Melbourne’s revamped junior pathways will help the Storm dominate the NRL-NRLW for another 25 years
Victoria’s Polynesian population will play a crucial part in Melbourne Storm’s bold pathways plan to take both the men’s and women’s game into the future. Details of the bold plan here.
Victoria’s Polynesian population will form part of the driving force behind the Melbourne Storm, and eventually the club’s NRLW team, for the next 25 years.
As the club celebrates a quarter century of NRL success, CEO Justin Rodski has outlined the Storm’s bold pathways plan to take both the men’s and women’s game into the future.
At the heart of the club’s representative pathways plan will be the state’s growing Polynesian community.
Victoria had a record number of rugby league registrations in 2023 with 4600 participants across the state, 950 of which were female players.
Those numbers are being fuelled by more and more parents, particularly Polynesian parents, turning their back on Aussie rules for rugby league instead.
“More and more people in Victoria, whether born in Australia or overseas, have a strong pacific heritage which is clearly driving a lot of the participation in Victoria,” Rodski said.
“But it’s also on the back of good programs and coaching in place both from a local club perspective and pathways perspective.”
As the grassroots grow, the club has also made significant moves in revamping its own elite pathways system.
To Melbourne’s general manager of football Frank Ponissi, that investment in junior development is seen as a crucial step in rectifying the lack of local Victorian players to represent the club.
While the Storm has enjoyed enormous success since its inaugural season in 1998, only four Victorian raised players – Mahe Fonua, Young Tonumaipea, Richie Kennar and Dean Ieremia – have debuted for the club.
“The very few players is not because of talent, the argument that the talent is not there is rubbish,” Ponissi said.
“The talent is there, we just have to nurture it differently, and better.
“That’s exactly what we’ll be aiming to do in the next few years. In the past players left because of the lack of pathways, we’ve got to stop the drain of players, give them something to aspire to.”
25TH ANNIVERSARY: MELBOURNE STORM’S GREATEST TEAM REVEALED
Doing things differently will see Melbourne, for the first time in the club’s history, have a complete suite of junior representative sides in the NSWRL after committing to a Harold Matthews outfit join the under-17s competition from next year.
The club will also join forces in 2024 with North Sydney Bears in the NSW Cup as a feeder team – in addition to feeder sides Sunshine Coast Falcons and Easts Tigers in the Queensland Cup.
Late last year, Melbourne also set up an elite academy, a brainchild of Ponissi, bringing in the best junior talent from NSW, Queensland and Victoria.
STORM ACADEMY
The Storm’s renewed focus on nurturing local talent has not blunted the club’s pursuit of the country’s best prospects – 14 to be exact.
The 10 non-Victorian players were moved to Melbourne in a bid to fast-track their development into the under-21s Jersey Flegg system.
The academy is already reaping the rewards.
Not only is the Jersey Flegg side sitting fifth on the ladder, 11 academy players will take the field against Parramatta this weekend in the under-21s.
“They’re having a good season. It’s a very young team too. Most of those academy players could have played in the SG Ball this year,” Ponissi said.
“We’re pleased with how they are developing. A lot will play in open age next year and in a year or two hopefully some of them will play NRL.
“The ultimate goal of an academy and pathways is to produce NRL players, it’s not about winning junior comps.”
Penrith local junior and halfback Keagan Russell-Smith, who kicked the winning goal to clinch the SG Ball title for the Panthers in 2022, is one of a number of standouts to emerge from the academy.
Russell-Smith’s organising ability, strong kicking game and astute defence for a playmaker has impressed coaching staff.
Russell-Smith’s halves partner and Queensland under-19s five-eighth Stanley Huen is also turning heads down south.
Coaching staff are particularly excited over the development of Victorian local juniors, hooker Suliasi Prescott and forwards Sheldon Diaz and Jerry Musu.
The four Victorian players – Fonua, Tonumaipea, Kennar and Ieremia – are all outside backs but the club is hopeful the first forward local junior will emerge from the academy.
HAROLD MATTHEWS
Melbourne’s Harold Matthews team will make history next year as the club’s first ever under-17s outfit – and one that will be made up of entirely Victorian players.
It’s the final step in taking a holistic approach to junior development, and improving local representation.
The club has scoured the state for the best teenage players, who are currently being put through paces before a final squad is formed later this year.
“We’ve already got 60 players in training. They train one day a week all around Melbourne, and they’re all from Victoria, in preparation for next year. They’re in a 12 week training block and then we’ll select the final 20 that will play in the Harold Matthews next year,” Ponissi said.
“It’s the start of the pathway … those 20 players will be part of a historic moment for the club.”
A Harold Matthews team, plus the academy set-up, has given the club the confidence to put in place targets and milestones in its endeavour to blood more local talent.
“In five years time that four players has to become a minimum of eight if not more,” Ponissi said.
“It just has to be the goal, we have to double it in the next five years.
“After that it will be a more common thing to see Victorian players.
“At the moment it’s a unique thing to see, we want it to be the expectation.”
NRLW EXPANSION
A proposed Storm NRLW team is aiming to achieve something that the men’s NRL side has not been able to in the last 25 years – field a team with mostly Victorian talent.
The NRLW expanded to 10 teams in 2023 with the additions of Canberra, Cronulla, North Queensland and the Wests Tigers.
Rodski wants the Storm to be part of future expansion as the NRL looks to further grow the women’s game.
And while the club is working overtime to nurture Victorian talent in the men’s game, Rodski wants to ensure an elite women’s team is brimming with local juniors from inception.
“We are in discussions with the NRL about expansion and understanding when the competition will be growing with more teams,” Rodski said.
“We are absolutely preparing to enter into the NRLW competition.
“Importantly for us in Melbourne, a big part of that preparation is ensuring we have strong pathways and the game at the grassroots level grows in Victoria.
“We’re putting some resources around enhancing those pathways to ensure when we are able to enter the NRLW that as a club we’ll be ready to field a team that will have predominantly Victorian female athletes.”
SCHOOLBOY FOOTY
Pathways for women continue to grow and this year Victoria fielded a team in the first ever under-18s girls Australian Secondary Schools Rugby League Championships.
Four Victorian schools also participated in the Peter Mulholland Cup, which feeds into the National Schoolboys Championships, for the first time in 2023.
The club, with the help of the NRL, wants to ensure local junior players have a pathway from local club football into an elite system.
“Victoria is a huge opportunity for rugby league, not just for the Melbourne Storm but for the NRL,” Rodski said.
“Participation is growing, pathways are getting better. We are investing more into resources like coaching and there are more kids than ever playing.
“We want to make sure talented athletes in Victoria choose rugby league. So the junior pathways competition with a Melbourne Storm side in the under-17, 19 and 21 is a really important part of that, and that will only help the game.”
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