In the sixteen years of their existence thus far, the Melbourne Storm have missed out on the finals only three time and one of those times was as a penalty enforced from the outside.
Think about that for a moment. Only twice has this club, through their on-field performances, not been there at the business end of the season.
Removing those finishes from the equation, the Storm average a third to fourth place finish on the ladder each year.
This is an amazing statistic. If the NRL were still using the old top-5 finals system, the Melbourne Storm would have still contested nine finals series.
However you look at it, the Melbourne Storm are an incredible rugby league club.
Such consistent success is sometimes easily ‘blamed’ on a number of factors including the security of their financial supporter News Limited and favourable treatment by the governing body.
But such sour grapes, and let us be honest here since that is what they are, hides the fact that the Storm have had to make do without that most natural of advantages that most other clubs have and that is history.
This history creates a tradition, it creates a support base and just as importantly, it creates a narrative, a story for the club’s members, fans and players.
The Melbourne Storm started with nothing. Absolute zero.
Well, not exactly zero. They did, and still do, have a powerful financial backer. And while the argument that they had money seems reasonable, on deeper inspection, it only serves to ask the question, why didn’t the older, more established clubs not have any? After all, they have had not years, but literally decades to get their houses in order.
Whatever side of the fence you stood with regards to the Super League war, it, at the very least, showed what can happen to clubs that do not move.
While it is of immense value to have a history, one cannot rest on it. A club needs to be able to read the environment around them, to adapt to the times. This is the only way to move forward and ensure your own survival. Past glories are a marketer’s dream and while they add to a club they are not the club. Only what a club does in the here and now is important.
The South Sydney Rabbitohs are the perfect example of a club that ought to never have had to wait over forty years to be serious contenders for a grand final. Think about that. Forty years in no-man’s land!
For a club to not have been able to take advantage of so much history, success and passion for so long is simply incredible. In a more critical mood, one might even label it incompetent.
Now, I don’t mean this to be a Souths bashing article since other clubs have also suffered bouts of incompetence. And, in any case, the Rabbitohs seem to have found their management mojo and are now firmly re-established in the modern world. The point is that it should not take so long for a club to find its feet.
The Melbourne Storm, if they have had any advantage over other clubs, is that from the very beginning they have existed now and not what they did twenty years ago.
There are other clubs who understand this concept, most notably Canterbury, but the results of a decade and a half tell us that Melbourne are the current masters of modern professionalism.
Let’s hope other clubs follow suit.
Andrew
Guest
Melbourne Storm are the modern masters of the game. The number of players who are rejuvanated through playing at our Club is amazing. Bellamy has an ability to get the best from players and it shows. Our great code is thriving in Melbourne. Rugby Leagues only real growth centre. All Rugby League fans should support it.
Devout Saint
Guest
@Andrew, don't forget the heart of rugby league is Sydney.
Horatio
Guest
Widdop will be playing for England of course or others will be playing for NZ.
des' right hand
Guest
did somebody say cheats??????
clipper
Guest
You want to expand to Adelaide and Hobart when the best performing team in the NRL can't get more people to the game than the worst performing AFL team in Melbourne with 4 million people - even the AFL won't put a full time team in AFL mad Tasmaina and they struggle in Adelaide if both teams don't go well.
Sleiman Azizi
Roar Guru
There is most certainly a bigger point. Clubs with all the history in the world have had all the time in the world to get their affairs in order. The only club that has a similar image of being one firmly rooted in success because of what they do now and not what they did 30 years ago is Canterbury. All clubs go through the odd poor year or two and the Bulldogs are no exception. Brisbane, too, have that image and there is no doubt they'll get over there recent confusion. Clubs that have failed - miserably - to get their houses in order have simply no excuse. None whatsoever. Manly have been just as successful as the Bulldogs, Melbourne and Brisbane in terms of being basically competitive each year and one could consider them to have nowhere near the potential as the Warriors, Souths, Parramatta and Penrith, for example. The point of the article was simply this: success is NOW, not before and that clubs who have been around have no excuse whatsoever to not be successful. Melbourne have shown that history is nowhere near as important as competence and professionalism. I believe that Melbourne, Canterbury, Brisbane and Manly have been the great clubs of the modern era. In my opinion, all the others have been largely hit and miss.
