Melbourne Storm
The Melbourne Storm is a rugby league football club based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia that participates in the National Rugby League. The club plays its home games at AAMI Park, and wears a purple and navy blue jersey with gold and white trim.
The first fully professional rugby league team in the state, the club was founded in 1997, playing its first season in the newly reunified NRL competition in 1998. They have won four premierships since their inception, in 1999, 2012, 2017 and 2020, and have contested several more grand finals. They won the 2007 and 2009 grand finals, but were stripped of those premierships following salary cap breaches.
They also competed in the NRL's Under-20s competition from 2008 until its demise in 2017 and in 2018 entered the Victorian Thunderbolts in the Hastings Deering Colts U20s QLD competition. Since 2019, the club has competed in the U21 New South Wales Rugby League competition, the Jersey Flegg Cup, of which it won for the first time in 2025.
In 2024, the Melbourne Storm rugby league club had over 1 million fans.
History
1997–1999: Establishment and 1st Premiership
Following record attendances at State of Origin fixtures in Melbourne of 87,161 in 1994 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, the Australian Rugby League had planned to establish a Melbourne-based team in the Premiership by 1998. However, the disruption caused by the Super League war caused great change to the game in Australia. By May 1997, Super League boss John Ribot pushed for a Melbourne-based club for his competition, which was the rival of the ARL. Former Brisbane Broncos centre Chris Johns became the CEO of the club and Ribot stepped down from the head of Super League to set up the club, with head of News Limited Ken Cowley as chairman. In September 1997, Melbourne announced that Chris Anderson would be their foundation coach, and then Super League announced that the new team would be named the Melbourne Storm. Melbourne teenager Cameron Duncan came up with the name Storm and his winning entry was chosen from more than 1000 entries received in a competition run in conjunction with the Herald Sun.The Melbourne club then went forward with signing players, mainly from folding Super League clubs Perth Reds and Hunter Mariners. These players included Rodney Howe, Robbie Kearns, Matt Geyer, Paul Bell, Robbie Ross, Glenn Lazarus, Brett Kimmorley and Scott Hill. With the Super League and ARL joining into one competition for the 1998 season, the Melbourne team became part of the National Rugby League. The Melbourne Storm Rugby League Club was unveiled at a function at the Hyatt Hotel – Melbourne in February 1998.
In their first game, they defeated the Illawarra Steelers, with Glenn Lazarus as their inaugural captain. Melbourne, in a complete shock to the rest of the competition, won their first four games, before losing to the Auckland Warriors They went on to make the finals, but were defeated by the eventual premiers, the Brisbane Broncos.
In January 1999, Executive Director John Ribot negotiated a deal that saw Melbourne Storm games televised in China every weekend. The club won eight of their first eleven games of the 1999 NRL season, and went on to make the finals in third position on the Premiership ladder. The team was beaten convincingly 34–10 in the quarter final by St. George Illawarra. After narrow victories against the Canterbury Bulldogs and the Parramatta Eels; however, Melbourne once more faced St. George Illawarra in the grand final. The Storm staged a late comeback in the game to win 20–18, securing their first premiership.
2000–2002: Decline and coaching changes
Melbourne's Premiership defence began relatively slowly losing their first four games of the 2000 NRL season, the club went on to make the finals, but were eventually knocked out by Newcastle in the quarter-finals. Between 2001 and 2002, the club's on field performances waned, resulting in a 10th-placed finish in 2002. Cracks were starting to appear between John Ribot and Anderson throughout the period, with Anderson quitting as coach after round 7, 2001. He was replaced by Mark Murray. The Melbourne club failed to make the finals in 2001. Johns left the club as CEO at the end of 2002 and coach Murray was sacked due to Melbourne's poor form, with the club missing the finals for the second year in a row.2003–2006: Craig Bellamy era begins – return to the top
's assistant coach at the Brisbane Broncos, Craig Bellamy was announced as the new coach of Melbourne for 2003, and in addition, a new captain in Kiwi international skipper Stephen Kearney. Bellamy's strict coaching had an almost immediate effect and saw the Melbourne Storm get back on track from the previous lean years.Between 2003 and 2005, Melbourne consistently made the finals, but lost games in the semi-finals which prevented them from reaching the grand final. This period also saw the arrival and rise of young Queenslanders Billy Slater, Cameron Smith and Cooper Cronk. Unheard of at the start of 2003, the steady hooker and dummy-half Smith provided solid support to existing established players in Matt Orford and his forwards and also provided supporters with confidence of the club's future. A notable incident that occurred during 2004 was the 18-game suspension of Danny Williams following a king-hit on Wests Tigers' player Mark O'Neill. It was the longest suspension in Australian rugby league since 1987.
