Melbourne Storm have prevailed thanks to a history lesson and Clint Eastwood

Melbourne’s ability to overcome challenges this season has been helped by a history lesson and a Clint Eastwood movie.

Storm stars Ryan Hoffman, Billy Slater and captain Cameron Smith in 2010

Much has been made of the Melbourne’s attacking flair this season but beneath the surface has been a grit and resilience that Storm insiders trace back to the 2010 salary cap scandal and — of late — a line from a Clint Eastwood movie.

Earlier this year, on the 10-year anniversary of the day the Storm was sanctioned by the NRL for breaches of the cap, Melbourne officials pulled together their entire squad and provided them a history lesson via Zoom on the 2010 and 2011 seasons.

They watched a short video and heard from players involved. They were given a taste of the darkest period in the club’s history and provided with a crash course on how important those two years were to the Storm’s DNA.

At the time the code had been brought to a shuddering halt by COVID lockdown and when the game resumed, that history lesson proved prescient.

“Our critics will say why are you celebrating 10 years — it is not about celebrating, it is about reflecting and being appreciative of what those 2010 and 2011 teams did,” head of football Frank Ponissi said.

“We had to educate them and pull out some values from that team like the resilience and sticking together. It is funny that they are words that have been used a fair bit this year for this group.

“It was about educating our young fellas on what fighters those two teams were in being resilient and mentally tough.”

The Storm were stripped of premierships and minor premierships after they were found to have breached the salary cap a decade ago. The wounds took years to heal, although they were able to rebuild thanks to a resolve that remains to this day.

It has remarkably been tested this season due to COVID, which forced the club to move en masse to Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. The Storm adopted the motto “Overcome and adapt” to help them through that period and The Weekend Australian can reveal it was borrowed by coach Craig Bellamy from the Eastwood movie Heartbreak Ridge.

“He introduce the term very early,” Ponissi said. “Whatever was thrown at us this year we would overcome and adapt. It was based off an old Clint Eastwood movie. I am big on themes.
“Craig was telling the boys during lockdown he was watching an old Clint Eastwood movie …. and in the movie Eastwood’s character says you have to overcome and adapt.

“That kind of made sense, except in our case we have to overcome the challenges that are thrown at us and adapt to the new ones.”

While the challenges this year have been onerous, they pale in comparison to 2010 and 2011. There were times when Ponissi and others feared the club’s very future may be at stake.

The scars still remain for some. Former director Peter Maher says that members of the sides that were stripped of their titles are still haunted by the punishment.

“That life sentence is still there now,” Maher said. “Those players who played in those teams and did nothing still suffer it today. That next six weeks (after the sanctions) was absolutely catastrophic.

“Even now, they are shrouded in a mist. We seriously thought it was all over. Rugby league didn’t have the profile it has now.

“All of us are in awe of it — you look at the 10 years since and the success of the place. That culture and work ethic has basically been there from day one.”

Maher talks about then-chair Rob Moodie as the glue that kept the club together in the immediate aftermath. Equally important were Ponissi and coach Craig Bellamy.

“It is important that every now and then when it is a different group, that they are aware of what the guys went though in the good times and the bad times,” Bellamy said.

“What we went through in 2010 was ugly. That was a really tough time. What they did (in 2010 and 2011) were good foundations for the coming years.

“It was a horrible time but I think it made us a bit more resilient inside the club. You wouldn’t want to go through that again to get some resilience. There were a lot of people who thought that would be it.“

Ten years on, the Storm are preparing for another grand final. They have endured a trying season, but nothing compared to what they went through a decade ago.

“If we didn’t fight like we did in 2010 and stay strong and positive …. we wouldn’t be where we are now,” Ponissi said.
“There is no doubt we would not be having the success we are having today without what that 2010 team did. Those two years steadied the ship and showed everyone especially in Melbourne that the club had soul.”