MELBOURNE coach Craig Bellamy will have another try at reclaiming the State of Origin trophy for NSW next season.

After a year when the Storm lost three games while he was on Origin duties and then suffered a 40-0 grand final loss to Manly, it was thought Bellamy might give Origin away to concentrate on guiding Melbourne through what is looming as a difficult season next year.

But NSW Rugby League managing director Geoff Carr, who met Bellamy earlier this month, offered a number of inducements to help lessen the workload, which is believed to have helped sway the Storm mentor.

"We were confident that Craig was the right person for the job but that after the tough season he had we needed to let him have a bit of a break, get footy out of his mind and then think through his next season clearly and, fortunately for us, he's agreed to do it," Carr said. "He just needed to clear his own mind and make sure that he was up to two major challenges."

Storm chief executive Brian Waldron said the club supported Bellamy's decision. Next season's draw, in which the Storm have byes before Origins I and III, and an offer by the NSWRL of a full-time assistant coach to help him throughout the series, had appealed to Bellamy.

With Bellamy in charge this year, the Blues lost to Queensland 2-1.

¡ Brisbane is angling to reignite the NRL career of one of it's favourite players with former Australian centre Michael De Vere keen to pull on a Broncos jumper again next year.

Two weeks after former Kiwis star Stacey Jones announced he was coming out of retirement to rejoin the NZ Warriors, Brisbane chief executive Bruno Cullen is in talks with NRL salary cap commissioner Ian Schubert about adding De Vere to the club's roster.

"I'm keen to play if the body holds up," said De Vere, 31, at Brisbane's first official training yesterday. "I've got the desire back. Age is not a factor, I'm only three months older than Darren Lockyer."

De Vere left Brisbane in 2004 as the club's leading all-time leading scorer with 1082 points, a mark since overtaken by Lockyer, who recently celebrated 300 games.