Locker Room: How every Melbourne Storm 2024 NRL grand final player was discovered and brought to club
Melbourne’s head of recruitment Paul Bunn watches 60 games of rugby league a week and has scouted countless unearthed gems that have helped build the Storm juggernaut through the years. He reveals how each 2024 grand final hero was discovered.
For the past 13-years, Melbourne Storm head of recruitment Paul Bunn has watched 60 games every week.
From Fiji to Forster, from New Zealand to Narrabeen, from the Cape to the Cook Islands, he has scouted a collection of diamonds that has helped build the most successful sporting franchise in Australian Sport.
Bunn tells David Riccio how each of Melbourne’s grand final heroes were discovered.
1. Ryan Papenhuyzen
“In 2016, the Wests Tigers weren’t showing much interest in Paps. We had been monitoring him for a year.
“We were losing Billy Slater and our strategy was to go and get fullbacks that may have played some footy in the halves. Within the next two years we would have players that could do all that in Cameron Munster, Scott Drinkwater, Nicho Hynes, Jahrome Hughes and Paps.
“So in 2016, Paps played in a NSW Under-18 game. Anthony Seibold (former Storm assistant coach) was coaching the Queensland side and we told him to do some homework on this Papenhuyzen kid.
“We already knew a lot about him, because we do a lot of character checks. We interviewed his parents and then Craig (Bellamy) and Frank (Ponissi) met them.
“He came down to us on a development deal worth $60,000.
“It was a big move for us, we don’t pay a lot of money for kids so early, because we feel they have to earn their stripes before earning their pay.”
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2. Will Warbrick
“My son Geordie also recruits for us. He can find any player anywhere in the world. One day, he sent me this footage of this big, raw fella.
“Then almost simultaneously, Will’s agent Michael Hudson began contacting every club about this kid from rugby sevens.
“I asked who it was and he said, ‘Will Warbrick’. I nearly fell off my chair because I had footage of him right there in front of me.
“It was still during Covid times so Frank and Craig interviewed Will online via Zoom. He had just competed at the Tokyo Olympics with the sevens.
“He was raw largely because he hadn’t concentrated on any major sport.
“He’d played a bit of sevens, a bit of AFL in New Zealand, so it took him a while to adjust to a full (13-man) team game.
“The greatest thing about Will is his humility, his gratitude and his respect for this club.”
3. Jack Howarth
“Dane Campbell, who was working for us before moving to the Cowboys came to me one day and said, ‘I’m going with Shaun Pyne (Howarth’s former manager) on the weekend to watch a 15-year-old.”
“We don’t normally do anything other than monitor 15-year-olds, so Dane said to come and watch Jack play at Brisbane Boys College.
“I go along and about five-minutes into the game, I said, ‘Boys, I’ve got to go, I’ve seen enough’.
“Dane said, ‘You don’t like him?’ I said, ‘No, that’s not it’. I’d be signing him straight away. I hadn’t seen an athlete like him. Big, strong and fast.
“Anyone that watched footy wanted to sign him. The ARU wanted him too, but Jack always wanted to play rugby league.
“He’s related to Jared Waerea-Hargreaves, through his mum’s side of the family.”
4. Nick Meaney
“I love Nick Meaney.
“Nick had been at clubs (Newcastle and Canterbury) that weren’t winning at the time and we scouted him thinking that he would sit in a nice price range for us.
“To keep a good squad, you’ve got to have a number of lower priced players.
“During Covid, when the competition was based in Queensland, we took Nick and his wife to Twin Waters and sat around a table having a coffee and a bite to eat with Frank and Craig.
“By the time he had left to go to the airport, we had a deal done.”
5 Xavier Coates
“Coatsey was coached by Matt “Boofa” Geyer on the Gold Coast.
“One day Cameron Smith (former Storm star), who is great mates with Boofa, came to me and said, ‘Boofa has a good kid, go and look at him’.
“I went to watch him play and there was this big giraffe, all arms and legs and raw as anything playing in the centres.
“Boofa said, ‘Don’t worry about that, he’ll learn real quick’.
“So we put him in an academy at Easts Tigers and then the Broncos stole him. We had Pat Carrigan also in that Academy. They just blew us out of the water with money.
