Why Melbourne Storm should still win NRL title despite Cooper Cronk bombshell
MATTHEW JOHNS: Melbourne have been the benchmark NRL team since 2006. Even if they don’t win the comp, they have been the team to beat.
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MELBOURNE have been the benchmark NRL team since 2006. Even if they don’t win the comp, they have been the team to beat.
They never suffer complacency. They never self-destruct. They aren’t distracted.
But the Beatles are starting to break up.
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The first member of the Fab Four has announced he’s leaving.
Cooper, Billy, Cam and Craig are on their final tour together. If they don’t win it, one last time, I’ll be shocked.
Let’s look into the men who have formed the core of this dynasty.
CRAIG BELLAMY
The man responsible.
Bellamy demands nothing short of excellence every day. He demands discipline and hard-nosed work ethic. This is what he demands from himself, I haven’t got to the players yet.
Every morning when a Storm player walks into the gym, they see their coach on the treadmill, pounding out the kilometres. He ignores the pain from the tendinitis in his Achilles, it’s his daily routine.
Bellamy never lets up and expects exactly the same from his coaching and playing staff.
Journeymen go to Melbourne and play like stars.
There are several reasons, and yes, it helps playing alongside men like Cameron Smith and Cooper Cronk.
But it’s also about Bellamy. He gets them to achieve a level of fitness, they thought not possible.
In enduring that physical punishment, they develop mental toughness and are confident no matter what the opposition serves up in the 80 minutes of football, it won’t be as savage as pre-season training.
He gives players a role. He doesn’t ask a player to play outside the boundaries of that role. Therefore it gives a player focus and doesn’t confuse them. He sets the standards.
He demands players bring their best, whether at training or in games.
CAMERON SMITH
Genius! In my opinion the best big-game player of all time.
His record at every level is phenomenal.
Two weeks ago the Wests Tigers were leading 14-0 and Melbourne look rattled.
Smith, just before half time, took control and the Storm won 22-14. He did everything — 40/20s, try assists, repeat sets.
I bumped into Tigers skipper Aaron Woods a few days later and asked him: “What happened in the second half?”
He replied: “Cameron Smith!”
Storm coaching staff told me Smith was distraught after last year’s grand final. He believed he’d taken a wrong option in the closing stages, which he believed cost them a try.
They said he couldn’t stop apologising. Someone finally stepped in: “Smithy, mate, you made 73 tackles, ease up on yourself.”
That just shows you the competitor which lies under the cool exterior. Like his coach, he expects excellence from himself every time.
COOPER CRONK
What a career!
He joined the 300-game club last year, and it’s hard to imagine that way back, heading into the 2006 season, few people believed this versatile little ball of energy could turn himself into a halfback.
Melbourne didn’t quite know what position he was. Was he a ball-running five-eighth, a back-up hooker, maybe an undersized back-rower?
Matt Orford’s departure to Manly left the Storm with no option but to manufacture him into a seven.
He’s turned himself into one of the best halves we’ve seen because of two key ingredients — intelligence and work ethic.
Every season from 2006, Cooper has added to his game, he became better, he became smarter.
No individual in Australian sport works harder on their performance than him.
Like his captain and his coach, he demands excellence from himself each day.
BILLY SLATER
Only a champion can return after long-term injury the way Slater has. His boyish looks disguise a ferocious competitor.
He was told as a 16-year-old he wouldn’t make it, he was too small. As the famous story goes, he gave up football and pursued another passion, horse racing, working as a stable hand for Gai Waterhouse for a year.
When Billy returned to Innisfail, he’d matured, he was bigger, more robust, and so he decided to give rugby league a second go, playing halfback against the men in the local competition.
At season’s end, his coach contacted the Storm and asked, if young Slater could possibly get a trial.
He was told they were holding trials that coming Sunday, and if Billy could get to Melbourne, he’d be given a run.
Billy hopped into his beat-up old car and drove down. The Storm asked if he would mind picking up another young hopeful on the way through Brisbane, it was Dallas Johnson.
Billy played in the trial and the rest is history.
Billy’s the best fullback I’ve seen. I’ve never seen anyone be so freakish and yet so consistent.
A recent opponent told me Slater organises a defence better than anyone he’d ever seen.
The player said his team couldn’t threaten the Storm because Slater talked, pushed and encouraged his middle defenders into perfect position to alleviate the threat every time.
He’s the unsung hero of the Storm’s unbreakable defence.
His form and longevity is no fluke, he works his arse off, like a man who has no trust in talent alone.
CHANGING THE GAME
The Storm are game-changers. While others are preoccupied trying to copy what they do, Melbourne continue to evolve.
This year they have altered their attack.
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We are seeing far less of their traditional block shapes, and more fast, rapid fire shifts of the ball.
They hit you on one side and then look to attack the far side immediately.
There are far fewer set-up plays. Cronk is roaming the full width of the field, Slater is playing some first and second receiver.
They recognised it was time to change if they wanted to stay on top.
They are relentless in their pursuit of excellence.
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