Melbourne Storm

Melbourne Storm

File:MelbourneStorm.png
Club information
Full name	Melbourne Storm Rugby League Club
Nickname(s)	Storm, Stormers storms
Founded	1997 (first season 1998)
Current details
Ground(s)	AAMI Park – 30,050
Coach	Craig Bellamy
Captain	Cameron Smith
Competition	National Rugby League
2010	16th
Home jersey Home colours Away jersey Away colours
Records
Premierships	1 (1999)
Runners-up	2 (2006, 2008)
Minor premierships	0

CHEATS!

 | last = Cockerill
 | first = Ian
 | coauthors =
 | title = Eye of the Storm
 | work = The Sunday Age
 | place =
 | page = 4
 | language =
 | publisher =
 | date = 3 October 1999
 | url = http://newsstore.fairfax.com.au/apps/viewDocument.ac?page=1&sy=smh&docID=news991004_0014_7918
 | accessdate = 6 October 2009}}</ref>}}

In their first ever game, they defeated Illawarra, 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 Auckland. They went on to make the finals, but were defeated by the eventual premiers, the Brisbane Broncos.

In January 1999, CEO 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, this time winning 20–18 and securing their first (and to date, only) premiership.

2000s

Season 2000 saw Melbourne consistently win after initially losing their first four games of the season. They made the finals (finishing 6th), but were eventually knocked out by Newcastle in the quarter-finals. Between 2001 and 2002, the Melbourne club performed poorly. Cracks were starting to appear between Johns, 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. Wayne Bennett's assistant coach at the Brisbane Broncos, Craig Bellamy was announced as the new coach of Melbourne for 2003. In addition to a new captain in Kiwi international skipper Stephen Kearney, the strict coaching of Craig "Bellyache" Bellamy would see the Melbourne Storm get back on track from the previous lean years.

Now, the Melbourne Storm are here to stay. They are not moving and News Limited is apparently committed to keeping them financially. I am OK with that. I hated Melbourne when they were in place of traditional teams that were expelled, but that's all over now. If they want to persevere in Melbourne, I have no argument.

— Phil Gould, 21 December 2003

Between 2003 and 2005, Melbourne consistently made the finals, but lost games in the semi finals that prevented them from reaching the grand final. On 17 July 2004, during round 19 of the 2004 NRL season, Danny Williams king-hit Wests Tigers' player Mark O'Neill.

Storm players celebrating their premiership win in 2007.

Williams defended the incident, using four medical experts to argue on his behalf that he was suffering post-traumatic amnesia when the incident occurred, which he claims was the result of a high tackle by O'Neill just prior to the incident. Despite Williams' claim, he was suspended for 18 weeks by the NRL judiciary. After the decision, Williams stated that he was "obviously disappointed with the outcome". It was the longest suspension in Australian rugby league since Steve Linnane was suspended for twenty weeks for eye-gouging in 1987.

In 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.

Season 2006 saw a new-look Storm, with the retirement of captain Robbie Kearns, the emergence of talented rookie halfback Cooper Cronk taking the reigns from longtime number 7 Matt Orford, and the recruitment of hard-man Michael Crocker. Contrary to expectation, 2006 was a standout year for the Melbourne team, winning their first minor premiership following a resoundingly dominant Home and Away Season, including a club record 11 game streak. 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 subsequently favourites in the 2006 NRL Grand Final. The Storm however lost 15–8 the to the Brisbane Broncos, in a match where controversial refereeing decisions against Melbourne caused much media coverage. Melbourne's television audience for the Storm's NRL grand final appearance was greater than Sydney's was for the Swans AFL grand final appearance'.