Jack Tiger
Roar Rookie
You are spot maximillian, Oikee/Andrew is obviously a dole bludger from Melbourne that does nothing all day accept sit on this website talking rubbish. Get a life, accually get a job oikee, then maybe we wont have to put up with your rubbish opinions and comments.
Meesta Cool
Guest
Except the Mardi Gras.. and ya can keep that.. lol
Meesta Cool
Guest
Isn't it amazing how so many Melbourne fans have a deep respect for Manly, the team that humiliated us in a grand final.. I too admire that team and believe that they are the real threat to this years championship.. They have passion and HEART.. hope we play em in this years final again..
Meesta Cool
Guest
NRL were held back by Meesta Gallop and his super conservative MO for refusing to realise that the world was now a smaller place than when he was born.. Thank God we now have a Pommie Leader with Business acumen and a will to move the game forward. .. It certainly didn't take him long to realise that the Salary cap was holding progressive clubs back and favouring the fence sitters who want to buy a new team every couple of years.. in twelve months he has almost removed a 'blight on our game'.. take heed Meesta Gallop. this is were you should have been. Meesta Waldron advised Meesta Gallop all those years ago that the cap was killing the game and indicated that EVERYONE was cheating,, wasn't David glad to be able to say in his inimitable Dalek like fashion, "Oh my you are cheating, we must destroy you". Yup he failed at that too.. In retrospect Waldron was correct and should have been listened too instead, we had a leader with the 'Ostrich mentality' that let everything become a total FARCE.
Meesta Cool
Guest
You hit the nail on the head Kellett " his team never got found out for cheating"... the KEY words being "Never got found out"... let's move on We all know that Storm wee not on their own in the rorting stakes..
Liz
Guest
Johnny, You are so right. Cut the ties to the blood sucking Sydney teams and grow the game across the country. I hope some one in the NRL administration has the balls to make it happen. Imagine if our great game was actually played Nationally. I have a Dream.
Boomshanka
Guest
Geronimo I thought the official figure for Warriors v Storm last year @ AAMI was over 20k In 2011 the offical figures were 22.7k and over 28k for the semi final. This year the warriors attracted 25.5k all in Melbourne. This coming Friday, with the game live on FTA, a record crowd is expected into AAMI. All with minimal promotion in the city. I'll be there and looking forward to it. Where'd you source your 11k from?
Geronimo
Guest
Yeah impoverished places like mackay, Adelaide, Central Coast , Mackay with zero corporate backing...
Geronimo
Guest
R So your answer to the allegation is to dismiss it without considering the evidence..If you don't think sporting codes fix draws to help sides then you are sadly mistaken whether it be in Super 15 or AFL, EPL and NFL. The Super Bowl winner regularly gets plastered the next year......
Carlos
Guest
Huzzah!!!! The future of League, is pulling teams out of the nations economic capital and biggest city and establishing teams in small city towns that don't care about league and which cost clubs a fortune to play at...
Renegade
Guest
The fact you honestly think the draw was fixed to help the titans means you are shooting yourself down with anybody else having to respond.
Andrew
Guest
You know it good buddy. 10 4 that is a copy. God Bless the Melbourne Storm. God Bless Rugby League. The future of Rugby League is not in Sydney Suburbia. It is in expansion into Perth and Adelaide. Lets put national into National Rugby Leaue. When Melbourne Storm wins, the game wins, we all win.
Andrew
Guest
Rugby League isn't dead. It has never been more alive!
Andrew
Guest
The Shire Lol. What type of a place frequented by pompous Nancies would call itself, The Shire?!?!? Lol.