Melbourne Storm
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| Club Information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Melbourne Rugby League Club | ||
| Founded | 1997 | ||
| Current Details | |||
| Ground(s) | Olympic Park (18,500) | ||
| CEO(s) | Brian Waldron | ||
| Coach(s) | Craig Bellamy | ||
| Captain(s) | Cameron Smith | ||
| Competition | National Rugby League | ||
| 2008 | National Rugby League, 1st | ||
 Home colours | Image:Mel away jersey 2008.svg Away colours | ||
| Records | |||
| Premierships | 2 (1999, 2007) | ||
| Runners-up | RL season 2006 | ||
| Minor premiership | 3 (2006, 2007, 2008) | ||
The Melbourne Storm is a professional rugby league football club based in the city of Melbourne, Australia. The Melbourne club is currently 100% owned and operated by News Limited.
The club's first season was in 1998, as part of the newly formed National Rugby League competition. The club is the inaugural first-grade club based in Victoria. They play their home games at Olympic Park.
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[edit] History
- See also: Rugby League in Victoria
In 1996, the Australian Rugby League (ARL) decided to establish a Melbourne based team due to the high attendances at recent State of Origin matches. But in May 1997, Super League boss John Ribot pushed for a Melbourne based club in the Super League competition, which was the rival against the ARL competition.[1] Former Brisbane Broncos centre Chris Johns became the CEO of the club and Ribot stepped down from head of the Super League to set up the club. In September 1997, Melbourne announced that Chris Anderson would be their foundation coach, and then the Super League announced that their new team will be named the Melbourne Storm.[2]
The Melbourne club then went forward with signing players from other clubs, including Robbie Ross, Glenn Lazarus, Brett Kimmorley and Scott Hill. With the Super League and ARL joining into one competition, the Melbourne team was now part of the National Rugby League (NRL) for the 1998 season. In their first ever game, they defeated Illawarra, with Glenn Lazarus being their inaugural captain. Melbourne, in a complete shock to the rest of the competition, won their first four games, before losing to Auckland.[3] They went on to make the finals, but were defeated by eventual premiers Brisbane Broncos.[4]
In 1999, Melbourne won their eight of their first eleven games, 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, but came from behind in both the semi final and preliminary final to make the grand final. Melbourne faced St. George Illawarra in the 1999 grand final, St. George Illawarra were favourites due to comfortably defeating Melbourne just three weeks earlier.[4] When St. George Illawarra were ahead 14–0 at half time and Melbourne seemed down and out, but two tries in to Melbourne put the score line at 18–14 in favour of St. George Illawarra with 15 minute remaining. With three minutes remaining Melbourne winger Craig Smith was knocked out by a high tackle which caused him to lose the ball over the try line. In a historic video refereeing decision, a penalty try was awarded and Melbourne's Matt Geyer kicked the goal that won Melbourne the 1999 Grand final.[4][5]
Season 2000 saw Melbourne have consistent results after 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 through out the period, and Anderson quit as coach of Melbourne mid season of 2001, and 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, and missing the finals for the second year in a row. Craig Bellamy was announced as the new coach of Melbourne for 2003.[6][7]
Between 2003 and 2005, Melbourne made the finals under coach Bellamy, but lost games in the semi finals preventing them from making the grand final. In 2006, the Melbourne team won their first minor premiership for being on top of the NRL ladder. Melbourne only lost four games in the season making them outright leaders by four wins.[8] They went on to win their two finals matches and go on to the grand final.[8] But in the grand final, against the Brisbane Broncos, they lost 8–15 to make them runners up despite being favourites for the title in a match where controversial refereeing decisions against Melbourne caused much media coverage.[9]
In 2007, they played as they did in 2006, once again 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 came up against Parramatta. It was tied 10-10 at half time, before a superb second half by Melbourne, finishing the game 26-10. The win was particularly satisfying for Melbourne fans, coming soon after Paramatta CEO Denis Fitzgerald saying that rugby league should not be promoted in Melbourne. Melbourne ended up drawing a larger crowd than Manly's preliminary final.
Melbourne comprehensively defeated Manly 34-8 in the 2007 NRL Grand Final. The 2007 season for the Melbourne Storm has been the most successful ever year of all time for a premiership winning side in rugby league, with the team losing only 3 games. On October 5th 2008 the two sides met again in the 2008 NRL Grand Final with The Manly Sea Eagles beating The Melbourne Storm 40-0. However, Melbourne failed to beat Superleague (europe) winners the Leeds Rhinos at Elland Road in the World Club Challenge, losing 11-4.[10]
Melbourne won their third minor premiership in season 2008 after 26 rounds. Despite becoming the first minor premiers since the McIntire 8 system was introduced to lose their opening round finals game 15-18 to the New Zealand Warriors. they then produced a miracle in defeating the Brisbane Broncos in the last second of their semi-final 16-14. in the grand final qualifier the Storm convincingly beat the Cronulla Sharks 28-0.
In season 2008, on the 9th of September at the Dally M Awards, the Storm racked up 6 awards. 3 to Greg Inglis, 1 to Billy Slater, Cameron Smith and Israel Folau. Billy Slater and Cameron Smith ended up 2 points behind Manly's Matt Orford for the Dally M Medal with 22 points each.
[edit] Emblem and colours
Originally, the club favoured the name Melbourne Mavericks with a gunslinger logo holding a fistful of aces. 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. So 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.[1]
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. [1] Gold still appears on the logo, but has now been removed from the Storm's home guernsey, where the colours now consist of navy blue, purple, white and silver.