In 2007 the Storm avenged for their heartbreaking end to the 2006 campaign by playing as they did in 2006: once again dominating the competition, and finishing on top after 25 rounds. In the first week of the NRL finals, Melbourne played Brisbane, in which Melbourne won 40–0, securing a spot in a preliminary final. In the preliminary final, Melbourne played Parramatta in a game that was tied 10–10 at half time, before a superb second half by Melbourne resulted in the final score of 26–10. The win was particularly satisfying for Melbourne fans, coming soon after Parramatta CEO Denis Fitzgerald said that rugby league should not be promoted in Melbourne. This game drew a larger crowd than chief rival Manly's preliminary final. Melbourne comprehensively defeated Manly 34–8 in the 2007 NRL Grand Final with Greg Inglis winning the coveted Clive Churchill Medal.

Melbourne Storm warming up before a match in 2008

In Season 2008, Melbourne won their third minor premiership after the 26 rounds of regular competition. Despite becoming the first minor premiers since the McIntyre Final Eight System was introduced to lose their opening finals game 15–18 to the New Zealand Warriors, they then defeated the Brisbane Broncos 16–14, scoring in the last minute of their semi final. Bellamy was fined $50,000 for making scathing remarks regarding the NRL's decision to suspend Cameron Smith over a controversial "grapple tackle" on Brisbane's Sam Thaiday. Bellamy wrongly claimed that the administration was corrupt and that bookkeepers already knew that Smith would be denied the opportunity to play for the rest of the season. Along with Melbourne's CEO, Bellamy questioned the NRL's integrity in their opting to sideline Smith and not others who were guilty of committing similar tackles. In their qualifying final, Melbourne convincingly beat the Cronulla Sharks 28–0. But in their second successive grand final appearance against the Manly Sea Eagles, Manly demolished Melbourne 40–0.

At the Dally M Awards for season 2008, Melbourne picked up 6 awards, with 3 to Greg Inglis, and 1 for each of Billy Slater, Cameron Smith and Israel Folau. Billy Slater and Cameron Smith finished 2 points behind Manly's Matt Orford for the Dally M Medal with 22 points each. Billy Slater was awarded the international player of the year Golden boot award for 2008, following on from Cameron Smith in 2007.

Following the 40–0 defeat, season 2009 was generally an average year on the field by the Storm's lofty standards, Melbourne finished 4th on the ladder after the home and away season, entering the finals clear underdogs. In Week One of the finals, the Storm romped 2008 Premiers Manly 40–12 in the qualifying final, ending their hopes of back-to-back premierships, and laying to bed some of the demons of the 2008 Grand Final. This was followed a fortnight later by a 40–10 thrashing of fierce rivals and 2006 Premiers Brisbane in the preliminary final, ensuring the Storm qualified for their fourth straight grand final (the first since Parramatta from 1981–1984). The Preliminary Final was also a monumental game for the Storm as it saw favourite son Billy Slater score his 100th career try and Cameron Smith became Storm's highest ever point scorer, surpassing Matt Orford's record of 877. The Melbourne Storm then capped off a truly brilliant late-season resurgence to end a rampaging Parramatta side in front of a parochial strong crowd at ANZ Stadium. Parramatta, coming off 10 wins from 11 games, led by the in-form young superstar Jarryd Hayne proved to be no match for the Storm's typical gameplan of grinding football, ensuring a defeat of the razzle-dazzle offload fuelled football of Parramatta. Despite the Storm leading Parramatta at one stage by 16 points, the Eels fought back in a late charge to bring the margin back to 7, with the Storm sealing a 23–16 win with a late Greg Inglis field goal. For his fantastic efforts, Fullback Billy Slater was awarded the 2009 Clive Churchill Medal for Man of the Match. Following the victory in 2009, the Melbourne Storm have been earned the title the NRL Team of the Decade for the 2000s.

However, due to poor negotiation of NRL TV broadcast rights, Channel 9 does not show regular Storm games at prime time in Melbourne.

In the late 2000s the Melbourne Storm were still running at a loss of up to $6M per season.

2010

On 11 January 2010, it was announced that Brian Waldron resigned his position as CEO to take up the same position at the Melbourne Rebels Super 15 team. He was replaced by Matt Hanson who was the Chief Operating Officer.

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. For the 2010 NRL season, they will play their first three home games at Etihad Stadium before moving to their new purpose built permanent home ground, AAMI Park.

