The world and Australia were very different places back in April 2002. So too rugby league and the Melbourne Storm, when 18 years ago a talented young Queenslander named Cameron Smith made his first grade debut.
September 11 was a fresh wound the world was reeling from. John Howard was prime minister and the NRL was still clamouring for peace and a future after the carnage and disrepair of the Super League war. The Storm had remarkably won a title in just their second season of existence but had slipped into mediocrity in the years following, sacking their inaugural coach and on the verge of moving on from another.
Few could have anticipated what was to come. Smith’s debut was followed a season later by that of Billy Slater. Twelve months on it was Cooper Cronk’s turn. A golden generation completed by the hiring of arguably the finest coach the game has ever known in 2003. Those in charge of the Storm may have been excited about what they had. Not even Richard Simmons on a sugar rush could have had the positivity to properly gauge what Melbourne had both built and lucked into.
A dynasty was born. Smith would become the most decorated player in the history of the game. Slater would be talked of as a future Immortal. Cronk would do nothing but win. Bellamy set a new standard for coaching greatness. From 2006 through 2020, the Storm would reach the grand final on nine occasions, winning four and favoured to make it a fifth. They finished atop the table on seven occasions and missed the finals only once – when salary cap breaches prevented the club from playoff football. The Storm have won a remarkable 326 of 471 games since 2003.
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.
Eras do not last forever though and the curtain call is nearly complete for this great Melbourne Storm epoch. Cronk did the unthinkable and moved to the Roosters in 2018, guiding them to two premierships before retiring. Slater hung up the boots at the end of the 2018 season. Bellamy has said he will be moving back to Queensland in a year. Smith’s retirement appears imminent.
Melbourne are standing on the doorstep of the great unknown. The club has played 608 premiership matches – Smith has played in a remarkable 429. 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.
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.
One of the hallmarks of the Storm has been preparation. The club is uniquely positioned to carry on an already stunningly long run of success well into the future. 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. Cameron Munster is the Australian five-eighth. Ryan Papenhuyzen finished in the top 10 of Dally M medal voting in his first season as a starter. 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. Smith’s No 9 jersey will be claimed by either Kiwi rake Brandon Smith or reigning rookie of the year Harry Grant.
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.
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.
Bellamy is obviously central to both. No coach in the game has either been a better developer of talent or able to get more out of his cattle. This has worked on both ends. It has meant the Storm always have talent ready to perform at a high level while they can attract quality recruits cheaper than other clubs because players realise they will become better and thus earn bigger salaries by playing for the Storm. Melbourne have historically kept the unique top-end talent and then just replenished the middle tier.
There is no question the loss of Bellamy poses the biggest risk to the Storm’s future success. Part of what has made Melbourne one of the most envied sporting organisations in Australian sport, though, is that the club is not reliant on one coach or one player. The Storm have a perfect understanding of who they are and what it takes to succeed. They prize the simple. They believe in process and have systems in place to execute their beliefs. They truly know what is important and what is just noise.
The great unknown awaits the Storm but it is likely to be more of the same – winning, winning and more winning.
Guardian Australia will be liveblogging the NRL grand final between Penrith Panthers and Melbourne Storm on Sunday night. Kick-off is at 7:30pm AEST
