Remarkable 'five-year plan' to fix glaring Storm failure

In two and a half decades since entering the NRL, 195 different players have pulled on a Melbourne Storm jersey.

Just five of those have been Victorian born and bred.

“That’s not really something we’re proud of,” football manager Frank Ponissi tells Wide World of Sports.

But change is happening in rugby league’s southernmost state.

The unveiling of a new rugby league institute in Broadmeadows is the start of what Ponissi calls a five-year plan.

The Storm started from scratch when entering the game in 1998 and had to fill a squad entirely by poaching players out of New South Wales and Queensland, with some Kiwis added to the mix.

Melbourne Storm general manager of football, Frank Ponissi.

And while it’s proved to be a recipe for success – six grand final victories in 25 years, albeit two were later stripped for salary cap cheating – the club doesn’t want to continue relying on outside talent.

“We’ve made a conscious decision and commitment now to having more Victorian players come through the system and play for the Storm, that’s the aim,” Ponissi explains.

“While we’re really proud of the five Victorians who have played for the Melbourne Storm in the last 26 or so years, that’s not really something we’re proud of.

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“There’s a lot of achievements we’ve had at this club that we’re really proud of – how we’ve built rugby league in this city is fantastic – but we really should’ve had more than five players.

“So the aim certainly in the next five years is to set the foundations and at least double that in that period of time. Then from there the sky’s the limit.

“We genuinely believe the talent is here in Melbourne, it just hasn’t been nurtured properly. We’ve got some big plans over the next three to five years to really set those foundations.”

The Storm joined forces with the Victorian government, NRL Victoria, and Touch Football Australia to fund the new facility in the Hume City Council area.

It includes four playing fields, a centre of excellence equipped with multiple change rooms, a gym, offices, as well as a pavilion and car park.

The site will remain the home of the Northern Thunder – the junior club that produced Melbourne’s latest rising NRL superstar Sua Fa’alogo – while the Storm will also use it as a part-time training base due to its proximity to the airport.

The facility caught the eye of league legend Brad Fittler during his Hogs for the Homeless tour.

“I’ve got to say, if nurtured, there will be some very good players coming out of Victoria very soon,” Fittler told Wide World of Sports’ Freddy and the Eighth.

“This centre of excellence had four fully lit fields, with a full centre of excellence, great dressing sheds, great gym, offices. It’s one of the first times I think the game has actually got really serious about developing, having a crack at rugby league down there.

Young Tonumaipea and Sua Fa’alogo are two of only five Victorians to have played for the Storm.

“They’ve spent upwards of 20 or $30 million on this whole development. It’s incredible, I’m telling you. In the next 10 years Melbourne will be half Victorian (players), without a doubt.”

Half an NRL squad equates to 15 players – 14 more than currently in the team.

Ponissi suggested it is a realistic goal.

“When people like Freddy make statements like that, people sit up and take notice rather than fob it off as an unlikely thing. We think it’s very likely,” he said.

Fa’alogo is the latest of the five Victorians to have played for the Storm to date.

Mahe Fonua was the trailblazer in 2012, and was followed by Young Tonumaipea, Richie Kennar, and Dean Ieremia before current young gun Fa’alogo, who last week signed a fresh five-year extension with the club.

“They are magnificent players, but at the same time we’ve got to do more,” Ponissi said.

“In five years’ time we want at least another five as an absolute minimum.

“Local kids now, there’s no need for them to leave Melbourne. There’s a genuine pathway and a quality pathway that if they’re good enough they’re going to get every opportunity to become an NRL player.

Billy Slater, Cooper Cronk and Cameron Smith were all poached from Queensland.

“Hopefully (they play) at the Storm, that’s the aim… but they don’t have to leave home before they finish school, put it that way.

“Over the last few years we’ve been seeing too many kids aged under 15 move to south east Queensland to go to rugby league schools, which we’ve got to put a big stop to that.”

In years gone by, talented youngsters would be snapped up by Aussie rules or rugby, even if their inclination was towards league.

And while that will still happen – as it does in every state – the Storm now have the ability to poach from other codes, too.

Current SG Ball fullback Hugo Peel ditched rugby and opted to pick up a Steeden and he’s a player Ponissi “has high hopes for”.

“We are starting to win some now the other way through the program,” he said.

While developing local talent is now a major focus for the club, Melbourne’s association with southern Queensland and New Zealand will not end.

League legends including Cameron Smith, Billy Slater, and Cooper Cronk were brought south from Queensland as youngsters and made a name for themselves wearing a Storm jersey. Stephen Kearney, Tawera Nikau, the Bromwich brothers, Brandon Smith and Jahrome Hughes are just a few examples of the Kiwi talent that has flourished in Melbourne.

But competition for young talent is hotter than ever with 17 teams now in the NRL, including three in southern Queensland.

“We will continue up there, but we understand, too, that the landscape has changed drastically since we started there,” Ponissi said.

“You’ve got the Dolphins in there, and you’ve still go the Broncos and Titans, so it’s a tough area, south east Queensland, but we’re certainly not walking away from that area.”

The Broadmeadows facility is also designed to help Melbourne get a team in the NRLW.

With many players in the women’s competition essentially being part-time employees, Ponissi realises it will be tough to ask them to relocate to Melbourne for a couple of months a year.

“It’s not an if, it’s a matter of when, but we have to pick the right time when, we just have to grow the numbers and then work on that junior elite pathway,” he said of entering a team in the NRLW.

“So when the time comes the team will be basically Victorian players, with a sprinkling of outside players.

“The last thing we want to do is have a team in the NRLW and then basically relocate the entire team down here, like we did with the Storm 26 years ago.”

Developing talent in Melbourne will help bolster the NRL talent pool nationally, too.

With talk of expanding the professional competition to 18 teams and beyond, scouts will no doubt start casting their net wider in the hunt for tomorrow’s superstars.