What's with the hatred for the Melbourne Storm?

I admit the chicken wing is not the best, but all clubs use wrestling tactics and you do what you can until asked to cease. Hi John, No, that's not what you do. You take a leadership position to better the game and safeguard players. You don't wait until someone changes the rules. Melbourne introduced what is now a blight on the game. And they won't cease it until a serious injury occurs or they are told to. That is not in the spirit of the game and lacks ethics. THat is why they are despised.

You sir are one to talk. Why is it whenever I go to read an article about the storm that I find you in the comments spreading your hatred for the Storm?

I'm a Manly supporter Adam3000 but I regretfully have to agree with you (kills me though I tell ya). There was no assurance that either Manly or Parramatta would have won the titles if Melbourne had not played....bah humbug.

Would the semi finalist knocked out by storm have equal claims on the title? Denied a ticket to the big dance, no guarantee manly or parra would have beaten the other team they would have faced

Storm team for 2007 grand final Slater, turner, king, folau, Quinn, Inglis, Cronk, cross, smith, white, Newton, Hoffman, Johnson, smith, Crocker, geyer, Lima. Heaps of discards there.

Storm team for 2007 grand final Slater, turner, king, folau, Quinn, Inglis, Cronk, cross, smith, white, Newton, Hoffman, Johnson, smith, Crocker, geyer, Lima. Heaps of discards there.

Scott, end product isn't all that counts otherwise we'd be celebrating teams that Rory the cap, that wrestle and using drugs. Thankfully there's still part of society that says that HOW a team gets there is just as important

Well said Barry, there is a massive difference between wrestling for a better position aka Brisbane and hiring a Brazillian Juijitsu expert to coach your players. Juijitsu specialists are the masters and finding leverage to crank a joint or neck into a position that creates so much pain one has to submit or get injured. When you have more than one in a tackle, sometimes submitting isn't an option, hence the injuries. This is so far from the spirit of the game I'm disgusted he's the Australian captain. QLDers cry foul over johns recreational drug use and his immortal status. If Smith becomes an immortal I'm sure the originals will be rolling in their graves.

Do you ever say anything that is not pro broncos, qld and storm? For someone studying journalism you should really be more objective. Your input is incredibly annoying. Jealous of the storm? Give us all a break

Yeah. All teams have paralysed a player. You're right. Poor ol storm.

You use the term 'produced' loosely when you talk about Maloney (from NSW and Parra), JBrom (NZ), Hoffman (NSW - schoolboys star), Chambers (Qld) and Widdop (UK). To the best of my knowledge there are two Melbourne juniors who have made it to first grade. The storm is now in its 17th season and they have produced two players from Melbourne. At the end of the day it doesn't matter if the players were brought in as superstars or hand reared as infants by Bellamy himself. The fact is that Melbourne systematically cheated to keep that group of players together.

Not sure about Smith, but Slater was a junior rep player. Cronk played Australian schoolboys rugby. Hoffman was a schoolboys star.

It's not wrestling. It's not 5 years of salary cap cheating. It's....envy. Of course it is.

I hate the Storm as much as I hate any other team that is not Parramatta. The people always bringing up this storm garbage all seem a bit paranoid if you ask me, if it ain't my team, you suck.

I can't believe how many are on here saying "it's envy" or "they're just jealous" !!! You have 5 years of systematic salary cap cheating, then all the gruesome wrestling holds aimed at either forcing opponents to submit or have their necks, arms, legs broken. Nup, that's got nothing to do with it...just jealous of our grubby culture, tactics and flagrant cheating.

Alex, there's a difference between wrestling to gain a superior position in a tackle as opposed to grabbing people by the head / arm/ leg and twisting so they can't move without getting injured. That's what Melbourne brought to the game. That's Bellamy's legacy. Nothing to do with envy.

It doesn't matter at all if the players were poached or developed. Melbourne kept players that they shouldn't have had because of systematic rorting of the salary cap.

One of the least informed posts ever written on the roar.

Are you serious....? You haven't even mentioned wrestling. I rate the all the cowardly moves and holds that they've introduced as being worse than the systemic, season after season salary cap rorting. If you're going to cheat fine. But don't then wonder "why does everyone dislike us so? Is it because we have the Australian captain?"

I'll disagree with one of your secondary points there Chris - I actually think Jesse Bromwich is the most underrated player in the game. It will be a travesty when he misses out on Prop of the Year at the Dally M's - a Kiwi playing for the Storm in a game who's financial and cultural powerbase is in Sydney. And I also think that the second-most underrated player in the comp is your halfback - which is saying something, given how highly he's rated now and that he's only now starting to get the wraps for things he's done for like the past 8 years. Apologies for being shameless: http://www.theroar.com.au/2014/07/15/we-need-to-talk-about-cooper-cronk/