Much of Melbourne’s on-field success has been credited to the Big Three – Cameron Smith, Billy Slater and Cooper Cronk.

But the Storm’s excellence continues to endure even though they have all now moved on.

The secret dossiers compiled on recruitment targets, moneyball approach to recruitment and coach Craig Bellamy personally rubber stamping each signing are the true reasons behind how the Melbourne Storm manages its league-best roster.

RECRUITMENT

Background checks and dossiers

It could take months, even years before a player knows he is on the Storm’s radar.

Recruitment manager Paul Bunn, general manager of football Frank Ponissi, coach Craig Bellamy and the football department build a dossier on their target.

From background checks to character references and skills assessments.

“We have a scout in Brisbane, who does a lot of that for us,” Bunn said.

“But between myself, Craig, Frank and the other coaches in our system we manage to get a really good dossier on a player even before we decide how interested we might be in them.

“We make sure the character and the attitude the player has actually fits what Craig and Frank wants and what our system requires.

“Of course, they have to display some sort of football ability.”

PART ONE: MATTY JOHNS’ ROLE IN STORM DYNASTY REVEALED

Take, Clive Churchill Medallist Ryan Papenhuyzen, who was an injury-prone wiry teen playing at Wests Tigers when he was identified as a serious prospect.

“When he was about 17, we started tracking him. But we don’t sign them that young,” Bunn revealed.

“We were looking for someone similar to Billy Slater. Paps was one of our targets.

“He had speed, the willingness to compete.

“When we backgrounded him, everyone said the way he prepares for a game was impeccable, he had leadership qualities.

“He then had some minor hamstring injuries so we flew him down to Melbourne to have a look at it, and thought ‘yeah, our medical team can fix him’.”

The Storm’s medical staff and Bellamy’s rigorous training regimen did more than fix Papenhuyzen, who they signed in 2018 when he was 20. The fullback was transformed into one of the most exciting players in the game.

Asked would he have made the NRL had he remained in Sydney, Papenhuyzen said “Probably not, to be honest.”.

“They put a lot of time into me to fix my injuries. Craig’s pre-seasons are tough but they prepare you in a way that puts you in good stead, that’s had a lot to do with it too.”

Now he’s emerged as one of the game’s premier fullbacks and earlier this year committed his long-term future to the Storm.

Where Melbourne’s Papenhuyzen dossier highlighted concerns around his injury history, background checks on Josh Addo-Carr raised some red flags.

“When we first started monitoring Josh Addo-Carr, he was with the Sharks back in 2014, everyone we spoke to in league circles said he could be a bit cheeky and maybe get himself into trouble,” Bunn recalls.

The included being sacked from South Sydney’s SG Ball team in 2012 and run-ins with the police.

“But when we decided to dig a bit deeper, everyone in the indigenous community, the elders, told us ‘no, don’t you worry about him. He’s a good kid. He’ll be all right’,” Bunn said.

After signing Addo-Carr from Wests Tigers at the end of 2016, the Storm were richly rewarded as he played a key role in their 2017 and 2020 premierships.

FINAL SAY

The job interview

Bellamy and Ponissi make it a priority to meet every single player that will potentially wear the purple of the Storm, before a contract is officially put on the table.

It doesn’t matter whether it’s a train-and-trial or a long-term deal on offer.

“Both Craig and Frank meet every player before we sign them and that’s important because they become invested in them too,” Bunn said.

Papenhuyzen remembers being a “nervous wreck” when he turned up to a Sydney hotel to meet Bellamy and Ponissi the morning Melbourne were in town to play Parramatta in 2016, a whole 12 months before he put to paper.

“It felt like a job interview,” Papenhuyzen said.

“They asked so many questions and they had done all their research prior, you could tell.

“Melbourne were playing Parramatta in Sydney, the morning of the game I sat down with Frank and Craig and had a chat.

“I was so nervous, it felt like the first day of school. You hear Craig is a scary person and you see him blowing up at players in the sheds.

“But after a while I realised he’s a good person who really cares about you.

Despite an unblemished dossier, there was particular concern that others around Bellamy could not help but notice.

But Bellamy had the final word.

“We bought him to meet Craig and Frank one morning in Sydney,” Bunn said.

“Everyone agreed he’s a hell of a kid but were saying ‘geez he’s tiny’.

“Craig just responded ‘Billy Slater was tiny too’.”

MONEYBALL

Roster management

NRL roster management is more than an art, with the abundance of data and information, it is now a finely tuned skill.

Finding a balance between star power and raw value takes expertise.

Bunn revealed that a moneyball approach – finding talent that is undervalued – is a deliberate recruitment strategy at Melbourne.

More than half of the Storm’s current roster has been identified using the moneyball approach.

“That’s a deliberate focus we have, it’s part of our direct recruiting model,” Bunn said.

“Everyone has stats, so you can measure the value of someone’s output easily if you know the market value of players and then if you can project what they will deliver in your system.

“You’re likely to get a bargain or someone whose price tag is less than their output.

Addo-Carr, who is off to Canterbury next season, is another whose value was way below not only his output, but his potential.

“Foxx was one of those targeted players because we knew his output would be far superior to his price tag,” Bunn said. “From memory we got him for less than $70,000 at the time.

“We knew we had a player coming down, we just knew that.

“We’d tracked him when he was at Cronulla playing under 20s.

“In one year of playing reserve grade for the Tigers he scored 19 tries, that’s when we made contact with him.”

Some players are willing to take a haircut in regards to their salary just to play with the Storm and be part of Melbourne’s system.

“The players willing to do that are the ones we want,” Bunn said.

“A kid like Nick Meaney will be a good buy for us from Canterbury.

“He’s one we think will thrive in our system.

“Josh King, from Newcastle, is another one. He took a bit of a decrease in wage to be coached by Craig.

“The boys that have taken a haircut have really thrived, like Nicho Hynes, who initially came on a train-and-trial contract. We got very good value out of Nicho. It’s really good to see him get that contract at Cronulla.”

That contract at Cronulla is a three-year $1.8 million deal, further highlighting the Storm’s unbelievable skill at both identifying a bargain and turning that player into a star.

NUMBER FIVE

Next in line

For all of Melbourne’s success over the past 20 years, only four Victorian players have debuted for the club – Mahe Fonua, Young Tonumaipea, Richie Kennar and Dean Ieremia.

Ponissi knows it’s not good enough.

“As a club, that’s our next frontier, to try to improve the number of players that are coming through Victoria because we aren’t really happy with what we have done,” Ponissi admitted.

“Early on, we could blame the lack of juniors, we just didn’t have them. The numbers are now better. The quantity is good, now it’s time to improve the quality.

“We need more.”

While Covid has had an impact on the development of players, Ponissi is confident the Storm’s production line will begin to produce local talent at an increased rate.

Ponissi believes rising teenage playmaker Sua Fa’alogo will be the fifth Victorian junior to debut for Melbourne.

“He will be on our development list next year,” Ponissi said of Fa’alogo.

“Sua is a young player that starred in our SG Ball this year. He’s a fullback, but an all-around spine player. He can play in the halves and at hooker too.

“He was outstanding in the SG Ball, not just for us but one of the best in the competition. He was promoted to Jersey Flegg but Covid hit the competition.”

Had it not been for the pandemic, Fa’alogo would be a lot closer to an NRL debut.

“Covid has stunted the development of a lot of players, not just at the Storm,” Ponissi said.

“Sua didn’t play last year and only had a handful of games this year.

“He needs that full year of full-time training, next year will be his first. I would say he is at least 12 months from his debut.”

And so continues the Storm’s pursuit of excellence.