NRL Grand Final 2020: The team behind Melbourne Storm’s success

Storm stars like Cameron Smith and Ryan Papenhuyzen may get all the glory but the secret behind Melbourne Storm’s success in 2020 has been hiding in plain sight. How the “team behind the team” has helped get the NRL heavyweights to the decider.

Melbourne Storm always knew what was under the bonnet, life in the hub only highlighted it.

They are not the highest paid, or the most athletic necessarily, and yet without the “team behind the team”, Storm figureheads Craig Bellamy and Frank Ponissi would be lost.

“If Cameron (Smith) lifts that trophy on Sunday night,” football director Ponissi said.

“It’s got a lot of people’s fingerprints on it.”

The grand final team will get the plaudits and deservedly so, whatever happens.

So too, the ‘Renegades’, the reserves who this season, unlike any other, trained each week to prepare the top squad without a game of their own to look forward to.

But a third publicly unheralded cohort, until now, has as much skin in the game.

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The team driving Melbourne Storm to NRL grand final! Back row: Dan Di Pasqua, Marc Brentnall, Aaron Bellamy, Meirion Jones, Lachlan Penfold, Jason Ryles, Houston Wade, Marcus Kain, Darcy Parkinson, Regan Gardiner, Ryan Hoffman, Brian Phelan. Front row: Chris Tandy, Dr Jason Chan, Matt Barradeen, Craig Bellamy, Frank Ponissi, Ryan Hinchcliffe. Picture: NRL Images.

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“Success is never a case of one or two people,” Ponissi said.

“It is the collective, if you’re all working together for the same cause it generates more momentum, and that’s what’s happened here.

“They’ve all contributed to us to be where we are on Sunday, no doubt.”

Bellamy and Ponissi back in May faced the arduous task of picking the 16 staff to join them in the “bubble” under the NRL‘s strict Project Apollo guidelines, needed to restart the stalled campaign.

The 18 strong travel party really is the powertrain of the Melbourne machine.

Six life members made the cut, including Bellamy, Ponissi, Ryan Hoffman (operations), Ryan Hinchcliffe (development), Brian Phelan (player welfare) and Dan Di Pasqua (strength coach).

Four assistant or development coaches, four high performance personnel, two operations co-ordinators, the club doctor and digital media producer rounded out the capped bubble.

“The selection of the original 18 … that was the worst,” Ponissi said.

“I wouldn’t want that again, we had to leave staff out of the bubble, I hate that with a passion.

“It was hard because we got really, really good people we left behind in Melbourne.

“It still burns me, to be honest with you, and I hate it.”

Melbourne's General Football-Manager Frank Ponissi says Storm would be lost without the 'team behind the team'. Picture: Fox Sports.

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The cut backs forced Storm — sticklers for routine usually — to be more adaptable around job descriptions.

Everyone chipped in, coaches moonlighted as minibus drivers, head trainer Matt Barradeen added drone operator to his craft, while Di Pasqua started a weekly boot camp for all the partners.

This week, “Mr Energy” Di Pasqua led the 17th-straight boot camp for the wives and girlfriends.

“That’s Dan … he wasn’t asked to do it, just did it, (recognising) the partners being a really important element (at the hub), if you keep them happy, it’s going to make the players happy,” Ponissi said.

“He’ll come and train in the morning (at Sunshine Coast Stadium) and then put all the gear in the van and take it back to the resort, sets it up on the oval and runs the circuit with them.

“Then he puts it all back into the van and takes it back (to the stadium).”

Storm prop Nelson Asofa-Solomona said players appreciated all the hard work “behind the scenes”.

“We’re thankful for their work … they’ve done a great job and we can’t thank them enough.”

Originally published as NRL Grand Final 2020: The team behind Melbourne Storm’s success