 1998 |
 1999-2002 |
2003-present |
[edit] Rivalry
Melbourne's greatest rivalry is with the St George Illawarra Dragons [11]. The Storm narrowly beat them in their first grand final in 1999. 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 Melbourne 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 reflecting the two teams dislike for each other.
Their newest rival are the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles, of whom have also been a benchmark side to the rest of the competition and have had fierce encounters with the Storm over the last two years, including the 2007 NRL Grand Final and the 2008 NRL Grand Final. Other rivalries include the Brisbane Broncos and the New Zealand Warriors, which are more traditional.
[edit] Stadium & Attendances
Melbourne have played the vast majority of their home matches at the city's Olympic Park Stadium. 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.[3] 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.[12]
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 [12] still their highest season average. Following steady attendance increases over the three years, it was decided to move home games to the much larger Colonial Stadium for the following year.[6] However, with the team ending up missing the finals, crowd numbers declined and it was decided to move the team back to Olympic Park, where they have remained ever since.[7] 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[12]. A home attendance record of 33,427 was set in 2007 for the Preliminary Final against Parramatta, at Telstra Dome.
In 2007 the Victorian Government confirmed that it would be building a new 31,500 rectangular stadium at Olympic Park, adjacent to the club's current ground. The Government has stated that the ground will be used for rugby league in 2010. The Storm will be playing their home games at the new stadium.[13]
[edit] Statistics and records
Melbourne's highest ever point scorer is Matt Orford with 877 points. Current players Matt Geyer (628) and Cameron Smith (586) are the highest current players with the most points. Matt Geyer has the most tries in the club's history with 105 tries, followed by current player Billy Slater (73) and Storm legend Marcus Bai (70).[14]. In his rookie season, current player Israel Folau broke the Storm's club record of most tries in a season by crossing over the line 21 times in 2007.
Melbourne's highest ever victory was the 64–0 against Wests Tigers on 5 July 2001. The most points they have ever scored is 70, when they beat St. George Illawarra Dragons 70–10 on 3 March 2000. However, their biggest defeat was by 46 points to both the Bulldogs (50-4 on 10 August 2003) and to St. George Illawarra (50-4 on 4 June 2000).[15]
For regular season home games the record attendances are as follows for the three homegrounds Melbourne have used;
- 23239 MCG (vs St George-Illawarra 03/03/2000)
- 20522 Olympic Park (vs Norths 03/04/1998)
- 20084 Telstra Dome (vs Warriors 17/03/2008)
For home finals the attendance records are as follows;
- 33427 Telstra Dome (vs Parramatta 23/09/2007)
- 18247 Olympic Park (vs Sydney City 30/08/1998)
[edit] All time head to head record
Over the 11 years that Melbourne have participated in the National Rugby League, they have the following Win-Loss record.[16]
| Games | Wins | Drawn | Loss | Tries | Goals | F/G | Points | Win % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 288 | 178 | 4 | 106 | 1295 | 1012 | 10 | 7214 | 62.50% |
[edit] Current 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. Below is a list of around 25 players ranked by their cap number at the Melbourne Storm.
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- =leaving club
[edit] 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.[17]
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[edit] Prominent fans
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b c Collis, Ian and Whitaker, Alan (2004). The History of Rugby League Clubs. Sydney: New Holland Publishers (Australia) Pty Ltd, 344. ISBN 174110075–5.
- ^ Collis, Ian and Whitaker, Alan (2004). The History of Rugby League Clubs. Sydney: New Holland Publishers (Australia) Pty Ltd, 345. ISBN 174110075–5.
- ^ a b Collis, Ian and Whitaker, Alan (2004). The History of Rugby League Clubs. Sydney: New Holland Publishers (Australia) Pty Ltd, 346. ISBN 174110075–5.
- ^ a b c Collis, Ian and Whitaker, Alan. The History of Rugby League Clubs, 347. ISBN 174110075–5.
- ^ Collis, Ian and Whitaker, Alan (2004). The History of Rugby League Clubs. Sydney: New Holland Publishers (Australia) Pty Ltd, 348. ISBN 174110075–5.
- ^ a b Collis, Ian and Whitaker, Alan (2004). The History of Rugby League Clubs. Sydney: New Holland Publishers (Australia) Pty Ltd, 349. ISBN 174110075–5.
- ^ a b Collis, Ian and Whitaker, Alan (2004). The History of Rugby League Clubs. Sydney: New Holland Publishers (Australia) Pty Ltd, 350. ISBN 174110075–5.
- ^ a b "Rugby League Tables / Season 2006". Retrieved on 2007-07-28.
- ^ "Broncos edge Storm for NRL title", BBC News. Retrieved on 28 July 2007.
- ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_league/7271829.stm
- ^ http://illawarra.yourguide.com.au/news/local/sport/rugby-league/haunted-dragons-facing-storm-graveyard/844398.aspx,
- ^ a b c "Rugby League Tables / Attendences Melbourne". Retrieved on 2007-08-13.
- ^ "Major Projects - Melbourne Rectangular Stadium". Retrieved on 2007-08-13.
- ^ "Rugby League Tables / Scorers / Melbourne". Retrieved on 2007-07-22.
- ^ "Rugby League Tables / Game Records / Melbourne". Retrieved on 2007-07-22.
- ^ "Rugby League Tables / Win-Loss Record / Melbourne". Retrieved on 2007-07-22.
- ^ "Melbourne Storm Official Site Team of the Decade". Retrieved on 2007-07-21.
[edit] External links
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Official Sites |
News Sites Statistics & Information Sites |
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