“I never forgot the Broncos signing them and was always keen to get them both back. Eventually we got Xavier back and he’s been wonderful.
“He’s a bums-on-seats player.”
6. Cameron Munster
“Paul Grant (Harry Grant’s father) was the first person to mention Munster to me. I was still working (in recruitment) at the Broncos at the time.
“Paul was a mate of mine from back in Yeppoon. Paul said, ‘You have to come and look at this kid. He’s not shaped like a normal athlete, but geez he can play’.
“I left the Broncos soon after, but I continued to monitor him. He was only 18 and he was playing in the QLD Cup for Central Queensland Capras.
“We got onto his agent at the time and asked about this kid Munster. He said he hadn’t much interest in him from anyone.
“I said get him down to Melbourne and I’ll sign him. He came down on $5,000 and a traineeship in membership. He had to make phone calls to try and sign new Storm members.
“The cheeky bugger would tell our membership team that he had to start training at 9am, when training was really at 11am.
“He did sell a few memberships though.”
7. Jahrome Hughes
“I used to watch him play at Palm Beach Currumbin. He got signed by the Titans and played one game there.
“And then he had a back problem that affected him quite a bit. He ended up at the Townsville Blackhawks (feeder-club) with the Cowboys.
“I was looking at QLD Cup games and my data system was spitting out these incredible numbers for Jahrome.
“I flew to Townsville to watch him and he brained them. I rang his agent and said, ‘Get him down to us’.
“He came down on the minimum wage ($60,000).
“He took a while to break through as a halfback, but just his work ethic and being the great person he was, we kept supporting him.
“Cyrill Connell (former Broncos head of recruitment), who tutored me at the Broncos always said, take the better person over the better player.”
8. Tui Kamikamica
“He was scouted by Craig Wilson to Parramatta from Fiji in 2012 where he was playing schoolboy rugby union. He was playing on the wing in Fiji.
“He couldn’t push through at the Eels so he left and went down to play with the ACT Brumbies (Super Rugby).
“He had a season there and then couldn’t get another NRL gig, so his agent was looking to place him in the QLD Cup, so I said, ‘Put him at the Sunshine Coast Falcons (Storm feeder-club) so I can monitor him’.
“I went down to training one day and saw this man mountain. He’d gotten so big. I got on the phone to Craig (Bellamy) and he said, ‘Run a check on his training ability’ because we were looking for a big man to replace Jesse Bromwich.
“He’s been awesome for us.”
9. Harry Grant
“I’ve known the Grant family for years and I always knew Harry wanted to be a Bronco.
“I was at the Broncos at the time he was pushing through the local Queensland competition and I knew that when I got to the Storm that I would always come back to get him.
“H’ got overlooked by other clubs, because he was a late maturer.
“But what people didn’t know was, he comes from a family of backyard players. They know how to play. His uncles were good players and Paul (father) could play too.
“His father has had some physical setbacks over the years, but he’s one of the toughest blokes I know.
“Harry is the same, he’s all has tenacity and resilience.”
10. Josh King
“During the Covid season when we were all playing in Queensland, we played Newcastle on the Gold Coast and we were looking for a cheap middle forward that tackled a lot had a great work ethic.
“I was looking at him in this game thinking, ‘I wonder if Craig will like him?’ The next day, after Craig had done his review, he rings and asks, ‘What do you think of Josh King?’
“I said, ‘I like him, he’s tough and I reckon he’s your kind of player’. We got him down straight away and each year, he’s just improved.
“He’s a country boy with an old head on young shoulders. He told us last year that coming down to the Melbourne Storm was the greatest thing to ever happen in his life.”
11. Shawn Blore
“Craig told us that he wanted to move Trent Loiero from the backrow to the middle (lock-forward), so we had to go find a backrower with some experience in the position.
“We began searching everywhere, I must have watched every game I could get my hands on. I just couldn’t find one at the right price.
“Shawn showed talent as a youngster at Penrith and then went off the boil a little with injuries.
“He was with the Wests Tigers, so we rang Benji. We had to make a decision that wasn’t easy at all for a lot of people at our club because of how much respect Juzzy (Justin Olam) has.