Salary cap breach

Following claims by a whistleblower that the club was keeping a second set of books, the NRL conducted an investigation in late 2009 and early 2010. After initially denying the claims, Storm officials confessed on 22 April 2010 that the club had committed serious and systematic breaches of the salary cap for the last five years by running a well-organized dual contract and bookkeeping system which left the NRL ignorant of $3.17 million in payments made to players outside of the salary cap, including $550,000 in 2007, $965,000 in 2009 and $1.03 million in 2010.

As a club's compliance with the NRL salary cap is supported by statutory declarations, the club's owners have requested that fraud and perjury charges be laid against those responsible, and has stated that any person who knew of the breach would be expelled from the club. The Victorian Fraud Squad began preliminary investigations on 23 April, and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission also made preliminary investigations and indicated an interest in investigating breaches of the Corporations Act. Storm executives had arranged for inflated invoices to be submitted to hide the payments to players. This involved submitting invoices of up to $20,000 above the real value of the services rendered with this amount paid directly to players by the third party suppliers although there is no suggestion that the suppliers were involved in submitting the inflated invoices.

As a result, NRL Chief Executive David Gallop stripped the Melbourne Storm of their 2007 and 2009 premierships and their 2006, 2007 and 2008 minor premierships (which have been withheld), fined them an Australian sporting record $1,689,000 ($1.1 million in NRL prize money which will be re-distributed equally between the remaining 15 clubs, $89,000 in prize money from the World Club Challenge which will be re-distributed to the Leeds Rhinos, and the maximum of $500,000 for breaching the salary cap), deducted all eight premiership points they had already received in the 2010 season, and barred them from receiving premiership points for the rest of the season.

The Storm initially accepted this decision without question but have since indicated they may appeal the loss of their two premierships and premiership points for the 2010 season, however the court action was later dropped with the Storm paying the NRL's legal costs. The Storm were also ordered to cut their payroll by $1,012,500 to meet the 2011 salary cap by December 31; failure to do so will result in the club being suspended for the 2011 NRL season.

Former CEO Brian Waldron, suspended chief executive officer and former chief financial officer Matt Hanson, and current chief financial officer Paul Gregory are alleged to have been the main culprits behind the breaches. Former chief financial officer Cameron Vale, who is now with the AFL's North Melbourne Football Club, was said to have been the whistleblower on the situation, but he has denied the allegations against him.

On 23 April 2010, Brian Waldron resigned from his position of chief executive of the Melbourne Rebels rugby union club after just six weeks of taking over the expansion team entering the new Super 15 competition. The AFL investigated (and later cleared) St Kilda Football Club's players' payments during Waldron's three-year time at the club alongside now-former Storm CEO Matt Hanson.

On April 23, the NRL seized a secret dossier hidden in the home of acting chief executive Matt Hanson. The dossier contains letters of offer to three of the Storm's star players (Greg Inglis, Billy Slater, and Cameron Smith) and another as yet unnamed player guaranteeing illegal payments in the form of goods from third parties. For one player with a $400,000 contract lodged with the NRL, the letter of offer was valued at $950,000, and contained a $20,000 gift voucher for a national retailer and a $30,000 boat. Other offers included a new car for a player’s partner and $30,000 in home renovations. The offers together amounted to $700,000 of which the four players had already received $400,000. While Waldron had signed all the letters of offer only Inglis and Slater had signed theirs, albeit the letters were written in a way that the players may not have realised the extra payments were outside the cap.

The news was referred to by The Age newspaper as "The biggest scandal in Australian sports history". The Storm's scandal has also been likened to that of golfing great Tiger Woods and disgraced AFL player Ben Cousins.

Club supporters had mixed reactions and feelings towards the situation as the club was left with "dishonour and shame", as no club had ever been stripped of a competition title in 102 years of professional rugby league in Australia. Many fans dumped their jerseys and other memorabilia at the team's Carlton headquarters on hearing about the incident, and many others simply broke into tears; there was a feeling that former CEO Brian Waldron was to blame and not the players.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who is the club's number one female ticket holder, said that supporters would be shocked and saddened, but hoped that they would stand by the club as it rebuilt. Storm chairman Dr Rob Moodie apologised to the fans, many of whom publicly removed their Storm colours and dumped them in disgust.

