Inside Australia’s most successful sporting club

[BringTheNoise]

"For the Storm, such is the demand for excellence, even 2014 was considered poor when they finished sixth.

Andrew Blowers, the former All Black, joined the club that year as a welfare officer.

“I couldn’t believe how down in the dumps everyone was. It was like it was a disaster,” he says.

That year Melbourne made some big changes.

They were touched up mid-season in a game against the Roosters and belted in the forwards. Straight after the game, Smith met Bellamy and Ponissi in their office.

It was there they decided they needed bigger forwards. They bought Dale Finucane from the Bulldogs and fast-tracked Jordan McLean.

“We also got hammered by the Bulldogs in the elimination final that year,” Ponissi says.

“It was confirmation we needed a bigger pack.

“At one stage, Mick Ennis started roughing up Cameron’s hair, like he does. Not one of our forwards ran in and showed Ennis it was unacceptable. Little things like that woke us up.”"

Read more: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sp...b/news-story/c134592a4842c6b314fb0acc1883226f

Shows the contrast between our 2 clubs. Melbourne call coming 6th a poor season. We call making the 8 a successful season.

 

[Sans Souci Sainter]

"For the Storm, such is the demand for excellence, even 2014 was considered poor when they finished sixth.

Andrew Blowers, the former All Black, joined the club that year as a welfare officer.

“I couldn’t believe how down in the dumps everyone was. It was like it was a disaster,” he says.

That year Melbourne made some big changes.

They were touched up mid-season in a game against the Roosters and belted in the forwards. Straight after the game, Smith met Bellamy and Ponissi in their office.

It was there they decided they needed bigger forwards. They bought Dale Finucane from the Bulldogs and fast-tracked Jordan McLean.

“We also got hammered by the Bulldogs in the elimination final that year,” Ponissi says.

“It was confirmation we needed a bigger pack.

“At one stage, Mick Ennis started roughing up Cameron’s hair, like he does. Not one of our forwards ran in and showed Ennis it was unacceptable. Little things like that woke us up.”"

Read more: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sp...b/news-story/c134592a4842c6b314fb0acc1883226f

Shows the contrast between our 2 clubs. Melbourne call coming 6th a poor season. We call making the 8 a successful season.

Agree in that aspect of accepting mediocrity.

I suppose if you've spent most of your career playing in "Super Teams" built on systemic cap cheating, a rebuilding year after finishing 6th could make you a bit sad.

The club did also go out and put together a decent pack after Mason was talking smack about our forwards though.

 

[BringTheNoise]

I suppose if you've spent most of your career playing in "Super Teams" built on systemic cap cheating, a rebuilding year after finishing 6th could make you a bit sad.

Yes it's the cap cheating 7+ years ago that built their culture of success.

A perfect example of how fans continue to justify our position and lack of success in comparison to other clubs.

To suggest that our lack of success is due to some assumed fact we're the only club that plays by the rules completely dismisses the complete mismanagement from top to bottom that has become systemic in our culture.

 

[Sans Souci Sainter]

Yes it's the cap cheating 7+ years ago that built their culture of success.

Yeah, it is.

 

[gregstar]

Not finishing in the top 3 used to be a disappointment when I was supporting during the 70's & early 80's. We were used to similar performances that the storm provide in this era. Even their dunga era under Murray only lasted 2 years!!!!

Not finishing in the finals in any of the 3 grades was also a disappointment especially if a title wasn't won amongst the 3 grades.

We are now not even a shadow of this.