melbourne storm

olspan="2"\| Melbourne Storm
olspan="2"\| Melbourne Storm
Founded	1997
Home ground	Olympic Park
Based in	Melbourne, Victoria
Colours	Dark blue, purple, yellow
League	National Rugby League
Head coach	Craig Bellamy
CEO	Brian Waldron
Owner	News Limited

The Melbourne Storm are a rugby league team based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The club was created originally as an expansion club to play in the 1998 Super League season before the Australian Rugby League (ARL) and Super League competitions merged at the conclusion of their respective 1997 seasons to form the National Rugby League (NRL). During the club's first year in 1998, they exceeded expectations by winning their first four games and finishing third on the ladder. They then advanced to the finals losing to the Brisbane Broncos one game away from the Grand Final. The following season, the Storm made amends by going one better to capture the trophy defeating the newly formed St. George-Illawarra Dragons 20-18, becoming the quickest non-foundation club ever to win the premiership after being admitted to the competition.

Club facts

Melbourne Storm is the first professional rugby league club based in Melbourne, where the predominant football code is Australian Rules football, and the people are generally perceived as indifferent towards other football codes.

The bulk of the foundation players were largely made up of players from Perth Reds and Hunter Mariners, clubs made defunct as part of the ARL/Super League merger.

ARL in 1995 gave the green light to set up a Melbourne-based rugby league team to start in the 1998 competition but the onset of the Super League war that year saw the plan shelved until Super League picked up the baton and set one up in 1997 to join their 1998 competition.

Won the 1999 Grand Final after a controversial penalty try decision by referee Bill Harrigan when Storm winger Craig Smith was taken out in mid air while attempting to catch a high ball in the Dragons' in-goal.

Following a famous outburst by St. George-Illawarra Dragons five-eighth Anthony Mundine declaring Melbourne undeserved winners of the 1999 Grand Final, the Storm thoroughly ripped the Dragons apart in a 70-10 demolition at the MCG in round five in 2000.

In the club's 100th game, they celebrated by defeating the hapless Wests Tigers 64-0 at Colonial Stadium in 2001.

Only missed the finals while under coach Mark Murray

On April 2 2005, the Melbourne Storm and the Melbourne Olympic Park Trust, administrators of the Olympic Park sports complex, renamed the Western and Eastern Grandstands of Olympic Park stadium the Glenn Lazarus and Tawera Nikau stands respectively, after the inaugural captain and vice captain of the club in a ceremony prior to the home game against the Brisbane Broncos.