Melbourne traffic was at its chaotic best on Saturday, but a historic training session a little bit out of town shows that the ‘Road to AAMI Park’ has never looked better.
After taking the NRL by storm, the proud purple club is now ready to make its most significant move with a commitment to developing home grown talent with a series of significant changes to its set up.
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The Storm umbrella has been vastly expanded, an NRLW team is on the cards, and local juniors have a clear path forward, with the club’s seven squads coming together on Saturday to kick-off the new era.
20 GOOD REASONS
Thirsty Merc released the hit song 20 Good Reasons back in 2007, and while completely unrelated, the Storm would make one of their most important signings later that year in a move that has transformed the club into the powerhouse it is now.
Frank Ponissi came in as the new director of football and helped the club win an under-20s title in its second year, with the competition serving a major purpose for the Storm.
The program was run like a mini NRL team with guys like Brad Arthur, Dean Pay and Anthony Seibold coaching the team before graduating to top jobs in the NRL.
The Bromwich brothers, Kevin Proctor, Gareth Widdop and Jordan McLean all came through before enjoying glittering careers in first grade, but the decision to axe that competition hit the club hard.
“When the National Youth Competition finished after 2017, there was a void and we kind of abandoned it for a few years,” Ponissi said.
“It wasn’t until the Dolphins got three of our players (the Bromwich brothers and Felise Kaufusi) and then Brandon Smith left, we could see that there was a void of players coming through.
“We relied on getting mature-aged players out of the Queensland Cup, and that had great success with guys like Tui Kamikamica and Nicho Hynes, but there were no young guys coming through like before so we had to look at that.”
ROAD TO AAMI PARK
While the Storm have been utterly dominant since joining the NRL in 1998, everyone at the club concedes there’s one area where they could and should have done better.
“As good as the under-20s program was, the number of Victorian kids was still low,” Ponissi said.
It wasn’t until 2012 that a local product made it in the NRL when Mahe Fonua debuted, with Richard Kennar, Young Tonumaipea, Dean Ieremia and Sua Fa’alogo the next to come through.
That lack of development irked Ponissi and others at the club which is why they implemented a program that laid the foundation for what they’ve been able to achieve ever since.
“When we started the Road to AAMI Park at the back end of 2022, there were only four Victorians who had represented the Storm, and with Sua the following year, it was five,” he said.
“We thought that five in 25 years wasn’t great, so we decided that in another five years’ time that we wanted another five.
“That target is a minimum that every five years, we want at least five Victorians debuting for the Storm. If we achieve that by 2028 then there will have been 10 Victorians within 30 years of the Storm.
“It’s still not where we want it, but given we only had five in the first 25 years, that’ll be good. If we continue that for the next few years then that will continue to build.”
LOCAL INVESTMENT
Wanting to develop local talent and actually doing it are two very different things, but the Storm have laid out a clear path for their emerging stars to make it to the NRL.
There are 19 local clubs in Melbourne, with the majority in the west, north and south-east, with the Pakenham Eels playing host to their major event on Saturday.
The plan is for those juniors to eventually graduate into the Storm system which begins in the under-17s Harold Matthews competition where the Storm have committed to only picking locals in the team.
“If we’re really going to grow our game in Victoria then we have to give the Victorians first crack in the first team of the pathways,” Ponissi explained.
“We might not be as competitive as if we did recruit players in there, but I think they deserve first opportunity.”
HAVING A BALL
That dedication to development is a process but it’s already paying off with the club’s under-19s SG Ball Cup squad making it through to the second week of the finals last season, with nine local juniors in the team.
That success went even further in Jersey Flegg where the under-21s knocked off traditional powerhouse Penrith in the final to put the rest of the league on notice.
“It was huge for the club because it put us on the map and showed that we’re fair dinkum about developing kids down here,” pathways operations manager Tim Auremi said.
“We’re about trying to develop as many kids to play first grade. Whether we win comps or not, we want to create as many players as we can for Craig, and he has to have that faith that they can do the job for him when they put the jersey on.”
These players aren’t just there to tick boxes, with the club proud to put them on show with more double-headers before NRL games set to take place at AAMI Park in 2026.
“I think it’s great for fans of the club because they get to watch someone go from Harold Matts through the grades to the NRL,” Auremi said.
“They can watch them play and develop in those second-tier competitions before the NRL, and then in a couple of years it’d be cool to see them in first grade.”
PLENTY IN RESERVE
The commitment to youth isn’t the only thing going on in Melbourne, with the club making the call to bring their reserve grade team under the Storm umbrella.
Players in the past have lined up for a number of feeder clubs in NSW and Queensland, but those partnerships with the North Sydney Bears, Sunshine Coast Falcons and Brisbane Tigers are no more.
Instead, the Storm will field its own team for the first time in the NSW Cup next year, with fringe first-graders and junior footy graduates now seeing a clear path forward.
“For the NRL players, they’ll actually be going back and playing for the Melbourne Storm when they’re not playing first grade,” Auremi said.
“We’ve also got a number of young kids who are aspiring to play for the Melbourne Storm, so no matter where they play going up the chain, they’ll all wear the Melbourne Storm logo. That’s so important for the connection of the club.”
That’s why new recruit Trent Toelau is so excited to be back at the club, with the playmaker returning to Melbourne after a stint in Penrith having come through the Storm pathways.
“Being a local junior, I feel very lucky to be able to come back now and be in a situation where if I don’t play NRL but get to play Cup, I still get to put on that purple jersey and that Storm jersey,” he said.
“When the time comes, it will be very fulfilling.”
LET’S GO GIRLS
The men’s program has led the way for more than two decades, but there’s a big change coming next year with the Storm to field two women’s teams in NSW competitions.
Female pathways manager Pauline Poloai said it’s been a “long-awaited journey” for the players to have their own teams, with the Storm to field sides in the under-17s Lisa Fiaola Cup and the under-19s Tarsha Gale competition.
The next step is to have a Harvey Norman Women’s Premiership team by 2028 and then to gain a spot in the NRLW.
“For us, we’ve just got to be patient with our pathways because we don’t want to rush it,” Poloai said.
“Our aim is to have an NRLW team in the near future, but giving these girls the time to develop within their own age group (is the priority).
“Eventually we want to have a Harvey Norman team and play in the NSW comp, and then push into the NRLW beyond 2028 depending on how we go in the junior reps.”
STORM ON THE RADAR
What Saturday’s session showed is that the Storm are hell bent on not just conquering the NRL, but also AFL-mad Victoria.
Almost 20 per cent of their current first grade squad is made up of local talent, with the club looking to convert its goals on and off the field.
“Out there in that squad (training on Saturday) there are six Victorians in there, which has never happened before,” Ponissi said.
“We’ve got six of our 32 at the moment from Victoria, with three of them having played in the NRL. We’ve got to make sure that the others play regular footy for us.
“We don’t want it to be that they make their debut and we tick a box. We want them to be established footy players for the Storm.”
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