Storm’s demons all behind them
MELBOURNE stars insist they have buried the scars of last season’s grand final heartbreak as the Storm come under mounting pressure to deliver another premiership.
The Storm are at unbackable odds to clinch the NRL trophy this Sunday night after winning the minor premiership by six competition points in one of the most dominant seasons in the code’s 109-year history.
To illustrate the gulf between the Storm and North Queensland during the regular season, the Cowboys finished a
staggering seven wins adrift of Craig Bellamy’s minor premiers.
The Storm were just 11 minutes away from glory last season when Sharks prop Andrew Fifita crashed over to plunge the dagger into Melbourne’s heart and break Cronulla’s 49year NRL title drought. Storm centre Will Chambers, who scored the 64th-minute try in last year’s decider that placed Melbourne on the brink of victory, said the squad was mentally stronger for last year’s failure.
“To be honest, we put last year behind us before we started this season,” he said.
“There will be a lot of talk about last year, but we have a new squad now and six or seven guys who will be debuting in the grand final this week.
“We have one more hurdle to jump over ... let’s see how we go.”
There is an added incentive for the Storm to prevail Sunday night.
The club was stripped of premierships in 2007 and 2009 in the wake of the club’s infamous salary-cap scandal, but for champion halfback Cooper Cronk those titles still count in his eyes.
“That was a time in history which was quite emotional and upsetting,” he said.
“To be honest, it is what it is, the club did the wrong thing, the sanctions were handed down, but I still have the DVDs at home that I will watch every and now and then if I forget about us winning those premierships.” this