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The club was founded in 1998 as part of the newly formed ] competition. The club is the first first-grade club based in Victoria. They play their home games at ].
The club was founded in 1998 as part of the newly formed ] competition. The club is the first first-grade club based in Victoria. They play their home games at ].
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==History==
In 1996, the ] (ARL) decided to establish a Melbourne based team due to the high attendances at recent ] matches. But in May 1997, ] boss ] pushed for a Melbourne based club in the Super League competition, which was the rival against the ARL competition.<ref name="page344">{{cite book | last = Collis, Ian and Whitaker, Alan | title = The History of Rugby League Clubs | accessdate = 21 | accessyear = 2007 | accessmonth = 7 | year = 2004 | publisher = New Holland Publishers (Australia) Pty Ltd | location = Sydney | pages = 344 | isbn = 174110075–5 }}</ref> Former ] centre ] became the CEO of the club and Ribot stepped down from head of the ] to set up the club. In September 1997, Melbourne announced that ] would be their foundation coach, and then the Super League announced that their new team will be named the Melbourne Storm.<ref>{{cite book | last = Collis, Ian and Whitaker, Alan | title = The History of Rugby League Clubs | accessdate = 21 | accessyear = 2007 | accessmonth = 7 | year = 2004 | publisher = New Holland Publishers (Australia) Pty Ltd | location = Sydney | pages = 345 | isbn = 174110075–5 }}</ref>
The Melbourne club then went forward with signing players from other clubs, including ], ], ] and ]. With the Super League and ARL joining into one competition, the Melbourne team was now part of the ] (NRL) for the 1998 season. In their first ever game, they defeated ], with ] being their inaugural captain. Melbourne, in a complete shock to the rest of the competition, won their first four games, before losing to ].<ref name="page346">{{cite book | last = Collis, Ian and Whitaker, Alan | title = The History of Rugby League Clubs | accessdate = 21 | accessyear = 2007 | accessmonth = 7 | year = 2004 | publisher = New Holland Publishers (Australia) Pty Ltd | location = Sydney | pages = 346 | isbn = 174110075–5 }}</ref> They went on to make the finals, but were defeated by eventual premiers ].<ref name="page347">{{cite book | last = Collis, Ian and Whitaker, Alan | title = The History of Rugby League Clubs | accessdate = 21 | accessyear = 2007 | accessmonth = 7 | year = 2004 | publisher = New Holland Publishers (Australia) Pty Ltd | location = Sydney | pages = 347 | isbn = 174110075–5 }}</ref>
] and ] celebrate a win in 2007.]]
In 1999, Melbourne won their eight of their first eleven games, and went on to make the finals in third position on the premiership ladder. The team was beaten convincingly 34–10 in the quarter final by ], but came from behind in both the semi final and preliminary final to make the grand final. Melbourne faced St. George Illawarra in the 1999 grand final, St. George Illawarra were favourites due to comfortably defeating Melbourne just three weeks earlier.<ref name="page347"/> When St. George Illawarra were ahead 14–0 at half time and Melbourne seemed down and out, but two tries in to Melbourne put the score line at 18–14 in favour of St. George Illawarra with 15 minute remaining. With three minutes remaining Melbourne ] Craig Smith was knocked out by a high tackle which caused him to lose the ball over the ] line. In a historic video refereeing decision, a penalty try was awarded and Melbourne's ] kicked the goal that won Melbourne the 1999 Grand final.<ref name="page347"/><ref name="page348">{{cite book | last = Collis, Ian and Whitaker, Alan | title = The History of Rugby League Clubs | accessdate = 21 | accessyear = 2007 | accessmonth = 7 | year = 2004 | publisher = New Holland Publishers (Australia) Pty Ltd | location = Sydney | pages = 348 | isbn = 174110075–5 }}</ref>
Season 2000 saw Melbourne have consistent results after losing their first four games of the season. They made the finals (finishing 6th), but were eventually knocked out by Newcastle in the quarter-finals. Between 2001 and 2002, the Melbourne club performed poorly. Cracks were starting to appear between Johns, Ribot and Anderson through out the period, and Anderson quit as coach of Melbourne mid season of 2001, and was replaced by ]. The Melbourne club failed to make the finals in 2001. Johns left the club as CEO at the end of 2002 and coach Murray was released due to Melbourne's poor form, and missing the finals for the second year in a row. ] was announced as the new coach of Melbourne for 2003.<ref name="page349">{{cite book | last = Collis, Ian and Whitaker, Alan | title = The History of Rugby League Clubs | accessdate = 21 | accessyear = 2007 | accessmonth = 7 | year = 2004 | publisher = New Holland Publishers (Australia) Pty Ltd | location = Sydney | pages = 349 | isbn = 174110075–5 }}</ref><ref name="page350">{{cite book | last = Collis, Ian and Whitaker, Alan | title = The History of Rugby League Clubs | accessdate = 21 | accessyear = 2007 | accessmonth = 7 | year = 2004 | publisher = New Holland Publishers (Australia) Pty Ltd | location = Sydney | pages = 350 | isbn = 174110075–5 }}</ref>
]
