Monday Morning Dummy Half: Aotearoa Storm
Regardless of where your NRL fandom sits, coming from Aotearoa there is only one way to view the Melbourne Storm club and that is as the best sports franchise in Australia/Aotearoa of our lifetimes. Canterbury Crusaders are there or there abouts, although the best sporting comparison for the Storm are the All Blacks and it's no coincidence that the links between Storm and All Blacks go beyond their excellence.
Melbourne Storm didn't just win their third NRL Championship of the last 10 years, their sixth Championship depending on how much hateraide you're sippin' with the 2007 and 2009 Championships. We all know the 2020 story for the Storm that led up to their Grand Final win over Penrith Panthers and the adversity created a unique environment for the Storm this season as they set up shop on Sunshine Coast; Panthers enjoyed a wee scheduling advantage throughout the season, Storm's adversity created a tight bond in camp.
All of this comes back to wise decisions made throughout the past decade or so and while it might look convenient for the Storm to spend the season in the sun, bonding with their comrade and staff, zoning in on their Championship run, a couple years ago the Storm opted to develop a second base on the Sunshine Coast. The Storm invested time and resource into establishing their Sunshine Coast academy back in 2015, sparking it up in 2016 and since then the Storm have run one of their reserve grade teams from the Sunshine Coast as well as their academy, as well as combining forces to build out the Sunshine Coast Lightning - where Silver Fern Laura Langman and coach Noelene Taurua won back to back Super Netball Championships in 2017/18.
So the Storm had the apparent luxury of their Sunshine Coast experience this year, only because they had the vision to set up their Sunshine Coast academy back in 2015. Seeds sprouted and it was then the Storm who brought in Richie McCaw ahead of their 2017 GF, as well as linking up with former All Blacks coach Wayne Smith who has dabbled in various advisor duties for the Storm since 2017 - after the Storm staff had spent time with the All Blacks.
Bart Campbell seems to be the key figure in all of this. Campbell is a majority owner and recently stepped aside as chairman of the Storm, who previously managed All Blacks McCaw and Dan Carter, who now works with New Zealand Rugby in a strategy role and Campbell is now part of World Rugby's Executive Committee. All the connections are there and Smith for example stated that his friendship with Campbell led to his working relationship with the Storm.
Former All Black Andrew Blowers is on the Storm's staff as well as a Player Welfare Coordinator. Given the Storm's connection to Aotearoa, it makes complete sense for Blowers to have a welfare role as it not only deepens the All Blacks-Storm connection, this is also a nod to the Storm ensuring that best practices are in place for youngsters moving across the ditch.
On the field, the Storm have been the best recruiters out of Aotearoa for a long time. While everyone ponders how the Storm are going to replace star players, they quietly go about recruiting in a very specific manner to fill out their playing roster - bring them through the bottom and everything is much cheaper. The Storm didn't recruit Brandon Smith or Jahrome Hughes from Aotearoa, yet they lured Smith away from North Queensland Cowboys to make his NRL debut with the Storm and after Hughes made his NRL debut for Gold Coast Titans as an 18-year-old, Hughes drifted around reserve grade via hefty injuries and the Storm snapped up Hughes from Queensland's Intrust Super Cup.
Both Smith and Hughes played different positions in the GF to the positions they started out in with the Storm. Smith is the Aotearoa Kiwis hooker and grabbed minutes early in his career filling in for Cameron Smith, yet Brandon forced his way into consistent selection and morphed into a middle forward. Hughes started out as a fullback and was then developed into a halfback.
The Bromwich bros recruitment story is excessively funky. Kenny got recruited by the Storm, while older brother Jesse was working in Australia and Kenny told the Storm that his brother also played footy - Jesse shows up for Under 20s training and the rest is history. Neither Jesse or Kenny receive many headlines for their work outside the Storm bubble, although the brothers from Manurewa have played a combined 419 NRL games for the best sports franchise in this area of the world.
If that doesn't smack you in the face about their value to the Storm, remember that the Bromwich bros are forwards and all the big star players for the Storm have been backs. I can't point to Jesse Bromwich's stats to compare him to best middle forwards in the game, and yet I know that Storm forward packs are rarely over-run, steam-rolled. Everything in either footy code starts in the middle and you're not diving deep into a dynasty without consistently having a forward pack that is among the best in the NRL; Jesse is the cornerstone and between the Bromwich bros, the mana is palpable.
In 2013, while playing for St Kent 1st 15 Suliasi Vunivalu was named in the Blues Schools rugby team alongside Akira Ioane, Blake Gibson, Josh Ioane, TJ Faiane. That same year Nelson Asofa-Solomona was running around for Wellington College 1st 15 but didn't grab many representative honours because he was already linked to the Storm having attended various training camps. Come 2014 and they are both playing for the Storm's Under 20s team, hence we have this lovely moment below...
Anyone with a slither of memory for those 2010-2013 years will know that Vunivalu and Asofa-Solomona were destined for higher honours, some where. Such was their talent that anyone could see their dominance and for the Storm, this wasn't a case of finding a gem like Tohu Harris out of relative obscurity (Storm signed Harris after he attended a camp in Wellington, while living in Hastings). All teams in NRL and Super Rugby would have had some interest in Vunivalu and Asofa-Solomona, yet like with former Storm winger Matt Duffie, the Storm were the club to have both Vunivalu and Asofa-Solomona moving to Melbourne.
The All Blacks don't suffer fools and I reckon it goes beyond a 'no dickhead' policy, as it does with the Storm. We've all heard about the All Blacks cleaning their changing rooms, unloading their team bus and furthering the All Blacks legacy, same for the Storm as new players to the Storm have to combine pre-season training with a week's full time work. Let alone how these two teams perform on the field and whether it's how both teams spread the footy, play at a high tempo in attack showcasing superior skills or how stingey either team is in defence and the simple effort to show up defensively ... every time, these two teams are rather obvious examples as to how you or I can build a sports team of any level.
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Peace and love.