The Melbourne Storm are simply the benchmark of the NRL and have been for over a decade.
They have it right from the inside out and it shows in their dominant performances week in, week out.
From the savvy staff deep within the club to the raw talent and Craig Bellamy-trained stars we see on our tellies, the Storm have nailed what it means to be a diligent and powerhouse NRL club.
We can break down Melbourne’s success into four categories: recruitment, morale, staff and leadership.
Recruitment
Two names: Craig Bellamy and Frank Ponissi.
Frank is the pinnacle of attracting success. He is arguably one of the best ‘string pullers’ and sports business people in Australia. Frank has worked across the globe, including France and South Africa, working within rugby league and has powerful connections and an expansive knowledge of the game.
Now, he is the general manager of the Storm and has signed a new contract to bring his time in Melbourne to 18 seasons. Ponissi has been instrumental in some big name signings as well as the retention of NRL icons.
Frank was significant in the process of recruiting big name players such as Greg Inglis but also in the retention of the big three.
Storm football manager Frank Ponissi and Storm coach Craig Bellamy (Photo by Scott Barbour/Getty Images)
Bellyache, who is now considered to be one of, if not the greatest coach of all time, has been the pinnacle and key to success for the club itself, in particular the recruitment.
Pair this with Craig Bellamy, and players are lining up to join the Melbourne Storm.
On Denan Kemp’s Bloke in a Bar podcast, as well as on Uncensored by Brett Finish, Finchy claims Melbourne are the “kings” of NRL recruitment, having taking Brett on a tour of the club, meeting the big names such as Cooper Cronk, Cam Smith and Billy Slater, leaving him starstruck and desperate to join the team, followed by a contract signing at Melbourne’s elite strip clubs.
Finchy says you’re “starstruck” and “they butter you up so you just want to sign”.
Morale
Morale at the Melbourne Storm is something that other clubs should study.
Players who are initiated in the Storm program rarely want to leave, due to the club’s success, team camaraderie, family-friendly community and hierarchy structure.
Recently, clips surfacing on social media of the boys playing funny buggers with Bellyache on the bus after a 30-point thumping, or Brandon Smith putting rocks in Craig’s bag give us a good indication the spirits are high.
(Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
It’s highly agreeable that when spirits are high and the boys are laughing, it can translate to a good, team-driven performance the following night.
Finch claims Melbourne often throw family events and lunches to bring the team closer together, while Bellamy walks around and chats to all the wives and kids. Say what you want about Melbourne, but they have it down pat.
Staff
Current and former Storm players praise Bellamy’s coaching tactics and, while fearful, praise his threatening aura.
You can catch Craig throwing chairs in the coach’s box when Melbourne concede one try against their 13 scored, but he is undoubtedly a humble family man who has been largely responsible for giving Storm the reputation of a family-friendly, community club.
Bellamy has taken the Storm to nine grand finals since he began his reign and maintained an incredibly high standard throughout the club since.
Add Steve Kearney as Bellamy’s right-hand man and as mentioned, staff like Ponissi in the offices – the Storm hierarchy and board are a well-oiled machine.
Leadership
Having already mentioned the significant staff and their role within the club, let’s talk about previous players who have been the head honchos and the ones the young blokes look up to when they walk in.
Cameron Smith, the 400-plus-game GOAT captained the Storm from 2008-2020 and was pivotal in their success from his debut in 2002.
Smith, who has won it all with Australia, Queensland and Melbourne, mentored many Storm players coming through and inspired players on and off the field. He is the most decorated player in league history and a born leader.
Which brings me to my next two blokes, thus completing the ‘Big Three’, Cronk and Slater.
It goes without saying that the key reason behind the Storm’s constant standard of success was this core of Cameron, Cooper and Billy, who were all arguably the greatest of all time in their respective positions.
Slater has been and still is mentoring Ryan Papenhuyzen and evidently shaping him into one of the best fullbacks in the league.
Pair this with Cronk, who has been seen at Melbourne’s training once or twice, setting the benchmark for over ten years at Storm as how a halfback should be. A leader, a talker and an organiser.