By 2005, Storm coach Craig Bellamy, in his third season as an NRL coach, gained representative honours when he was selected to start coaching the Country Origin team.
Season 2006 saw the retirement of captain Robbie Kearns and the emergence of talented rookie halfback Cooper Cronk who took over the position from Matt Orford and in addition, the recruitment of hard-man Michael Crocker. The club also moved away from a single captain, electing to use a rotating captains policy, including Cameron Smith for the first time. Contrary to expectation, 2006 was a standout year for the Melbourne team, finishing on top of the ladder for the first time. Melbourne only lost four games in the season, making them outright leaders by four wins. They went on to win their two finals matches, and were favourites in the 2006 NRL Grand Final, but lost 15–8 to the Brisbane Broncos, in a match where controversial refereeing decisions against Melbourne caused much media coverage.
2007–2010: Finals success and club turmoil
In 2007, the Storm finished the season on top of the table for the second year in a row. They progressed through the finals series with wins over Brisbane, 40–0, and then Parramatta 26–10, in the preliminary final. This secured a berth in the 2007 NRL Grand Final against the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles which they won 34–8, with Greg Inglis winning the Clive Churchill Medal for best on ground.In 2008, foundation player Matt Geyer became the first player to play 250 games for the club. Melbourne finished on top of the ladder after the 26 rounds of regular competition and despite becoming the first minor premiers since the McIntyre final eight system was introduced to lose their opening finals game, they then defeated the Brisbane Broncos 16–14, scoring in the last minute of their semi-final. Cameron Smith was suspended for two matches for a grapple tackle on Brisbane's Sam Thaiday in the match, seeing him miss the rest of the finals, and Craig Bellamy was fined $50,000 for making scathing remarks against the judiciary's decision. Melbourne convincingly beat the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks 28–0 to qualify for the grand final, but suffered the heaviest Grand Final defeat in league history, beaten 40–0 by Manly. Greg Inglis, Billy Slater, Cameron Smith and Israel Folau all won awards at the Dally M Awards, and Slater and Smith finished equal second for the Dally M Medal. Billy Slater was awarded the international player of the year Golden Boot award for 2008, following on from Cameron Smith in 2007.
In the 2009 season, Melbourne finished 4th on the ladder; they defeated Manly 40–12 in the first week of the finals and Brisbane 40–10 in the preliminary finals to qualify for a fourth straight grand final. Against Parramatta, who had finished eighth in the home-and-away season but had won ten of its last eleven matches, the Storm led at one stage by 16 points, before finishing 23–16 winners. Slater won the Clive Churchill Medal, and they were named as the NRL Team of the Decade for the 2000s. In the late 2000s the Melbourne Storm were still running at a loss of up to $6M per season, however despite this, they were voted the state of Victoria's most popular sports team by a national Roy Morgan Poll in October 2009.
In 2010, a number of changes were made to senior management of the club, firstly Brian Waldron resigned his position as CEO to take up the same position at the Melbourne Rebels Super Rugby team, he was replaced by Chief Operating Officer, Matt Hanson. In April, following the salary cap revelations, Matt Hanson was then stood down and Ron Gauci appointed.
On field, the Storm's first match of the season was the 2010 World Club Challenge against equally dominant English side, the Leeds Rhinos; in very cold and wet conditions the Storm prevailed 18 – 10.
On 22 April 2010 the club admitted that it had breached the NRL's salary cap. The NRL estimated the breach to be in excess of $1.7 million over five years. As a result of the breach, NRL Chief Executive David Gallop stripped the club of all titles earned in this period including their 2007 and 2009 premierships, three minor premierships between 2006-08, heavily fined the club, deducted all premiership points earned to that point of the season and barred them from receiving any more for the rest of the season. The club ended up winning enough matches to make the finals, but automatically finished in last place due to the penalties. Melbourne did have something to celebrate in 2010 with the opening of their new home ground AAMI Park in May. The stadium was expected to be used right from the beginning of the season, however, construction delays postponed the opening.