“But we knew we had Jack Howarth pushing through, so we said to Benji, ‘What would you say to Justin Olam for Blore?’
“Again, we really didn’t want to move Juzzy and to make it work, Shawn had to sacrifice a fair bit of what he was on to come to us.
“His dad still tells us he can’t believe how well it’s worked out.”
12. Eliesa Katoa
“Anyone who watched footy knew he could play, so when I rang the Warriors, I couldn’t believe they said they would consider letting him go.
“I had always remembered what Nathan Brown (former Warriors coach) had said about him to me, Browny loved him. So we went and watched a lot of footy of him. And I mean a lot.
“His dad passed away when he was quite young and had to become the man of the house. He’s hardened from what life has thrown at him.
“I admired everything about him. Then when Craig and Frank met him, they couldn’t wait for him to get through the door.
“He’s got huge hands. I wouldn’t fight him, I reckon he’d tear you apart.”
13. Trent Lorieo
“Trent is a Sunshine Coast boy from a wonderful family. Again, we love players that are raised well.
“He’s humble, he doesn’t get ahead of himself, he works hard. Craig loves him for how he trains and how he buys in.
“He’s always wanting to be better.
“He wants to be a one clubman. And we’ll work (a new contract) towards that.
“He was always in the back row coming through the grades, but he didn’t get enough work out there, he just loves work, which is why Craig got him to move to lock.
“He’s 23. He’s only going to get better.”
14. Tyran Wishart
“In one of our recruitment meetings a couple of years ago, Craig said, ‘We need one of those players that can play fullback, half and hooker’.
“Myself and my son combed the country looking for someone who could help Harry (Grant).
“Tyran was playing reserve grade for Illawarra. And he wasn’t a regular starter there either.
“I spoke to Dave Riolo (Wishart’s manager) and asked, ‘Is he like his dad (Rod)?
“Dave said he was, so we got him to meet Craig and you just knew he was of great character.
“At the same time as this, I’ve also got a mate Angus Sampson (Australian actor), who’d done a movie (Footy Legends) with Matty Johns and that Rod was also in.
“Angus is a great mate of mine and knew the Wisharts well. He couldn’t have spoken more highly of Tyran, so that was another tick for me.
“You talk about Craig pillars of the storm with respect, humility and damn hard work and that’s Tyran.
“We won’t be letting him go too soon.”
15. Christian Welch
“He was playing rugby union at Villanova College in Brisbane when I was at the Broncos.
“I remember going to a rugby game. I was going through an experiment at the time of getting big outside backs, to see if we could try and turn them into middle forwards.
“He was playing in the centres in rugby, so he did have some toe at some stage.
“We put him in our under-20s and I was calling him “The Accountant” because of how studious he was. Then I realised Cameron Smith also had that nickname, so Welchy decided to call himself the White Rhino.
“He worked in membership too, like Munster, when he first came down.
“He went straight into the front row and he’s been there since.”
16. Lazarus Vaalepu
“He was a good schoolboy player when he was down in Canberra.
“He got an injury and sort of went off the radar. Then in 2022, he lobbed up at the Sunshine Coast Falcons.
“During a semi-final between Norths and the Sunny Coast, Craig was there, and he said, ‘There’s something in this fella, what do you think?’
“We decided we’d get him down to the Storm on a development contract and he’s really kicked on.
“He’s got good leg speed and is starting to learn how to train. He’s in our top-30 list next year.”
17. Alec MacDonald
“Chin” is a great story. You should see the books he reads. He reads Japanese philosophy. People look at him and think that he may not be so bright, but geez he is.
“He came from Wynnum-Manly. When Tom Glasby (Storm talent scout) and Geordie first spotted him, he was on the bench for under-20s.
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“He came down on a 16-week train and trial and played first grade that year (2022).
“He’s the type of player you have to have at every club.
“The funny thing is, he’s good mates with Alex Chan, so they walk around as Chin and Chan brothers. We’ve re-signed them long-term together.”
Originally published as Locker Room: How every Melbourne Storm 2024 NRL grand final player was discovered and brought to club
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