Between 2003 and 2005, Melbourne made the finals under coach Bellamy, but lost games in the semi finals preventing them from making the grand final. In 2006, the Melbourne team won their first minor premiership for being on top of the NRL ladder. Melbourne only lost four games in the season making them outright leaders by four wins.<ref name="a">{{cite web|title=Rugby League Tables / Season 2006|url=http://stats.rleague.com/rl/seas/2006.html#lad|accessdate=2007-07-28}}</ref> They went on to win their two finals matches and go on to the grand final.<ref name="a"/> But in the grand final, against the ], they lost 8–15 to make them runners up despite being favourites for the title.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/rugby_league/international_and_australian/5392958.stm|accessdate=2007-07-28|title=Broncos edge Storm for NRL title|publisher=''BBC News''}}</ref>
In 2007, they played as they did in 2006, once again finishing on top after 25 rounds. In the first week of the NRL Finals, Melbourne played Brisbane, in which Melbourne won 40-0. Securing a spot in a Preliminary Final. In the Preliminary Final Melbourne came up against Parramatta. It was tied 10-10 at half time, before a superb second half by Melbourne, finishing the game 26-10. The win was particularly satisfying for Melbourne fans, coming soon after Paramatta CEO ] saying that rugby league should not be promoted in Melbourne. Melbourne ended up drawing a larger crowd than Manly's preliminary final.
Melbourne comprehensively defeated Manly 34-8 in the ]. The 2007 season for the Melbourne Storm has been the most successful ever year of all time for a premiership winning side in rugby league, with the team losing only 3 games.
So far, the Storm have lost 99 games in their history. Their first loss in season 2008 will be their 100th all time.
The Melbourne Storm is a professional rugby league football club based in the city of Melbourne, Australia. The Melbourne club is currently 100% owned and operated by News Limited.
The club was founded in 1998 as part of the newly formed National Rugby League competition. The club is the first first-grade club based in Victoria. They play their home games at Olympic Park.
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Emblem and colours
Originally, the club favoured the name Melbourne Mavericks with a gunslinger logo holding a fistful of aces. The club officials were all set to go with this until News Limited's Lachlan Murdoch told them to go with something else because the Mavericks sounded too American. So CEO Chris Johns and John Ribot decided to go with the themes lightning, power and storm. The club then became known as the Melbourne Storm.
The Storm was always going to go with the colours of their state, Victoria. These were navy blue with a white 'V'. But club consultant Peter McWhirter, from JAG fashion house, suggested that they should also have purple and gold to make their merchandise more attractive. Gold still appears on the logo, but has now been removed from the Storm's main colours, and the colours now consist of navy blue, purple, silver and white.
Stadium
Melbourne have played the vast majority of their home matches at the city's Olympic Park Stadium. It was here that the club played their inaugural home match in the fourth round of the 1998 season on 3 April, 1998, having come off the back of three successive away victories. In front of what remains the club's record Olympic Park attendance of 20,522, the team recorded a 26–16 victory over the North Sydney Bears. The team remained at the ground until the end of the 2000 season. In the 2000 season they attracted an average home attendance of 13,756 still their highest season average. Following steady attendance increases over the three years, it was decided to move home games to the much larger Colonial Stadium for the following year. However, with the team ending up missing the finals, crowd numbers declined and it was decided to move the team back to Olympic Park, where they have remained ever since. Attendance bottomed out at an average of 8,886 in 2004, but has risen back to an average of 11,711 for the 2007 season, culminating in a new home attendance record of 33,427 in the Preliminary Final against Parramatta, at Telstra Dome.
In 2007 the Victorian Government confirmed that it would be building a new 31,500 rectangular stadium at Olympic Park, adjacent to the club's current ground. The Government has stated that the ground will be used for rugby league, it remains to be seen whether the Melbourne Storm will go to the new ground when it is completed in 2009.
Statistics and records
Melbourne's highest ever point scorer is Matt Orford with 877 points. Current players Matt Geyer (616) and Cameron Smith (512) are the highest current players with the most points. Matt Geyer has the most tries in the club's history with 102 tries, followed by Marcus Bai (70) and current player Billy Slater (66)..
In his rookie season, current player Israel Folau broke the Storm's club record of most tries in a season by crossing over the line 21 times in 2007.
Although other players may play for the Melbourne Storm during the year, all NRL clubs are required to select a top 25 First Grade squad at the beginning of the season. Below is a list of around 25 players ranked by their cap number at the Melbourne Storm.
As part of their 10 year celebrations in 2007, Melbourne Storm released a team of the decade. The 17 man team was selected by former assistant coach Greg Brentnall, foundation CEO John Ribot, Daily Telegraph journalist Steve Mascord and board member Frank Stanton.
Rugby league in Victoria