there,” Bellamy said.

“I never really think, ‘This guy’s played the most games ever so I should shut my mouth and get on with it’ … perhaps it’s not so surreal after all.”