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If not for a punt taken by a couple of blokes on the Sunshine Coast two years ago, Melbourne would not be gearing for a preliminary final this weekend.
When Will Warbrick soared above Junior Pauga last Friday night for the kind of grab seldom seen on rectangular fields, the Storm counted their winnings.
The Melburnians went up by three points, the Sydney Roosters were cooked and no one felt richer than recruitment boss Paul Bunn.
Bunn joined the Storm’s recruitment team in 2012 and has since overseen the acquisition of Cameron Munster, Christian Welch, Justin Olam and Felise Kaufusi.
Those in the know have described him as one of the great unsung heroes at the NRL’s perennial heavyweights.
At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Storm tasked Bunn and his team – comprising son Geordie and ex-Storm forward Tim Glasby – with unearthing the next great outside back.
The role of the winger has never been more pivotal than in the modern game and Melbourne wanted a tall, strong fellow in the Israel Folau or Greg Inglis mould.
Over the years Bunn’s team has become adept at casting the net wide to pull in such overseas talents like Suliasi Vunivalu and Olam.
“We just make it our business, we have a lot of market areas that we harvest,” Bunn told AAP.
On a hunch, Bunn and his team flicked on the television to watch the Tokyo Olympics, where the rugby sevens competition was being played over three days.
They knew unearthing a genuine, NRL-ready talent would be difficult.
“It’s absolutely huge to come from the seven-man game. Otherwise you’d see plenty more of them in the NRL wouldn’t you?” Bunn said.
“Rugby is foreign to league, league is foreign to rugby players. I know we all play with an oval-shaped ball but it’s completely different.”
A 23-year-old on the silver medal-winning New Zealand side caught the eyes of Bunn and his team, though.
“You don’t see a lot of defence in it (sevens) but he had some strong carries, he could finish,” Bunn recalled.
(Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
“His engine wasn’t too bad. He had decent enough speed, decent enough skill. He ticked a few boxes.”
Bunn noted the name William Warbrick down, along with a handful of others from the Kiwi and Fijian sides.
It wasn’t long afterwards he received a phone call from Michael Hudson, the NRL player agent who looks after David Fifita and Jake Averillo.
Hudson was spruiking the services of a Kiwi sevens player hoping to pivot into rugby league. His name was familiar to Bunn.
Bunn hadn’t had the chance to see Warbrick play in person – his commitments with the New Zealand sevens side had already finished by the time Hudson phoned.
But he felt he’d seen enough from Tokyo to set up a Zoom call with Storm coach Craig Bellamy and head of football Frank Ponissi.
“He was quite impressive with Craig and Frank,” Bunn said.
“He showed heaps of humility, he was very grateful that we even made contact with him. He’s a really nice kid.”
Warbrick has been at the Storm ever since, but a series of injuries meant he had to wait until 2023 to earn an NRL debut.
Warbrick has been rewarded handsomely for his patience.
The towering Kiwi has played 24 of a possible 26 games this year, earned a three-year contract extension and appears a candidate for Dally M rookie-of-the-year honours.
All the while Warbrick has been acclimatising to the rigours of being an NRL player.
“It’s been a big learning curve,” he said.
“Sevens is different when you play in a tournament for a couple of weeks and you have a few weeks off.
“But this is week in and week out, so for me it’s about trying to be consistent in my performance and do my job well.
“I’m still playing first grade, so I’m in a happy place.”
Warbrick is the most recent in a series of late-bloomers to cement a regular spot at the Storm.
Of the Storm’s 17 named to face the Panthers this Friday night, only two players made their club debuts as teenagers, compared to five at Penrith.
The likes of Jahrome Hughes, Marion Seve and Tom Eisenhuth were passed up for years at rivals and only became regular first-graders after arriving in Melbourne.
“We’ve got such a good coaching system that we can accept more than one of those guys into your squad at once but other systems can’t,” Bunn said.
“Craig’s got a good set-up down there, a really good system.”
It’s a system that’s more than happy to have Warbrick for years to come.
And ahead of the preliminary final against the Panthers, Bellamy hinted the Storm faithful may see more of the spectacular play Warbrick displayed against the Roosters.
“He’s scored a lot of tries for us this year, Will,” the coach said.
“It’s taken him a little while to get used to our game, to come from rugby sevens, which is a totally different game to our game.
“But I’ve been very impressed with the progress that he’s made.
“That was one hell of a big play, that might be a little message for us as well.”
© AAP
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