Lowrie ready to take on world at Storm
BY BRETT KEEBLE
21/10/2009 4:00:00 AM
HE was on the losing side in the NRL grand final, but Parramatta lock Todd Lowrie now wants to help the Melbourne Storm become world club champions.
And unlike any of his Eels teammates that night, Lowrie is in a position to do just that.
In a classic case of "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em", the former Newcastle Knights and Scone Thoroughbreds junior has confirmed grand final week speculation that he has agreed to terms with the Storm for the next two years.
Less than a fortnight after the Storm washed away his own premiership dreams with a 23-16 victory over the Eels in the title decider, Lowrie was in Melbourne last week to finalise the deal and begin house-hunting.
"I had an inkling in grand final week that that's where I was going to end up," the 26-year-old workhorse said yesterday.
"That was next year at the time so it didn't really affect me at all in the preparation or the game, but it might have seemed a little bit weird from the outside.
"This year was good here, but I'm certainly going to a good club. I think everybody's been waiting for the last couple of years for them to fall over or the end of an era or whatever, but it's a credit to their system and the personnel they've got in place that they just keep producing.
"Next year will basically be the same team that it was in the grand final this year, so there's no reason why we can't be successful again."
Before beginning pre-season training on November 30, Lowrie will be back in Newcastle this month to marry his fiancee, Sally, then enjoy a two-week honeymoon at a secret destination.
But his first goal when he lands at the Storm will be to break into their team to take on Leeds in the World Club Challenge at Elland Road on February 28.
"That's definitely my pre-season aim, and it's good to be able to go down there and have something like that to focus on early in the year," he said.
Lowrie will join Knights winger Luke MacDougall and Dragons utility Chase Stanley as the Storm's major off-season recruits, replacing premiership-winning backs Steve Turner (Bulldogs) and Will Chambers (Queensland rugby union), and forward Matt Cross (Roosters).
There is also a question mark over long-serving lock Dallas Johnson, who is contracted to Melbourne but has been linked to Catalans Dragons next year.
Though the Lowrie deal was "more than likely, but we're still not quite over the line", Storm football manager Frank Ponissi believed Lowrie would be a valuable acquisition to a team relying on the natural progression of some of their premiership-winning under 20s..
"He was very underrated at the Eels, we thought, and he would give us some experience because we've got a very, very young side next year," Ponissi said.
MacDougall will join Melbourne on a one-year, largely incentive-based contract, which Ponissi said was almost finalised.
The Knights will play what's left of Melbourne's senior squad, and the pick of their NSW Cup and under-20 players, in a pre-season trial in Newcastle or the Central Coast on February 20.
Newcastle will then host the reigning premiers in the second NRL round on the weekend of March 19-22.
Meanwhile, the Panthers have signed Parramatta's grand final hooker Kevin Kingston after he was forced out of the club by the salary cap.
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