Cooper notably moved to Sydney and won two consecutive premierships with Easts. If you’re after proof that Cronk is a leader, he remained on the field with a broken shoulder blade, clutching his upper arm, all while pulling the strings in the Chooks’ GF win over his old side in 2018.
Breaking news surfacing in recent days – Bellamy has re-signed as coach for five more years, with an option to move into the Head of Football position.
In 2021, Melbourne are favourites to take out the premiership, having now won 18 games consecutively and perched in fist place.
When do you see Melbourne’s success falling?
Greg
Roar Pro
I'm not really for or against stripping Sharks of their title. Probably slightly more for it at the moment but would need more information to feel strongly about it. I have since found multiple articles saying they were not over the cap in 2016, despite being over the cap in 2015 and 2017 (certainly questionable). I think to properly argue they should be stripped of their title it needs to be shown that their 2016 roster was assembled as a result of those breaches in years prior. I think this is likely and why i am more leaning they should be stripped of their title. However i do see why they cant be stripped of the title if they were in fact cap compliant in 2016, hence why i dont feel overly strongly about it either way. I certainly do not want to discredit or any way argue against your point that any breach is a breach and the title should be stripped as a result. This is a stance that I can't argue against, nor, disagree with. I will repeat one of my lines from above "I’m fine with people debating if Sharks punishment fit their crime but it shouldn’t be compared to Storm’s punishment when doing so." My argument however was against the original question of "Is it penalising them for the infamous salary cap breach more severely than any other team ever?" My argument boils down to they were punished the most severely because their breach was the most severe. Any feelings of being hard done by simply aren't justified. Yet, the why were we treated so harshly question is frequently raised by Storm supporters.
Badseed
Guest
Anything to do with Rupert and Fox demanding a return?
Easy target
Roar Rookie
I'll meet you half way on some points, but to suggest cronulla wasn't as bad as the other salary cap cheating is woeful. I don't like arguing on these forums so I won't keep going back and forth, but I can't let the sharks "they only cheated a little bit" - just enough to illegally get a premiership - slide
Melbourne Hold’em
Guest
You forgot a few! 7. Craig Bellamy. 8. One team city, with large corporate backers. 9. Holding down forever when tackling. 10. Actually cheating the salary cap. 11.Not being penalised most years , for the same things that other teams are penalised for. 12. All of the above! I’ll choose :12.’All of the above’! Do I win a horrible purple jumper?
What the!
Guest
Do you mean the Gold Coast , with the seemingly endless salary cap ? The ones that secretly offloaded Cartwright , Latu. As they just wanted to go , without worrying about their contract money that they had owing ? West’s...Would buy a whole competition, if the best players wanted to go there. However, they suffer the western suburbs curse. Like Parramatta & Penrith. The best players around don’t want to go there. So West’s just buy up Penrith, Parramatta players.
Sam McCosker
Roar Rookie
Thank you mate.
Sam McCosker
Roar Rookie
Thank you.
Sam McCosker
Roar Rookie
True, there is a highly skilled and tactical recruitment team behind the scenes, I just named Ponissi as the media's frontman for the business.
Greg
Roar Pro
Cronulla’s punishments were different to and less than Melbourne’s as the breach was not as significant as Melbourne’s. (I’ve skimmed about a dozen articles trying to find a figure but been unable to, but several have said they pale in comparison to Melbourne/Manly/Parra. This is the classic (and wrong) they got X why do we get Y argument i originally brought up. I’m fine with people debating if Sharks punishment fit their crime but it shouldn’t be compared to Storm’s punishment when doing so. Gallop set the punishments before finishing the investigation. True, but at the time it was already the most significant breach in history and they were only uncovering more issues. Given the punishment was already essentially as heavy as it could be, it is not like further information could change the punishment. As for consulting the necessary boards, it was still going to come back to Gallop’s decision. He may not have followed the process exactly right but was any other outcome ever going to happen? I already said why they couldn’t release players. There simply was nowhere to release them to, other clubs had finalised their rosters. Additionally, you can’t actually force players out of a club/contract. If other clubs were to take on one of the Storm players they would likely offer a reduced salary, leaving the Storm to pay the difference. A bit hard to shed over $1 million worth of talent when you are paying half the freight of the players leaving. You are right, there is a bias i the Sydney media (i like Kent, but stopped paying attention to Hooper and Crawley a long time ago). That bias exist to sell papers/clicks due to the negative Storm feelings of the Sydney public. But, there is no bias in NRL HQ, is my argument. Though, just as there is an anti-Storm bias in much of Sydney’s Storm reporting, we still need to look at it objectively. A lot of the reported criticisms of the Storm are accurate. That puts the Storm at fault for their bad publicity, not the media. The same Sydney media that embellish the Storm’s faults however do the same with the Storm’s qualities. I’ve spoken before about the narrative of Storm turning no-ones into stars is at best a half truth. But, the way it is portrayed by the Sydney NRL media the Storm could turn me into an Origin footballer. You cant argue one bias without acknowledging the other.
