Life on the inside as Melbourne Storm comes to grips their new border home
Unable to train in Victoria due to coronavirus restrictions, Melbourne Storm players find themselves in a ‘gated compound’ in the border town of Albury, but as we discover life isn’t too bad.
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Melbourne Storm forward Brandon Smith was just packing up the car to drive to Albury on Tuesday when his phone buzzed.
It was a group text message — sent by Storm football boss Frank Ponissi — to every player and staff telling them to cool their jets for now.
“Don’t get on the highway yet,” Storm football boss Frank Ponissi said in the message.
Smith, who had just completed two weeks quarantine in a Melbourne hotel room without any fresh air after returning from New Zealand, couldn’t help but chuckle at it all.
“It was funny. I was pretty much just about to leave Melbourne when I got the text saying ‘hold up, don’t go to Albury, this might not be happening,” Smith said.
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“We were almost about to head to Sydney on the plane, as the next option.
“Thankfully, (chief executive) Dave Donaghy was able to work some magic and we got a good training paddock at the Albury Tigers AFL club and it may have worked out for the best for us.”
After that hurdle was cleared, Storm was on its way across the border to New South Wales.
HIGHWAY TO ‘THE CLEAN ZONE’
Each day inside Albury’s Quality Resort and Fiesta starts with a temperature check.
Storm has a group of 50 staying at the resort, made up of 32 players and 18 staff.
Every member is there because they absolutely need to be.
Skipper Cameron Smith stayed in Melbourne this week to help home school his three children and will drive to Albury on Monday to join in full contact training.
Donaghy maybe the Storm chief executive, but even he is not considered to be essential within the compound.
It means he has seen a lot more of Albury and the surrounding towns than the players have.
The group of 50 is restricted to the resort, their training field and the gym.
“As the CEO, I’d just get in their way,” Donaghy said.
“So I’ve got out of their way and as a result I’m still afforded luxuries.
“I went for a run along the Murray this morning in Albury and I can go down and get a takeaway coffee.
“This is not to throw it in people’s face, but they’re not permitted to do that.”
The Storm group has the resort to themselves.
They are taking up 50 of 88 rooms at the cost of $55,000 for the week.
The club trucked up a bunch of extra weights and training equipment with them when they drove up on Tuesday.
Before breakfast each morning, each member of the Storm group must have a temperature check and fill in their health app.
“It’s like a little compound or a gated community,” Ponissi said.
“We’re the only ones in what they call the clean zone and there’s a barrier here.
“So it’s only us and hotel staff with the right protection with masks and gloves to serve us our meals and whatever.”
The players and staff can still dine together at the Bull Ring restaurant, albeit on separate tables to maintain their distance.
“We’re very lucky at the hotel as have an extremely large dining room,” coach Craig Bellamy said.
“At one stage we thought we would be eating in our own rooms and someone would be knocking on our doors and leaving a bag at the front door.
“Thankfully the room is big enough where we can socially distance ourselves while having meals.”
LIFE IN THE COMPOUND
Brandon Smith admits he was initially not sure about Albury, but he was quickly sold.
“I had my doubts (that I would like it) being a small country town about whether it would be entertaining, but the place we’re staying is unbelievable,” he said.
“The facilities they have are very spacious and we all have our own room and there are a lot of things to do around here.
“There’s a little mini-golf course we’re allowed to play, but only in singles and not as a group.
“You can also play tennis as long as you’re not playing doubles, so they’ve put a lot of measurements in place.”
Storm star Cameron Munster said the new normal of social distancing has been an adjustment as the NRL prepares for its return on May 28.
“We’re slowly getting there,” Munster said
“It’s hard when you haven’t seen each other for six weeks and you’re used to doing things like pat arses and pat backs and high fives.
“You can’t do that now and we’re slowly getting used to it, but it’s still good to have the competition getting back up and running.
“It’s still tough but we’re in a really good spot in Albury and the staff here have really taken us in.”
Ponissi said the food at the resort had been the highlight.
“The hosts, Stephen and Noelene, have been incredible in the way they’ve looked after us,” he said.
“You always worry when you take footballers away because they can eat, but there have been no complaints about the food in terms of the quality or the quantity.”
Even so, the players were told to come prepared and to load up their cars.
“I packed the laptop and the iPad,” Storm forward Felise Kaufusi said.
Some of the boys packed their PS4s because we can’t go out at all.
“Some of the boys loaded up on their chocolates and that.
“We’ve got little fridges in the rooms, which is good.”
Forward Dale Finucane headed to Albury from Bega, where he had been staying with his in-laws, and where he left his wife and baby.
“I stopped at an IGA about an hour out of Albury and loaded up on food on the way in,” Finucane said.
THE ROAD OUT
How long will Storm stay based in Albury?
It remains to be seen.
About half of the group will drive home this weekend and return on Monday.
The club is committed to stay in the resort until Tuesday, regardless of whether or not the Victorian Government eases restrictions on Monday.
If they do, they will be back at AAMI Park by mid next week.
If restrictions remain at the same level, the Albury isolation will continue.
Ponissi said the players had been “absolutely phenomenal and that attitude has got us through.”
Regardless of whether they stay there or not, Brandon Smith said he spoke for all the players in being a fan of hub life in the country.
“You get the feeling they’re excited to have us here,” he said.
“Some of the places you stay in Melbourne and Sydney they don’t even know who you are.
“Being in a country town they’re really excited and happy to talk to you.
“It’s something you don’t get in some of the cities.”
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