If Melbourne Storm are to salvage something from an NRL season suddenly rendered points-less – as opposed to pointless – they must maintain the rage. And on all the evidence at hand in their first match since the club were outed as serial salary cap cheats, the players – and the hardcore fans – are up for the fight.
In many ways, the Warriors were on a hiding to nothing at Etihad Stadium as the Storm came at them early and hard, playing with finals-like intensity.
It was no surprise that inspirational skipper Cameron Smith scored the opening try of the 40-6 victory, barging through the attempted tackles of four opponents.
Their second came from a player taking up much less of Melbourne’s inflated salary cap – debutant winger Matt Duffie.
The points kept coming, with the Storm leading 20-0 at halftime before winning by 34, having played with the flair of a side which quite literally had nothing to lose.
Duffie, an unheralded former rugby player from New Zealand, finished the night with two tries and a hand in a couple of others.
In any other circumstances, it would have been the very definition of a dream debut.
And – salary cap shenanigans notwithstanding – it was a timely reminder of something else Melbourne have always done very well, spotting and developing young talent overlooked by other clubs.
“We believe in the Storm players. Sin bin the admin,” read one banner draped across the Etihad Stadium fence.
“No Host (Plus), No Skins, No ME (Bank). No Worries. We R Here,” read another banner in response to the many sponsors who had turned their back on the club since Thursday’s extraordinary revelations of salary cap rorting.
The remaining logos on the hastily-redesigned Storm playing strip belonged to KooGa, Jayco and Suzuki, the latter two companies having increased their involvement with the club in the last 48 hours.
The impressive crowd of 23,906 often sounded like twice as many, so loudly did they cheer on the home side.
That made plenty of sense, for this was always going to be a night for the true believers.
“It doesn’t matter if your team’s last on the ladder, you still support them,” said Liam Doherty from Seaford, a 13-year Storm member who attended the match with his father-in-law and three children.
“It’s the only rugby league team we’ve got, we’re going to support them.
“I think they we’ve been crucified for things other teams are doing as well.”
Fellow member Paul Robinson from Pascoe Vale also planned to stand by the team, even though they will be unable to claim any competition points in 2010, no matter how many times they finish ahead on the scoreboard.
“I’ll still support them, as long as they try for their fans,” he said.
“If they can stand up and stay in the competition, it will show Sydney and Queensland that we’re stronger than they thought we’d be.”
The Storm squad also enjoyed the support of many of Melbourne’s best-ever former players including Tawera Nikau, Marcus Bai, and Glenn Lazarus, now their only premiership skipper after the club was stripped of the 2007 and 2009 titles.
The former greats attended the match at the request of another former captain Robbie Kearns, who now works in Melbourne’s marketing department.
They saw a team playing and winning on raw emotion.
The big question now is – just how long can they keep it up?
sunshinecoaster
Guest
off subject Young Duffie a smokie for the kiwis? big manus out by the looks
zach
Guest
Leaving it to the end of the season for Storm to act means 2010 is a write off for all other NRL clubs.
Dogs Of War
Roar Guru
And some clubs will beat 'em too. I am sure you will see some stars offloaded before the end of season, or even like last night, 700K of talent was injured on the sidelines. There are no easy solutions, but I would hate to see the club jump the gun before the right management team are put in place (Frank Stanton has come down to join the club to help direct it through the crisis), that can make decisions on who to retain, and establish who will take pay cuts etc. The process takes time, and unfortunately you seem to believe a clear cut solution is available, when it definitely isn't at this point. Give it about a month, and a way forward will be available.
zach
Guest
That is not true - some clubs play them twice.
Dogs Of War
Roar Guru
Well the club needs to get under the Salary Cap, but that can't start till the investigation is finished into how far above the cap the club is, and who is responsible for it, so those people can be moved on. It's a hard situation, but the club isn't going to get any points this season, so as long as they are under the cap by the start of next season, there is no difference. All clubs will have to play them with the same roster, so there is no disadvantage there.
zach
Guest
Well what is your answer to it? I haven't heard one Storm supporter demand that the board of the Storm immediately offload players so it can at least play out the season honestly. That would overcome the current anomaly that threatens the integrity of the rest of the season for other clubs. It is so obviously the right thing to do, but the Storm cannot think of anyone but themselves. Do you or do you not agree that this should be done?
