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‘I just fell in love with it’ - How Melbourne Storm is growing its fan base
By
Roy Ward
September 17, 2021 — 3.54pm
From her first Melbourne Storm home game, Samantha Humphrey was hooked.
It was the year 2000 and the Storm played at the old Olympic Park, known to Storm fans as the Graveyard, with its running track and ageing grandstand. Still, she loved the connection between the people following Victoria’s fledgling NRL side.
Ms Humphrey’s story is echoed by many others who follow the Storm whether they are from rugby league backgrounds or fell into the code after the Storm’s arrival in 1998.
With parents who moved to Victoria from NSW and a father who preferred to follow the AFL’s Geelong Cats, Ms Humphrey was encouraged to watch the Storm in the 1999 grand final by her mum.
“I’m born and bred in Victoria, but I really fell in love with the atmosphere at the Graveyard, it was very family-orientated, it was really close to the action and you could hear every hit,” Ms Humphrey recalls.
“The cheerleaders and the whole vibe was just fantastic. I just fell in love with it and I slowly fell out of love with AFL. I can’t even watch it anymore.”
Ms Humphrey is one of Melbourne Storm’s record 28,000 members this year even though the team has played only seven games at AAMI Park in the past two years.
The Storm is this year’s NRL minor premier; they have won four premierships (two further titles were stripped for salary cap breaches) and missed the finals only three times since their inaugural season in 1998. They play in their sixth-consecutive preliminary final next Saturday and have carved their own territory in AFL-obsessed Victoria.
They are among the most successful sporting teams Melbourne has produced, but few of us keep abreast of their achievements. Those who do are enthusiastic, to say the least.
About 83 per cent of the Storm’s 2021 members live in Victoria with 8 per cent from Queensland and 4 per cent from NSW. They also have members in each of the other states and territories and some living
With 531,000 followers, the Storm’s Facebook account is the second biggest in the NRL behind Brisbane Broncos, and they have 281,000 followers on Instagram and 141,000 on Twitter – those accounts have become their main way of reaching their fans in Victoria.
AFL club Collingwood has vastly more members with more than 82,000 but they trail their NRL neighbours on Facebook (362,000), Instagram (265,000) and Twitter (140,000).
Like many Storm fans have suffered for two seasons, with the pandemic forcing the team to leave the state. They took solace from
the player-led move to put a special “Our home – Victoria” patch on their jerseys last year. They wore the same patch again this season.
“For some of the fans I know, the Storm are everything. To see and hear some of their stories, it’s been really heartbreaking,” Ms Humphrey said.
“We’ve also lost some supporters during this time due to cancer and other things but for me, this time has made me love the Storm even more, if that was possible. They do care. You see that from the messages the players send and the small, token things like what they did with their jerseys.”
Many Storm fans feel close to the team members, especially those who as young players in the team’s early years moved from interstate to chase their NRL dreams.
Melbourne Storm fan Scott Hilditch has followed the club since their inception. CONTRIBUTED
The Storm does a lap of the ground to thank supporters after games and pre-COVID, would stop for pictures and greetings with their fans. The laps still happen but with social distancing applied.
Scott Hilditch was a Carlton social club member before the Storm entered Super League in 1998 and he joined the team’s inaugural supporters’ group who organised supporter buses to away games.
“I’m born and bred in Victoria but my uncle, Ron Hilditch, played for Parramatta so I had an interest in rugby league,” Mr Hilditch said.
“I was part of a dozen or so people who formed the first Melbourne Storm supporters club. The club was superb in dealing with the other clubs and making sure we could all sit together at away games. In 1999 [when the Storm won its first premiership], I think we only missed one away game and we had 21 coaches leave Olympic Park for the grand final in Sydney.”
Mr Hilditch said the team’s inaugural following was “up to half” from NSW or Queensland but the local following was their biggest group.
Both Mr Hilditch and Ms Humphrey have taken friends or workmates to games and paid for the first ticket, many of them have come back or become members themselves.
The annual Anzac night game against the New Zealand Warriors, more Storm away games on Nine’s digital channels in Melbourne and the opening of AAMI Park have all contributed to growing the Storm’s fan base, according to Mr Hilditch.
“From the start, the club and players took time to get to know the different supporters,” Mr Hilditch said.
“The players were humble, they would get to know you a bit and not have that attitude of being an elite sportsperson. That is the thing that attracted people to the club.
“They know the regular supporter. For example, when I got married the players organised a wedding gift and sent some video messages.”
He also thinks the demonising of the Storm in some sections of the NRL media and commentariat has strengthened support in Victoria.
“It just shows that we’re doing everything right,” Mr Hilditch said.
“The typical Sydney mentality is that we don’t belong, but you can’t have a national competition without teams across the nation. Without Melbourne’s success, I would question whether the NRL gets its billion-dollar television deal.”
When 20-year Storm member and player sponsor Jenny Porreca died in the lead-up to their
qualifying final against Manly, the players wore black armbands and the club announced it would hold open her membership number 51650 and not give it to anyone else.
Ms Humphrey takes pride in the way the Storm have continued to win new supporters.
“I can’t even remember how small our membership was at the start but some people would laugh at you when you said you were a Storm member,” she said.
“But after the game, the players would do a lap of the ground, give out high fives or hold your kids – they were right in there and AFL supporters would be like, ‘Whoa we don’t get this at our games’.
“Those young players would kind of latch onto us in a way to feel like they had a family here and we latched on back. Those guys like Cameron Smith, Billy Slater and others, they were like my kids.
“Current players like Nicho Hynes and Cameron Munster have that genuine empathy for the fans and I think that comes from [coach] Craig Bellamy. You have to be a good person before being a good player – that’s what I’ve seen.”
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