We are devastated. This is the lowest day for our club. We have betrayed the trust of the Australian people. We haven't played by the rules.

— Dr Rob Moodie, The Courier Mail

Betting agencies received an "old fashioned betting sting" as some punters found out about the salary cap allegations before they became common knowledge, as the Storm were at $4.20 favourites to win the title at the time and $251 to win the wooden spoon. TAB Sportsbet has claimed it will be due to pay out at least $500,000 before betting was suspended.

Melbourne sports industry experts John Poulakakis (Chief commercial officer, Melbourne F.C.) and Martin Hirons (Melbourne sport business consultant) were reported in The Age, saying it could take little more than four weeks to two months to recover the $2 million it is believed to have already lost in sponsorship.

By April 30 the Age was reporting a surge in club membership of 700 over the five days since the scandal erupted, with members who had previously revoked their memberships contacting the club to have them reinstated.

The matter was referred to ASIC and the Victoria Police on July 15. The matter was also referred to the Australian Tax Office and the Victorian State Revenue Office the next day.

We had some rats in our ranks. A small group of senior managers at the club orchestrated and concealed the extra payments. They are Brian Waldron, Matt Hanson, Paul Gregory, Peter O'Sullivan and Cameron Vale.

— John Hartigan, chairman and CEO of News Limited, the owner of the Melbourne Storm, The Courier Mail

Season summaries

P=Premier, R=Runner-Up, M=Minor Premier, F=Finals Appearance, W=Wooden Spoon, S=Stripped of title
(Brackets represent Finals games)

Competition	Games Played	Games Won	Games Drawn	Games Lost	Ladder Position	P	R	M	F	W	Coach	Captain	Details
1998 NRL Season	24 (3)	17 (1)	1	6 (2)	3 / 20				X		Chris Anderson	Glenn Lazarus	Melbourne Storm 1998
1999 NRL Season	24 (4)	16 (3)	0	8 (1)	3 / 17	X			X				Melbourne Storm 1999
2000 NRL Season	26 (1)	14	1	11 (1)	6 / 14				X			Robbie Kearns	Melbourne Storm 2000
2001 NRL Season	26	11	1	14	9 / 14						Chris AndersonMark Murray	Robbie Kearns Rodney Howe	Melbourne Storm 2001
2002 NRL Season	24	9	1	14	10 / 15						Mark Murray	Rodney Howe	Melbourne Storm 2002
2003 NRL Season	24 (2)	15 (1)	0	9 (1)	5 / 15				X		Craig Bellamy	Stephen Kearney	Melbourne Storm 2003
2004 NRL Season	24 (2)	13 (1)	0	11 (1)	6 / 15				X				Melbourne Storm 2004
2005 NRL Season	24 (2)	13 (1)	0	11 (1)	6 / 15				X			Robbie Kearns	Melbourne Storm 2005
2006 NRL Season	24 (3)	20 (2)	0	4 (1)	1 / 15		X	S	X			Rotating Captains	Melbourne Storm 2006
2007 NRL Season	24 (3)	21 (3)	0	3	1 / 16	S		S	X				Melbourne Storm 2007
2008 NRL Season	24 (4)	17 (2)	0	7 (2)	1 / 16		X	S	X			Cameron Smith	Melbourne Storm 2008
2009 NRL Season	24 (3)	14 (3)	1	9	4 / 16	S			X				Melbourne Storm 2009
2010 NRL Season	24	14	0	10	16 / 16					X			Melbourne Storm 2010

Emblem and colours

Originally, the club favoured the name Melbourne Mavericks with a gunslinger logo holding a fistful of dollars. The club officials were all set to go with this until News Limited's Lachlan Murdoch told them to go with something else because the Mavericks sounded too American. Trams and Flying Foxes were also some ideas that came up. However co-CEOs Chris Johns and John Ribot decided to go with the themes lightning, power and storm. The club then became known as the Melbourne Storm.

