New era dawns as four favourite sons depart

The measure of a successful season for most NRL teams is making the finals. When it comes to the Storm, however, the bar has been much higher pretty much since Craig Bellamy walked in the door.

The roll call of Melbourne's champions could double as a list of future Hall of Fame inductees: from Cameron Smith and Cooper Cronk, to Billy Slater and Cameron Munster, the purple army’s relentless march has seen them dominate for a decade.

So when their loss to the Eels in the final round of the regular season consigned the Class of 2022 to fifth place, records were rewritten, but not in the manner to which the Storm have become accustomed.

Coming on top of a loss to the Roosters the previous week, that Round 25 defeat meant Melbourne had finished outside the top four for the first time since 2014.

A finals finish was locked in, but the double chance had slipped through their fingers, and things would get even tougher a week later when the Storm bowed out at the hands of the Raiders, a team fast becoming their nemesis.

Back to the history books again, and 2014 was the last time Bellamy’s men went out in week one of the finals, losing 28-4 to Canterbury at AAMI Park.

The aforementioned Smith, Slater and Cronk were all on deck that day, along with Ryan Hoffman and Jesse Bromwich, whose decorated 13-year career at the Storm came to an end on Saturday night.

Also moving on in 2023 are ‘The Cheese’ Brandon Smith, hardman Felise Kaufusi and Jesse’s brother Kenny as a new era dawns at the Storm.

“It probably still hasn’t sunk in, the Bromwich boys have been around so long, we’re probably going to come back first day of pre-season expecting them to be here but they’re not going to be here,” Bellamy reflected on Saturday night.

“They have done unbelievable stuff for this club. They have been our leaders this year – it’s not an easy job taking over from Cameron and Cooper and Billy.

“The club has always been their No.1 priority and not themselves and that’s probably the No.1 trait when you are looking for leaders.”

The baton will now be passed to Munster, Harry Grant and Jahrome Hughes, three-quarters of a world class spine that spent precious little time in alignment in 2022 due to injuries and rep duty.

Superstar fullback Ryan Papenhuyzen played just 12 games before his season was ended by a fractured kneecap in Round 18, and while Munster, Hughes and Grant all made more than 20 appearances, the Storm’s preferred spine ran out together only eight times.

Tellingly, Melbourne won seven of those eight games, all of which came early in the campaign as they raced to an 8-1 record after nine rounds.

For the remainder of the season the Fab Four played together only once, that being the season-defining afternoon when Papenhuyzen was hurt and the Raiders again breached Fortress AAMI Park.

That 20-16 loss to Canberra was the Storm’s third on the trot and when the Rabbitohs rolled them 24-12 in Round 19 they had lost four in a row for the first time since 2015.

More concerning than the record books was the slide from second to fifth on the ladder with games against the Panthers, Roosters and Eels still to come.

In true Storm fashion they refused to lie down, a couple of masterclasses from Munster in his new role at fullback steering them to a 16-0 shutout of the Panthers 16-0 in Round 22 and a 60-12 demolition of Brisbane in Round 23 to keep the top-four dream alive.

Ultimately it would come down to the final game against the Eels – the winner earning the double chance and the loser left to fight for their lives in sudden-death.

With Hughes sidelined by a shoulder injury and Papenhuyzen and Christian Welch looking on from afar, the Storm’s golden run of top-four finishes came to an end with a 22-14 loss which featured an uncharacteristic 11 errors and 27 missed tackles.

Nine days later it was all over, with the stats sheet showing 38 missed tackles, nine errors and, most gallingly for Bellamy, 28 points conceded in the loss to the Raiders.

“It’s been a hard year, it’s been a long year, with the injuries we’ve had, I thought the guys did a good job to finish where we finished but just to go out with that performance, defending the way we did, is pretty disappointing,” the master mentor said.

It’s a disappointment that will drive Bellamy and his men through the summer as they adjust to life without four of their favourite sons and set out to prove that 2022 was simply a fork in the road rather than the end of the road.