Decade since Melbourne Storm’s darkest day
The inside story on how the Melbourne Storm were hit with the hammer blow of losing two premierships
Those in the room remember the silence. The deathly silence. Some were simply stunned. Others were muted by anger. Coach Craig Bellamy started to talk but shut down when his eyes caught those of captain and talisman Cameron Smith. Beneath the dilapidated stands at Princes Park, in the musk
The sanctions
The NRL informs the Storm that they had been stripped of the 2007 and 2009 premierships, the 2007 and 2008 minor premierships and the 2010 World Club Challenge
Melbourne head of football Frank Ponissi: “There were murmurs and we knew there were investigations. No-one had any idea about the sanctions. We got a letter on Wednesday. Thursday, bang. I remember (former director) Peter Maher was on the phone in my office and he was writing down all the sanctions. We didn’t even think about losing premierships – it was just unheard of. We had no idea, no idea. We knew it was going to be a decent whack. When it came down, the players were out training. They were thinking Bellyache (coach Craig Bellamy) never misses training – (assistant coaches) Stephen Kearney and Brad Arthur were running the session. I had a message to get the team inside. They had zero idea, no idea. We were sworn to secrecy.”
Coach Craig Bellamy: “I got called in (to the office). I said I will come and see you after training. They said you have to come in now.”
Forward Ryan Hoffman: “I remember it clear as a bell. I remember we were training at Princes Park and a few cameras turned up. GI (Greg Inglis) didn’t play the previous week so we thought the cameras were there to see if GI was going to play. The surprising thing was that Craig wasn’t there. We were making jokes that he was big brother up in the grandstand to see if anyone was slacking off. So we are cracking jokes, we finished training and then someone said run straight in the meeting room.”
The Meeting
Bellamy makes sure he is the one who delivers the news to the players
Bellamy: “They had done all the hard work and all of a sudden they are getting their premierships taken off them. I can’t actually remember what I said. When I was talking, I was upset obviously. Then I looked at Cameron (Smith’s) face and I think that is when I hurried up and had to take a little bit of a break. There were tears getting shed and watery eyes.”
Ponissi: “Blokes got in the team room, they didn’t know what was going on. Typical players – they were laughing, carrying on and putting shit on each other. Bellyache walked in and it was like he had seen a ghost. As soon as the players looked at him there was this incredible silence. Bellyache said he was going to tell the players. I looked at him and it was this deadly, eerie silence.
He started and announced it. He was pretty emotional and then I took it over. Then we dispersed in the building. No one went home for hours. It was a really primitive existence back then. There were little hubs everywhere. No one wanted to go home. We just didn’t know what to do. Everyone’s phones were going berserk by that stage. Except for your loved ones, you didn’t want to talk to anyone.”
Hoffman: “As we are coming in we are having a bit of a laugh and a bit of a giggle, are we going to get some points taken off us for the salary cap, just coming up with different ideas. As soon as we got in the room, it was like ice. Then you look at Craig’s face and you knew something was going on. We knew something really big had happened. We thought someone had died or whatever. It just sucked the air out of the room, seeing Craig’s face. You could almost hear the cogs in people’s heads trying to process what had happened and the storm that was going to come.
We all sat in that room for ages not knowing what to do. We slowly but surely got up and went into the change rooms to have a shower. I reckon I must have stood in that shower for about half an hour, just staring at the wall trying to process what the hell had gone on. A few of the other boys were the same. We got changed and left the stadium, walk out the gate and the media is following you to your car. I remember in the car on the way home calling my wife and she was saying what is happening. I couldn’t explain it. Then I called my dad. We just couldn’t process what had happened, how it had come so quick.”
Did anyone else talk?
Hoffman: “I think Smithy might have. It was such a numb feeling. I don’t think anyone knew what to say. It was like no one wanted to talk. What are you going to say? We were told leave this place, don’t talk to media. If you get a phone call from the media, just ignore it. I remember on the drive home I got a bit upset trying to talk about it. You heard it and you were numb. But to say it made it real.
It was round six or something. We still had the whole season to go. The next day we met at Stephen Kearney’s place – the senior players. It was the same thing. We just started talking to each other thinking what are we going to do. Do we play this year? Do we strike? Do we boycott? Do we pack up and play in Super League? There was so much going on because no one knew how to process it. We had a game that weekend – number one it was Anzac Day and we knew we had to pay respect to the day and something that was bigger than us.
The biggest thing that got us was Matt Duffie and Gareth Widdop making their debuts. They had already been told earlier in the week that they were making their debut. These boys aren’t going to get another debut but so we need to make sure we have our heads on. Their debut is going to be remembered for all the wrong reasons, as a team we have to make sure they remember it for the right reasons. That took about four or five hours to come out just because we were processing the whole thing.”