The Storm was always going to go with the colours of their state, Victoria. These were navy blue with a white 'V'. But club consultant Peter McWhirter, from JAG fashion house, suggested that they should also have purple and gold to make their merchandise more attractive. These colours appear in the logo, however, on the home jersey they have varied. Between 1998 and 2004 these four colours also appeared but between 2005 and 2009, gold was completely removed and silver introduced. For 2010, gold has returned and silver omitted, also purple has now become the dominant colour in the jersey for the first time.

• The home jerseys used by the Melbourne Storm.
• 1998
  1998
• 1999–2002
  1999–2002
• 2003–2004
  2003–2004
• 2005–2009
  2005–2009
• 2010 – present
  2010 – present

• The away jerseys used by the Melbourne Storm.
• 1999–2000
  1999–2000
• 2001–2002
  2001–2002
• 2003–2004
  2003–2004
• 2005–2007
  2005–2007
• 2008–2009
  2008–2009
• 2010–present
  2010–present

Rivalries

St George Illawarra Dragons: The Storm narrowly beat them in their first grand final in 1999, with a late penalty try putting the Storm in front. The following year Anthony Mundine declared that the Storm were not "worthy premiers" in the run up to their round 5 rematch. The Storm responded by beating the Dragons 70-10. In Round 18 the Dragons added to the rivalry by defeating the Storm 50-4. In 2006 the Storm defeated St. George Illawarra in the Preliminary Final. On 21 July 2008, Storm won a match at Olympic Park 26-0, that was highlighted by several ugly brawls. In 2009, the Storm beat them in the Round 1 home game 17-16 with a field goal in Golden Point (the second time the two teams were drawn at fulltime).

Brisbane Broncos. The Melbourne Storm has a strong rivalry with Brisbane, built in large part on the large number of finals games played between the teams, including one final in each year from 2004 to 2009. The move of Brisbane assistant coach Craig Bellamy to Melbourne has also been attributed to fueling the rivalry.

"When Bellamy left here and went to Melbourne, the rivalry with them went up a notch then... their record is good against us."

— Darren Lockyer, 26 September 2009

Every year since Brisbane's victory over Melbourne in the 2006 Grand Final, Melbourne have ended the Broncos' season by knocking them out of the finals. Melbourne captain Cameron Smith commented on the rivalry prior to their 2009 Preliminary Final at Etihad Stadium.

"A lot of people talk about us and Manly, but I think all the boys for whatever reason would say we take more satisfaction out of beating the Broncos...we love playing them...there is always plenty of feeling and intensity in the games...it probably wouldn't feel like September if we weren't playing them at some stage."

— Cameron Smith, 26 September 2009

The Brisbane Broncos defeated the Storm 15–8, under controversial circumstances, in the 2006 NRL Grand Final. The Storm sought revenge through a 40–0 thrashing in the 2007 Qualifying Final at Olympic Park Stadium. The 2008 Semi-Final at Suncorp Stadium ended with Melbourne dramatically winning 16–14 with a try on the final play of the game. In 2009 Brisbane were again beaten by eventual premiers Melbourne, this time 40–10 at Etihad Stadium, catapulting the Storm to their 4th consecutive Grand Final Appearance.

The Broncos and Storm have also traded players recently, including Israel Folau, Scott Anderson and Greg Inglis (Storm to Broncos).

Manly Sea Eagles, whom the Storm defeated 34–8 in the 2007 Grand Final but lost to in the 2008 re-match in a history-making 0–40 loss. To add the rivalry, Melbourne beat Manly 40–12 in the opening final of the 2009 finals series, ending their bid to be back-to-back premiers.