Sam McCosker
Roar Rookie
My bad on the stats.
Easy target
Roar Rookie
I know I'm late to the conversation, but I'll jump in anyway. I agree the argument that after the bulldogs premiership nrl changed how they enforced the SC punishments. But they didn't follow that up with cronulla's illegally assembled roster, SC rort and Flanagans involvement. Also Gallop set the punishments before finishing the investigation or consulting the necessary boards, thatsvery dodgy (for the record I agree with the stripping of premierships). As for the season for no points, I don't agree with your argument at all, why weren't storm allowed to release players to get back under the cap - no competition points until they were cap compliant? Final point from me, I don't know I you've ever listened to James hooper, Paul Crawley or Paul Kent speak, but you can't say there's no nsw bias in the media
Willie La'ulu
Roar Guru
Everyone reading Jimmy's comments have definitely hit their forehead with their palm in utter disgust
Ken
Guest
Joey whinging over his team losing is music ,I wonder who missed all those tackles that led to Storm tries , must hav been those dastardly Storm players deliberately not allowing Penrith to tackle them ????
Ken
Guest
Shameful lol is winning the minor premiership , dominating all season than being 24-0 down early in the second half , shameful is the so called best 7 in the nrl falling for a papenhyzen dummy than being burnt for a 80 Mt try , throwing a intercept just before half time that led to a try , shameful is Phil Gould’s universally mocked one sided commentary where it seems there was only one team playing in the GF .I loved Brandon Smith laughing as he got sin binned for wasting time knowing that’s what you do when you’re leading , it’s what any preofessional teams would do , shameful is the ref giving a try to my cousins son Brian To’0 who as a family we are super proud off but you are not allowed to ever run behind your player to set up a try , it’s actually black An white in the rule book but the video ref some how found a reason which a later review by the head of referees was proven to be wrong . I am arrogantly a Storm supporter because lots of people on here are arrogantly Storm haters , we dont care ,we will just keep winning over 70% of our games while you’re teams continue to fail .
Joey
Guest
Gold Coast? What about Scott Prince? Paid in bricks and mortar. Still, no need to put all teams on the same league of cap cheating as the Storm.
Ken
Guest
How’s dare you stop me from using the salary cap an the wrestle as a reason to bag the Storms success it’s only been 12 years since it happened An the current Storm players were at least 10-13 years old than so they must have benefitted some how , No big 3 No Storm you can put your house on that , they will be struggling to win the wooden spoon once the Big 3 retire , you mark my words ????????
Greg
Roar Pro
They shouldn't have, (i think they get back control in 2023 but could be wrong) but scheduling is not a grievance for Storm fans. It is a grievance for all fans.
zonecadet
Roar Rookie
Storm, once again, the only club flouting rules. How do they do it?? If they were so favoured by the NRL last week's game would have been Friday night not Saturday.
zonecadet
Roar Rookie
As you said, the NRL is to blame for allowing TV to dictate their own schedule. Being so reliant on external funding (anyone remember cigarette advertising?) because the clubs individually and the league collectively did nothing to provide amenities for the fans attending games (I'll point to Cumberland Oval and Lidcombe, yes I go that far back), now sees them totally reliant on TV money. By all means sell your product but they should never have sold their control over such things as schedulling. Ever.
Joey
Guest
I’m by no means an Eagles fan, but I reckon I was for a day in October ‘08.