Melbourne Storm - who have they lost?

[schmix]

They said it tonight, and I've heard it numerous times throughout the season: "Melbourne have had it tough, they've lost a lot of quality players and are still up there with the best of them", or something along those lines.

Well...who have they lost? I can think of Matt King and Folau. I'm sure there are others, but they still have the same nucleus of Slater, Inglis, Cronk, Smith, Hoffman, Johnson etc. I think they have managed to remain pretty much untouched by the salary cap, which is very rare (almost impossible) for a team making 4 grand finals in a row.

 

[ningnangnong]

Kaufusi is the only other name i can think of.

 

[Hatchy]

Scott Hill, although he doesnt count, he was crap anyway

 

[dukey]

Jeremy Smith?

 

[Kimlo]

This baffles me. How a team can make 4 grand finals in a row and still manage to re-sign pretty much all the players they want to. King, hill, kafusi they were all pretty much on the way out anyway. Folau was the only real loss and he was on minimum wage when he was with them.

 

[Bucking Beads]

Surely the storm empire has to crash sooner or later.

 

[Jeba]

Chambers as well for next year, but I doubt he'd be too highly paid.

 

[m1c]

I think they commentators said only 9 of the 17 from last years grand final squad were backing up? not including Smith (suspended) and some other nuffie. They have shed a lot of players.

 

[Fozz]

Clint Newton, Michael Crocker, Garrett Crossman, Jeremy Smith, Ben Cross, Israel Folau, Antonio Kaufusi, James Aubusson, Matt King, Scott Hill and Matt Geyer have all left the Storm in recent years.

Think that's all of them.

 

[Coxy]

They've kept their core, which is the main thing. They haven't been hit that hard by the Salary cap.

Yep. They kept Cronk, Inglis, Slater and Smith. They can build a quality team around that. The salary cap isn't working. We lost our fullback and hookers. They should lose Smith and Slater. Salary cap can't allow a team to make 4 grand finals in a row.

 

[Jazza]

That's just good recruitment and retention. They identified their key players and keep rebuilding around them when they lose other players. Bellamy seems to be good at turning no-names into solid first graders and getting good young kids to reach their potential. Who had heard of Jeff Lima before he came to the storm? Aiden Tolman will be one of the next representative front rowers imo. They may not have lost many superstars, but the players they've lost have been solid first graders. The fact that for the most part they haven't gone on to bigger and better things after starring for the Storm only further evidences the effect that playing in those Storm sides had on them.

 

[Coxy]

Given the impact the big 4 have, the NRL should count each of their contracts as 500k. That's half their cap. They should have to unload 2 or 3 players in the offseason if they win again.

 

[Jazza]

But Cronk's hardly a superstar - take him out of Melbourne and I doubt he'd have the same impact. The other three however probably would be on close enough to that. They'll just keep turning over the fringies and replacing them with equally capable players. I have great respect for what they've been able to achieve in a day and age where it's commonplace for premiers to miss the eight the following year.

 

[QUEENSLANDER]

They lost crocker. For most teams, that means losing their best player since he is orsm. Any team that can make the final after losing crocker is doing well.


:P

 

[Crazy Sam]

"Hate how all of their forwards hit the line then submit in the tackle so they can get quick play the balls."


then when we do it the refs call "surrender" and the opposition can spend an hour on us! it was terrible last night.

 

[m1c]

They've lost a stack of outside backs.. Turner, Chambers and Tomane this year as well.

 

[schmix]

Ok they've lost more than I thought, but they're almost all 2nd or 3rd tier players. It shits me that people think they've had a hard time of it with the salary cap when they've managed to keep everyone that would be really important to them.

Good for them for being able to do it, but don't act like it's a surprise and a real feat to still be doing well.

 

[Jazza]

It's either a big feat or they're cheating the cap. There's no in between. I think and hope it's the former for the sake of the expansion of our game.