Melbourne Storm
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| Club information | |
|---|---|
| Full name | Melbourne Storm Rugby League Club |
| Nickname(s) | Storm |
| Website | melbournestorm.com.au |
| Colours |
Purple Navy Gold White |
| Founded | 1997 |
| Current details | |
| Ground(s) |
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| CEO(s) | Dave Donaghy |
| Coach(s) | Craig Bellamy |
| Captain(s) | Cameron Smith |
| Competition | National Rugby League |
| 2016 season | 1st |
 Current season
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|
| Records | |
| Premierships | 2 (1999, 2012) |
| Runners-up | 3 (2006, 2008, 2016) |
| Minor premiership | 2 (2011, 2016) |
| Holden Cup | 1 (2009) |
| Wooden spoons | 1 (2010) |
| Most capped | 334 - Cameron Smith |
| Most points | 1983 - Cameron Smith |
Melbourne Storm is an Australian professional rugby league team based in Melbourne, Victoria that participates in the National Rugby League. The first fully professional rugby league team based in the state, they entered the competition in 1998. Melbourne Storm was originally a Super League initiative and created in 1997 during the Super League war. The club plays its home games at AAMI Park. The Storm has won two premierships since its inception, in 1999 and 2012, and has contested several more grand finals. A salary cap breach discovered in 2010 saw the club stripped of two titles by the NRL. Melbourne Storm also competes in the NRL's Under-20s competition (as Melbourne Thunderbolts) and has done since the inception of the competition in 2008. In addition, the club has also expanded into netball and as of 2017 will field a team in the new National Netball League called the Sunshine Coast Lightning.
By 1994, due to the high attendances at recent State of Origin series matches (including a then Australian rugby league record crowd of 87,161 in 1994 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground), the Australian Rugby League (ARL) had planned to establish a Melbourne-based team in the Premiership by 1998. However, the disruption caused by the Super League war caused great change to the game in Australia. By May 1997, Super League boss John Ribot pushed for a Melbourne-based club for his competition, which was the rival of the ARL. Former Brisbane Broncos centre Chris Johns became the CEO of the club and Ribot stepped down from the head of Super League to set up the club. In September 1997, Melbourne announced that Chris Anderson would be their foundation coach, and then Super League announced that the new team would be named the Melbourne Storm.
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