In the long and storied history of top-tier rugby league in Australia, perhaps the least recognised period of greatness is the Melbourne Storm’s two-decade run at the top of the heavily equalised competition.
While Penrith’s history-making feats receive plenty of deserved attention, the sustained success of the Storm under Craig Bellamy is often taken for granted, so ingrained and expected has it become. Melbourne have not reached the same highs as Penrith’s four straight titles, and their smaller profile as a Victorian club has made it harder to get their credentials noticed, but there is no doubt the Storm are one of rugby league’s great dynasties, having consistently played in grand finals for two decades under the same man.
Bellamy will coach his 11th grand final on Sunday when the Storm meet the Brisbane Broncos at Accor Stadium – 19 years after he guided Melbourne to a decider against the same team in 2006 (Brisbane won, and have not won another premiership since).
The Storm coach’s 11 grand finals sets a new record for the modern era, surpassing Wayne Bennett’s 10 appearances. Bellamy has done it in 23 seasons, coaching 602 games, while Bennett has coached 960 games over 38 seasons. Tim Sheens, Brian Smith, Ricky Stuart and Des Hasler – the four other coaches to have 500 games to their name – have coached in a combined 18 grand finals from their combined 2,342 games and 96 seasons.
The Storm have never gone more than four years without a grand final appearance under Bellamy’s tutelage. In his 23 years at the helm, the Storm have not finished worse than sixth, save for the 2010 season in which the NRL forced them into last spot for salary cap breaches. The longevity of the Storm’s sustained success is almost unprecedented (St George famously won 11 premierships on the trot in the 1950s and 60s and may be the only team that can claim to have achieved what the Storm have).
While Melbourne have had some of the greats of the game carry them to such lofty heights including Cameron Smith, Billy Slater and Cooper Cronk, it has not been a dynasty defined by a superstar or even a generation of them. Smith, Slater and Cronk have been replaced by developed talent in Harry Grant, Ryan Papenhuyzen and Jahrome Hughes. Jack Howarth will be named at centre for his second straight grand final. He was six months old when Bellamy coached his first game at Melbourne and yet Howarth personifies the Storm’s true essence: no nonsense, tough, reliable, selfless. While the Storm’s playing style has changed many times under Bellamy – he is not beholden to a single style of play with Melbourne at various times being known for their attacking brilliance and their defensive stoutness – he has built success on trusting the right people.
It is an extraordinary run and one that shows no sign of abating, whether the Storm defeat the Broncos or not.
While it is about continuity for Bellamy and the Storm, for Brisbane this Sunday is about reclaiming former glories and reestablishing the Broncos as one of Australia’s top sporting organisations.
The Broncos were rugby league royalty through their first two decades, winning six premierships and making the finals every year from 1992 to 2009. Not only were they the glamour club that attracted the best talent Queensland had to offer, they were political heavyweights who wielded so much clout that the Super League war occurred at their agitation.
But it has been like the fall of Rome in Brisbane since the Broncos’ last premiership in 2006 as they lurched from one misstep to the next, losing gravitas and grand finals, influence and impact. Few would have thought a club as big and as powerful and as attractive as the Broncos would go nearly two decades without a title, but after losing, winning back and losing Bennett again, butchering leads in the 2015 and 2023 deciders and making some extraordinarily poor decisions around coaching, it has been nearly two decades of disappointment.
This is an opportunity for Brisbane to return to glory. And it is not some fluke return. Brisbane are in their second grand final in three years and are on a journey with coach Michael Maguire, who ended a four-decade drought at South Sydney, guided New South Wales to a rare series win over Queensland and helped New Zealand hand Australia their biggest ever loss. He can now add to that masterminding the end of Penrith’s five-peat dream.
In a nod to the Storm’s success, Brisbane have returned to the big game with former Storm CEO Dave Donaghy at the helm along with Maguire, a former Storm assistant coach. The last four Broncos coaches not named Wayne Bennett have been Storm assistants, but Maguire was there the longest and had the most influence, playing a key role in the four straight grand finals from 2006 to 2009.
For Melbourne and Brisbane, this grand final means entirely different things. The Storm just continue to do Storm things as Bellamy creates an extraordinary bit of history. The Broncos want what they once had. That sets up a grand final for the ages.