The aftermath
How the Storm got through a season when they were effectively playing for pride and pride alone
Ponissi: “The staff became tighter as a group. That is what got us through – the togetherness. We knew we had a lot of games to play that year and when your integrity gets questioned – and it was quite harshly, but correctly – we could have easily rolled over that year and hardly won a game. We just kept battling on all year. We didn’t shirk it. Not playing for points was tough but the fans were still turning up. We were moving into a new stadium. The famous photo – the unity photo where Craig walks out with the team – that was the first time ever a Melbourne Storm player had walked onto AAMI Park.
That day had been planned to be a member event at the new stadium. It was still a couple weeks away from being opened. The plan was to have our captain’s run session at AAMI Park. It was an opportunity for members to come and I think select their seats. It was a big day. It was our first training session since the salary cap scandal. We questioned whether anyone would turn up and whether we should do it. That really galvanised the group. There was a greater purpose than just ourselves.”
Bellamy: “That was on the Thursday when it got announced we were playing the Warriors on Anzac Day at Etihad Stadium (now Marvel Stadium). I was thinking no one is going to come and watch us after everyone in our club was branded a cheat. There will be 10 people there. I think they expected 18,000 but there was about 10,000 more. The crowds for the rest of the year were more than what we usually got. It was tough. We went to away games, getting on the bus people would throw cans at you and spit at you. People say it is similar to now. Now is a walk in the park.”
Hoffman: “I remember we did quite well the first couple of games after the punishment came down. But it was a long year. We had all the great away trips to come – Parramatta at Parramatta Stadium, Brookvale, Leichhardt. We had all the pearlers to come. There were some really tough moments. It was free rein for abuse. It made us come together tighter. We took it upon ourselves to try to ruin as many seasons as possible. If we were getting points (that season), we would have finished fourth. I think that pride carried on. We found intangible things to play on.
Each week we chose a different charity and the points we scored correlated to donations to charity. The attitude of the coach was the big one. The assistant coaches and other people were pushing the coach (Bellamy) to give guys a game because we may need them next year. Craig said no, if you want to play for the Melbourne Storm, you have to earn that jersey. That set the standard for the team and the club. You need to work hard for it. Craig never forgot the standards of the team. We knew how to look after each other and look after the club. What happened in 2010 played a massive part in where the club us in 2020.”
Bellamy: “I remember in 2012 grand final day when we won the premiership. We walked in after doing our lap and in one part of the dressing room there was about six or seven ex-players. There was Brett White, Finch (Brett Finch) was there, Adam Blair, I think Steve Turner. As I walked through I look at those blokes and I thought I would come back out and see them. I went in with the team and had a chat for about two or three minutes.
I came back out to that group and some of those guys, I wouldn’t say they were crying but they had tears running down their cheeks. Most of those guys were at new clubs then. They had all left but had played in ’07 or ’09 (premierships). There were about three or four with tears rolling down their eyes. I didn’t know whether they were happy for us because we had won or whether they were thinking I have lost my premiership and I may not win another. I wouldn’t say it spoiled my night. But every time I would have a beer that night or think about it, I would think about those blokes.”
The legacy
How Victoria embraced the Storm in the wake of the the salary cap scandal
Ponissi: “In a way it has taken what we have done since in a lot of people’s eyes to reclaim that integrity that we lost. That has been a big thing. There was no doubt people were going that is the reason they have been so good. We couldn’t really say anything. We came out early and said among ourselves we can’t say there is this special bond at this club with a special coach and a special group of players. We kept that internal and that drove us to show your actions are better than your words.
The Melbourne public could have just turned on us. Instead, they kept us under the wing and gave us an opportunity to rebuild. It was the rebirth of the Storm. They could have turned on us but it couldn’t have been more opposite. Here we are 10 years later.”
Hoffman: “I thought it got the whole state of Victoria behind us. That is the biggest thing I noticed. All the media personalities, especially the sports media personalities, jumped on our side. They saw it as NSW picking on Victoria. All the AFL commentators, the Victorian sports commentators – Eddie McGuire and Sam Newman – jumped on our back and really got the state of Victoria behind us. Everyone had an AFL team but now everyone liked rugby league too. I think that was quite a big silver lining.”
Bellamy: “The Melbourne people were unbelievable. They got right behind us. I can’t think of too many other benefits or good things through that year but that was one of them. They got behind us, right behind us. I think we are more resilient after that. If you can get through that, you can get through anything.”
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