I haven't been a part of the matches previous to this year which built that rivalry but you certainly get a sense that interest in the game and the level of excitement and enthusiasm from the players goes up,"

— Brett Finch, 8 September 2009

Stadium and attendances

Melbourne have played the vast majority of their home matches at the city's Olympic Park Stadium, affectionately coined "The Graveyard" by fans due to the incredible 77.2% winning percentage there. It was here that the club played their inaugural home match in the fourth round of the 1998 season on 3 April 1998, having come off the back of three successive away victories. In front of what remains the club's record Olympic Park attendance of 20,522, the team recorded a 26–16 victory over the North Sydney Bears.

Olympic Park Stadium during a Toyota cup match.

The team remained at the ground until the end of the 2000 season. In the 2000 season they attracted an average home attendance of 14,622 still their highest season average. They played at Melbourne Cricket Ground for two games in 2000, and they won both times including the 70–10 thrashing of St George Illawarra Dragons in the Grand Final rematch from the previous year. Following steady attendance increases over the three years, it was decided to move home games to the much larger Docklands Stadium for the following year However, with the team ending up missing the finals, crowd numbers declined and it was decided to move the team back to Olympic Park. Attendances bottomed out to an average of 8,886 per home game in 2004, but they have steadily risen each year back to an average of 12,474 per home game for the 2008 season. A home attendance record of 33,427 was set in 2007 for the Preliminary Final against Parramatta, at Telstra Dome.

The Storm played their last game at Olympic Park in round 25, 29 August 2009, with a 36–4 thrashing of the Sydney Roosters. For the 2010 Telstra NRL Premiership season, the Storm's first three home games (rounds four, six and seven) were played at Etihad Stadium, before moving into their new home ground, AAMI Park in round nine (9 May 2010) against the Brisbane Broncos. The club had anticipated playing its first game at the new ground in round four against the St George Illawarra Dragons, however, a delay in construction required the opening to be pushed back several weeks.

Stadium records

Home Grounds used by the Storm

From	To	Stadium
1998	2000	Olympic Park Stadium
2001	2001	Docklands Stadium
2002	2009	Olympic Park Stadium
2010	present	AAMI Park

Top 5 Home Attendances

Crowd	Stadium	Opponent	Game Status	Date
33,427	Etihad Stadium	Parramatta Eels	Preliminary final	23/09/2007
27,687	Etihad Stadium	Brisbane Broncos	Preliminary final	26/09/2009
25,480	Etihad Stadium	St George-Illawarra Dragons	Regular Season – 1st home game following premiership (Good Friday)	02/04/2010
23,906	Etihad Stadium	New Zealand Warriors	Regular Season – Anzac Day also 1st game following Salary Cap revelations	25/04/2010
23,239	MCG	St George-Illawarra Dragons	Regular Season – Grand Final Rematch	03/03/2000

Statistics and records summary

Further information: List of Melbourne Storm records

Statistics and Records current as of end of 2010 NRL season

Club honours

• National Rugby League Premierships: 1

1999

• National Rugby League runners up: 2

2006, 2008

• National Youth Competition premierships: 1

2009

• World Club Challenge wins: 2

2000, 2010

• Greatest winning margin: 64 points
  • Vs Wests Tigers, on 5 July 2001, Final score 64 – 0.

• Worst defeat: 46 points
  • Vs Bulldogs (50–4 on 10 August 2003)
  • Vs St. George Illawarra (50–4 on 4 June 2000)

• Most consecutive wins: 11
  • 28 May 2006 (Round 12) – 13 August 2006 (Round 23)

• All time head to head record
  • Since 1998, The Melbourne Storm have the following Win-Loss record.
  • Their wins percentage is currently the second best in the league only second to the Broncos.

Games	Wins	Drawn	Loss	Points for	Points against	Win %
343	211	5	127	8370	6235	62.20%

Individual honours

• Top 3 Highest point scorers:
  • Cameron Smith 1004 points – 29 tries, 444 goals
  • Matt Orford 877 points - 52 tries, 333 goals, 3 field goals
  • Matt Geyer 662 points - 113 tries, 105 goals

• Top 5 Try scorers:
  • Matt Geyer 113 tries
  • Billy Slater 112
  • Greg Inglis 78
  • Marcus Bai 70
  • Steven Bell 63

• Most points scored in a season: 242
  • Matt Geyer, 20 tries and 81 goals in the 1999 premiership season.

