2006 Melbourne Storm season

The 2006 Melbourne Storm season was the 9th in the club's history. They competed in the NRL's 2006 Telstra Premiership, winning a record 20 out of 24 regular season games to finish in first place and win the minor premiership, eight points clear of the second-placed Bulldogs. The team backed up their stellar defensive effort the previous year to concede just 404 points in 2006. The retirement of Robbie Kearns saw a rotating captaincy introduced between David Kidwell, Scott Hill, Cameron Smith, Matt Geyer and Michael Crocker. Cooper Cronk also assumed the halfback duties following the departure of Matt Orford. Storm won 13 of their last 14 games of the season to take a great run of form into the finals where they progressed to reach their first Grand Final since 1999 after wins over the Eels and Dragons. This broke a run of three straight semi-final exits for Craig Bellamy’s team.

Melbourne fell just short in the decider against Brisbane however the platform had now been built for a sustained run of success. The Storm's Queensland trio of Greg Inglis, Cameron Smith and Antonio Kaufusi were selected to make their international debuts for Australia in 2006. Post-season the Storm farewelled Nathan Friend and Jake Webster (Gold Coast Titans), David Kidwell (South Sydney) and Scott Hill (Harlequins Rugby League). ^[1]

Match results

Ladder

	Team	Pld	W	D	L	B	F	A	PD	Pts
1	Melbourne	24	20	0	4	2	605	404	+201	44
2	Bulldogs	24	16	0	8	2	608	468	+140	36
3	Brisbane	24	14	0	10	2	497	392	+105	32
4	Newcastle	24	14	0	10	2	608	538	+70	32
5	Manly	24	14	0	10	2	534	493	+41	32
6	St George Illawarra	24	14	0	10	2	519	481	+38	32
7	Canberra	24	13	0	11	2	525	573	-48	30
8	Parramatta	24	12	0	12	2	506	483	+23	28
9	North Queensland	24	11	0	13	2	450	463	-13	26
10	New Zealand	24	12	0	12	2	552	463	+89	24
11	Wests Tigers	24	10	0	14	2	490	565	-75	24
12	Penrith	24	10	0	14	2	510	587	-77	24
13	Cronulla	24	9	0	15	2	515	544	-29	22
14	Sydney	24	8	0	16	2	528	650	-122	20
15	South Sydney	24	3	0	21	2	429	772	-343	10

• New Zealand Warriors were stripped of four competition points due to breaches of the National Rugby League salary cap.

2006 Coaching Staff

• Craig Bellamy - Head Coach
• Michael Maguire- Assistant Coaches
• Stephen Kearney- Assistant Coaches
• Marc Brentnall – Development Coach
• Frank Ponissi - Football Director
• Alex Corvo -Strength and Conditioning

2006 Squad

Cap	Nat.	Player name	Position	First Storm Game	Previous First Grade RL club
5		Scott Hill	FE,LK	1998	Hunter Mariners
18		Matt Geyer	WG	1998	Perth Reds
35		Glenn Turner	SR	2000	Melbourne Storm
55		Cameron Smith (c)	HK	2002	Melbourne Storm
58		Dallas Johnson	SR,LK	2003	Melbourne Storm
59		David Kidwell	SR,LK	2003	Sydney Roosters
60		Billy Slater	FB	2003	Melbourne Storm
61		Jake Webster	WG	2003	Melbourne Storm
62		Ryan Hoffman	SR,LK	2003	Melbourne Storm
67		Nathan Friend	HK	2003	Brisbane Broncos
68		Antonio Kaufusi	PR	2003	Melbourne Storm
69		Matt King	CE	2003	Melbourne Storm
72		Steve Turner	FB,WG	2004	Penrith Panthers
73		Cooper Cronk	HB	2004	Melbourne Storm
74		Jeremy Smith	LK	2004	Melbourne Storm
76		Brett White	PR	2005	Melbourne Storm
77		Ian Donnelly	PR	2005	Manly Sea Eagles
79		Greg Inglis	FE,CE,	2005	Melbourne Storm
80		Jamie Feeney	SR,LK	2005	Canterbury Bulldogs
83		Michael Crocker	SR,LK	2006	Sydney Roosters
84		Garrett Crossman	PR	2006	Penrith Panthers
85		Chris Walker	WG	2006	Sydney Roosters
86		Adam Blair	SR,PR	2006	Melbourne Storm
87		Smith Samau	FB, WG	2006	Melbourne Storm
88		Ben Cross	PR	2006	Melbourne Storm
89		Matthew Bartlett	SR	2006	Melbourne Storm
90		Jeff Lima	PR,LK	2006	Wests Tigers
-		Ryan Shortland	FE,CE	Yet to Debut	Melbourne Storm
-		James Aubusson	FE,HK	Yet to Debut	Melbourne Storm
-		Scott Anderson	PR	Yet to Debut	Melbourne Storm
-		Sam Tagataese	SR, PR	Yet to Debut	Melbourne Storm

Awards

References