Melbourne Storm launches junior rep sides with the aim of accelerating development of Victorian NRL players
Under the masterful eye of Craig Bellamy and trusted lieutenants, Melbourne Storm just launched a new era of talent development set to change both the club and the game, writes SHANNON GILL.
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Comely Banks Reserve in Officer is a long way from the neon glamour of Las Vegas .
Yet in the week the NRL launched its tour de glitz in Sin City, there’s another launch at this suburban field 50km south east of Melbourne that may have greater long-term impact on rugby league.
Legendary Melbourne Storm coach Craig Bellamy is here at the crack of dawn, taking the likes of Christian Welch, Ryan Papenhuyzen, Will Warbrick and Xavier Coates through their paces.
But he and the club’s coaching team are also working with unknown Melbourne locals like Josh Berryman (20), Josiah Moreli Alama (18) and Waka Hammond (16).
“Just remember boys, you should be proud to wear the purple jersey,” Bellamy tells them, and the gravity, nor the opportunity, is not lost on anyone. “All we are asking for while you wear that jersey is you give effort.”
The Storm have set a benchmark for excellence throughout their history. Yet the man who has been by Bellamy’s side for so much of that time, Frank Ponissi, says there’s one significant disappointment.
“We’re really proud of everything we’ve achieved in 25 years but there’s only five Storm players that have come from Victoria,” Ponissi tells CODE Sports. “We have to change that. That’s what today’s all about.”
Bellamy is overseeing four squads worth of players today, as in 2024, the Storm will field teams in the Under 17 (Harold Matthews), Under 19 (SG Ball) and Under 21 (Jersey Flegg) NSW Rugby League competitions for the first time.
It’s an effort to find homegrown players for the Storm, but also to finally turn Victoria into a bona fide talent source for the broader game.
Ponissi and former Storm premiership player Tim Glasby have spent the best part of 18 months preparing for the introduction of the teams, with Glasby scouring the state for talent after being appointed the club’s head of pathways.
Glasby, a Queensland State of Origin representative, tells CODE Sports the presence of Bellamy at the initial session will plant the seed of an NRL dream for these young players.
“For a young 16-year-old kid, to have Craig Bellamy there talking to you, it’s a pinch-yourself moment,” Glasby says.
“All the teams are training at the same time, at the same venue, which is the first time we’ve ever had that, so it’s a pretty momentous occasion for the club.”
The pathway itself will be distinctly different to previous iterations of feeder teams for the Storm.
In the club’s first decade, its relationship with Brisbane club Norths Devils provided it with the young superstar trio of Cam Smith, Billy Slater and Cooper Cronk.
That relationship evolved when the Storm fielded an Under 20 team of young Storm signings in the NRL National Youth Competition from 2008 until 2017.
But local Victorian players were rarities and since 2017, there has been no Melbourne Storm pathway team playing at all.
This new-generation pathway will be based on local talent and in the case of the Under 17 and Under 19 teams, they’ll be almost exclusively Victorian.
Previously, the bulk of Victorian talent would either plateau because of a lack of high-level competition available in the state, or as seen more recently, get poached by rugby league schools and clubs in NSW and Queensland in their early teens.
The newly-built pathway is designed to stop the talent drain, capitalise on growing junior participation numbers and equip teens with everything that’s needed to reach the NRL, while staying at home in Victoria.
“Without this competition all the way through, it’s really hard to get homegrown kids up to a standard,” Glasby says.
“So unless you change something, it’ll stay the same for another 25 years.”
Glasby has overseen trials since the middle of the year to identify talent for the Under 17 team, while the base of the Under 19 and Under 21 teams to come from the Storm Academy and programs previously run by NRL Victoria.
The Under 21 Jersey Flegg competition runs concurrently to the NRL season, while the Harold Matthews (Under 17) and SG Ball (Under 19) competitions kick-off in February and run until April.
The latest Victorian product to rise to the NRL with Melbourne was Sua Fa’alogo, a Sunbury Tigers product who made his debut in the final home-and-away game of 2023.
Fa’alogo is at the Storm’s historic training session, a role model close enough to touch for the likes of Berryman, Alama and Hammond.
As Bellamy finishes his address, there’s one final surprise. Hammond (Casey Warriors), Micah Warena (Doveton Steelers), Shalom Uatisone (Northern Thunder) and Malachi Vaeau (Casey Warriors) are nominated by Glasby’s coaching team to train with the NRL squad for the first time, rewarded for their performances over the pre-season.
Today they can call Fa’alogo, Welch and Papenhuyzen, teammates.
Aside from the presence of Bellamy, the young hopefuls have the perfect mentor in Glasby, who understands what it takes to become a Storm success story, and in Ponissi a true believer in local talent.
“We’ve got to resolve the myth that we don’t have the talent here,” Ponissi says after he and the club nutritionist takes the young players parents for a session on the club and its standards.
“We’ve just got to nurture that talent differently and better. It’s not going to be an overnight fix, it’s going to be a slow burn, but I believe the talent is here in Melbourne.
“So it’s not going to take another 25 years to get the next five, that’s for sure.”
Originally published as Melbourne Storm launches junior rep sides with the aim of accelerating development of Victorian NRL players
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