MELBOURNE Storm wrapped up another minor premiership on Saturday night to confirm their ranking as Australia’s most successful football club in any code over the past 15 years.
Better than the Brisbane Broncos, Hawthorn, Geelong, Sydney Swans, Sydney FC or any of the rugby teams.
And it doesn’t just happen by accident.
Super coach Craig Bellamy has pinched skills, drills and training ideas from the mighty New Zealand All Blacks to put the Storm on track for even more success this year.
He says a week with the All Blacks in Chicago last off-season was more beneficial than previous study tours to NFL franchises or any of the European soccer clubs he has visited.
This is how the Storm have become the benchmark club of all the footy codes.
THE ALL BLACKS
Every off-season Bellamy and his general manager of football Frank Ponissihead overseas to search for coaching ideas and sports science trends to keep the Storm on top of their game.
Last year they went to Chicago, where the All Blacks were based for a week, and received full access to coaches meetings, team talks, all the training sessions and social functions.
“It was the best week we’ve had as far as learning things go,” Bellamy says. “It’s helped our attack this year. It’s been a huge help skills-wise. The drills they do. Everything.
“You also learn how you want your team to be away from football. About their values and their culture. It’s very strong leadership with no bullshit.
“They are all so humble and so welcoming. It shows you don’t have to be an arrogant prick to be a good footy player. Not that it’s been a problem at our club, anyway.”
RECRUITMENT
No one is better than the Storm’s recruitment guru Paul Bunn, who used to work at the Broncos under the legendary Cyril Connell. Bunn is so good they’ve just extended his contract until 2020.
As we’re sitting in CEO Dave Donaghy’s office on Friday, a text message with a photo arrives from Bunn, who is in New Zealand on a scouting mission.
“How about this Fijian boy,’’ he writes.
“196cm and runs 10.5 for the 100. Eighteen years of age. This kid can play. Leading tryscorer. Complete gun.”
Brodie Croft, Cameron Munster, Curtis Scott, Jahrome Hughes and Ryley Jacks are the next generation.
Still, you can’t just walk into this football club.
Bunn always checks the Facebook and Instagram pages of potential recruits.
He gets to know the parents and has a strict “no dickhead” policy.
“We work hard at not having big heads,” Ponissi says.
“We don’t have egos here. We like politeness and good courtesy. Being in Melbourne … unless you are Smith, Cronk or Slater … you’re just a normal bloke who walks down the street and no one knows you.”
MR MELBOURNE
Eddie McGuire is stunning in his praise of Collingwood’s next-door neighbours.
“Everyone in Melbourne barracks for the Storm,” he says.
“They’re a warm friend, not a competitor.
“They are very much part of the rich tapestry of sport in Melbourne. We’d be so much a lesser city without them on our sporting menu on weekends.
“I have a warmer regard for them than 17 other AFL clubs.”
McGuire is a massive fan of Origin and Kangaroos skipper Cameron Smith.
“Cam is one of the greatest sportsmen Australia has produced,” he says.
I ask him what Collingwood could learn from them.
“The professionalism to start with,” he says.
“You can go around the world to look at great organisations but sometimes they are literally right in front of your face.
“The Storm have the balance right between doing things in the community and being really great representatives and ambassadors for the sport in a foreign town.”
FAMILY CLUB
Being so far away in an AFL city, wives, partners, parents and children are embraced as much as the footy players.
This week Bellamy is hosting a dinner party at his home. It’s for the WAGS only. To thank them for being so supportive. To acknowledge the long and lonely hours without their partners on away-game weekends.
There are other things you notice, too. Like in the players’ room at their training headquarters. There is table tennis, an old pinball machine, couches, a television, fridge … and boxes in the corner full of kids’ games, puzzles, books.
It’s almost like a childcare centre. The players’ children are always around.
On Friday, Smith’s seven-year-old daughter Matilda is wandering around the football club office under the supervision of media manager Sarah Kalajawhile dad trains.
Smith and his wife Barbara hosted a trivia night for players and partners last weekend.
There are so many examples of this family-friendly environment.
Bellamy’s son Aaron now works on the coaching staff. The mad coach you see on TV every weekend is an adoring grandfather who loves spending time with Aaron’s two children as much as he enjoys coaching the team.
SIMPLY THE BEST
Outside of the 2010 salary cap scandal, the Storm have not missed the finals under Bellamy, and they have played in six grand finals.
This makes them the most successful franchise in Australia of all the footy codes.
Only Geelong in the AFL have a slightly higher win percentage — but not the sustained success. They have missed the finals three times.
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.”
