No coach in the game has either been a better developer of talent or able to get more out of his cattle. Melbourne are in such a positive position for two key reasons: they are developers of talent and they are a club that understands value better than any.īellamy is obviously central to both. It is an embarrassment of riches that does not even account for a fearsome pack that will feature at least six other internationals or Origin players without including Brandon Smith. Smith’s No 9 jersey will be claimed by either Kiwi rake Brandon Smith or reigning rookie of the year Harry Grant. Jahrome Hughes is a Kiwi international who has a 43-10 record over the last three years and has already become one of the top halves in the game. Ryan Papenhuyzen finished in the top 10 of Dally M medal voting in his first season as a starter. Cameron Munster is the Australian five-eighth. It is almost unfathomable that a team that has lost Cronk, Slater and Smith will go into a season with arguably the best spine in the competition. The club is uniquely positioned to carry on an already stunningly long run of success well into the future. One of the hallmarks of the Storm has been preparation. It is testament to Bellamy, Smith, Slater and Cronk that Melbourne’s run at the top is unlikely to end anytime soon as a new generation is prepared to carry the baton. The Storm do not know life without the most decorated player in the history of the game but that life is right around the corner. The club has played 608 premiership matches – Smith has played in a remarkable 429. Melbourne are standing on the doorstep of the great unknown. Bellamy has said he will be moving back to Queensland in a year. Slater hung up the boots at the end of the 2018 season. Cronk did the unthinkable and moved to the Roosters in 2018, guiding them to two premierships before retiring. It is such a sustained period of dominance that is unlikely to be seen again and puts this Storm team in the same conversation as the great St George team that won 11 straight titles, the Easts team of the late 1930s, the Souths teams of both the early 1950s and late 1960s and the Brisbane team of the 1990s as the greatest in history.Įras do not last forever though and the curtain call is nearly complete for this great Melbourne Storm epoch. The Storm have won a remarkable 326 of 471 games since 2003. They finished atop the table on seven occasions and missed the finals only once – when salary cap breaches prevented the club from playoff football. From 2006 through 2020, the Storm would reach the grand final on nine occasions, winning four and favoured to make it a fifth. Bellamy set a new standard for coaching greatness. Slater would be talked of as a future Immortal. Smith would become the most decorated player in the history of the game. Not even Richard Simmons on a sugar rush could have had the positivity to properly gauge what Melbourne had both built and lucked into.Ī dynasty was born. Those in charge of the Storm may have been excited about what they had. A golden generation completed by the hiring of arguably the finest coach the game has ever known in 2003. Twelve months on it was Cooper Cronk’s turn. Smith’s debut was followed a season later by that of Billy Slater. Few could have anticipated what was to come.
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