• Most tries in a season: 21
  • Israel Folau 2007 season.

• Dally M medalists: 1
  • 2006 – Cameron Smith

• Golden Boot Award (World's best player) winners: 3
  • 2007 – Cameron Smith
  • 2008 – Billy Slater
  • 2009 – Greg Inglis

Coaches and captains

Coaches

• 1998-R7 2001: Chris Anderson
• R8 2001–2002: Mark Murray
• 2003–present: Craig Bellamy

Captains

• 1998–1999: Glenn Lazarus
• 2000: Robbie Kearns
• 2001: Robbie Kearns, Rodney Howe
• 2002: Rodney Howe
• 2003–2004: Stephen Kearney
• 2005: Robbie Kearns
• 2006: Cameron Smith, David Kidwell, Scott Hill, Matt Geyer, Michael Crocker
• 2007 R1-R16: Cameron Smith, Matt Geyer, Michael Crocker, Cooper Cronk, Matt King, Dallas Johnson
• 2007 R17-present: Cameron Smith

The rotating captaincy policy was in place from 2006 until Cameron Smith was made sole captain after the State of Origin series (Round 17) in 2007.

Players

Further information: List of Melbourne Storm players

Representative players

Main article: List of Melbourne Storm representatives

2010 squad

Although other players may play for the Melbourne Storm during the year, all NRL clubs are required to select a top 25 First Grade squad at the beginning of the season.

No. Position Player Adam Blair – SR Jesse Bromwich – PR Hep Cahill – LK Dane Chisholm – FE 73 Cooper Cronk – HB Matt Duffie – WG Louis Fanene – SR Brett Finch – FE Ryan Hinchcliffe – HK 62 Ryan Hoffman – SR 79 Greg Inglis – CE William Isa – CE 107 Sam Joe – CE 109 Sinbad Kali – PR Luke Kelly – HB John Kite – PR Rory Kostjasyn – HK 90 Jeff Lima – PR

No. Position Player Todd Lowrie – LK Luke MacDougall – WG 99 Sika Manu – SR 105 Dane Nielsen – WG Bryan Norrie – PR Justin O'Neill – CE 106 Kevin Proctor – SR 94 Anthony Quinn – WG Billy Rogers – LK 60 Billy Slater – FB 55 Cameron Smith (C) – HK Chase Stanley – CE 102 Aiden Tolman – PR Atelea Vea – SR 76 Brett White – PR Gareth Widdop – FB James Woolford – HK Feleti Mahoni – SR

Source: Storm 2010 Squad

Team of the decade

As part of their 10 year celebrations in 2007, Melbourne Storm released a team of the decade. The 17 man team was selected by former assistant coach Greg Brentnall, foundation CEO John Ribot, Daily Telegraph journalist Steve Mascord and board member Frank Stanton.

No. Position Player 1 Billy Slater – FB 2 Matt Geyer – WG 3 Matt King – CE 4 Greg Inglis – CE 5 Marcus Bai – WG 6 Scott Hill – FE 7 Brett Kimmorley – HB 8 Glenn Lazarus – PR (captain) 9 Cameron Smith – HK

No. Position Player 10 Robbie Kearns – PR 11 Dallas Johnson – SR 12 Stephen Kearney – SR 13 Tawera Nikau – LK 14 Rodney Howe – positions 15 David Kidwell – positions 16 Ryan Hoffman – positions 17 Cooper Cronk – positions

Supporters

The Melbourne Storm's supporter base grew from almost 500,000 in 2004 to almost 800,000 in 2009, making them the fourth most popular rugby team. The club's supporter group, the "Graveyard Crew", make an Aussie-rules-style banner for the team to run through in important matches.

See also

• Rugby league in Victoria

External links

Official sites

• Melbourne Storm official website

News sites

• Storm at foxsports.com.au/league

Statistics and information sites

• Melbourne Sttorm statistics tables
• RL1908 Melbourne Storm history