Dogs Of War
Roar Guru
You can just copy paste that into all the League threads you enter. Or maybe the Zach Zavos do something so it's auto inserted for you.
zach
Guest
The Storm is still playing an illegal team with an unfair and dishonestly obtained advantage. The crowd now know it and cheered the team anyway. That them makes them amoral at best or complicit at worst.
Crosscoder
Roar Guru
I follow a team that has been beaten by the Storm this year.Do I feel cheated? To a degree.We have to play them again,Funny if we lose I won't feel cheated.Simply because the Storm is playing under more pressure than any other sporting team in this country.They have received just about the highest penalties imposed on any sporting team that I know of in the world. They have been revealed or at least some members of the management as the cheats. I don't particularly care if they have Luigi the unbelievable as their player,if they beat my team under all those public pressures and not able to earn premiership points ,they have beaten my team on the field.I will accept it.Funny most rl people on talkback and print seem to be pro Storm playing their team,despite the rorting. NB The storm have also been beaten twice this year,before the allegations came out.Meaning they were beatable even with the stars. The comment that the crowd "was happy to have their players cheat" made without thought IMO.
Gatesy
Guest
Blind Freddie could have beaten the Warriors! ..what's the big deal?
rugbyfuture
Roar Guru
damn, i tell you what would really annoy all us northerners, if you went off and started following rugby union too, that would just make us sooo mad :-P (see what im doing, reverse pyschology.)
Lu
Guest
Love it!!,, even at our lowest point, we can still annoy the crap out of all you northerners,, And will continue to do so for another 20 rounds. Hollow wins or not. Cheating or not. Storm have shown more heart and passion than half the teams out there..
Billo
Guest
Most coaches I have ever met don't want any part in negotiating contracts, or even knowing what their players are paid individually. No coach who is any good, when he asks a player to make the extra effort, wants that player to be able to come back to him with ,"You think that guy is worth twice as much as me, so get him to do it." I certainly wouldn't think that Bellamy is dumb enough to allow himself to be put in that position.
Svenman
Guest
Your definitely not the only one. Just as nauseating is the idea that them winning with an ILLEGAL team can be considered redemption.
Ken
Guest
Yeah but we're 7 rounds in, so 7 teams have already played them. You could void the points from those games but that would annoy the 2 teams so far that have already beaten them. You have the same problem if they drop some players to get under the cap, we're already more than a quarter way through the season, meaning you are disadvantaging the teams that have already played them and lost when they had the illegal squad. Some say that the disadvantage is still with the teams that play them twice but that's simply inherent in our current schedule - anyone playing the Storm twice was arguably disadvantaged even before this scandal appeared. And your dig at Sydney crowds was quite silly when an earlier game in Sydney on the same day had a 50% higher crowd
zach
Guest
They got secret cash, cars, boats and home renovations. Get real.
Chris K
Guest
The Warriors don't deserve anything for playing like crap
jiggles
Guest
I will give away my right nut if Ballamy is Innocent in this. his statement on saturday was the most cringe worthy thing I have ever listened too. As if a coach has no say in who he keeps on from season to season and for what amount.
Billo
Guest
Why should Bellamy have known? He coached the team - and very bloody well, to judge by today's effort. The coach doesn't negotiate the contracts, as far as I am aware. I always thought we were being too hasty, jumping on their grave.
Stormin Red
Roar Rookie
So you think the players sit down and work out how much everybody else is on and then see if they are under the cap? This is not the players fault, they were given a contract that they believed was legitimate, it is their job to play football, they are not accountants. I agree entirely we should have to lose some players at the end of the year to get back under but there is no point booting them out right now. If you do that they will be lost to the NRL and to do that and that is punishing the entire game, not just the Storm.