2012 Melbourne Storm season

The 2012 Melbourne Storm season was the club's 15th NRL season. Coached by Craig Bellamy and captained by Cameron Smith, they competed in and won the NRL's 2012 Telstra Premiership. The first 9 weeks of the season were very successful, with the club winning all games for what was at the time their best start to a season. From Round 10 to Round 21 they won only 3 games and lost 7, including a 5-game losing streak between Rounds 16 and 21, their second worst ever. From Round 22 onward they recovered their winning form and finished the regular season with five straight wins, finishing in second place. The Storm then went on to defeat South Sydney and Manly in the finals series before going on to face minor premiers, the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs in the 2012 NRL Grand Final, winning 14-4 to claim the Premiership.

Jersey

In 2012 the Storm jerseys were made by Kooga. Both the predominantly purple 'home' jersey, and the predominantly white 'away' jersey for 2012 were first instituted by the club in 2010.

Season summary

• Round 3 - Billy Slater scored two tries against the Gold Coast Titans to take his career total to 130, becoming the highest try scoring fullback in Australian Rugby League history.^[6]
• Round 4 - Billy Slater scored a try double for the fourth consecutive week, a career first.
• Round 5 (Heritage Round) - The Storm celebrated their 15th Anniversary and Bryan Norrie played his 50th game.
• Round 7 - The Storm equalled their best start to a season (2007) with their 7th straight win.
• Round 8 - The Storm recorded an eighth straight win over the New Zealand Warriors, completing the best start to a season in the club's history.
• Round 9 - The Storm won their ninth straight game.
• Round 10 - The Storm conceded their first match of the season in an away game, losing 12-10 to the Cronulla Sharks.
• Round 12 - Will Chambers played his 50th NRL game while Todd Lowrie played his 50th game for the Storm,
• Round 13 - Todd Lowrie played his 150th NRL game.
• Round 14 - Craig Bellamy coached his 250th game for the Melbourne Storm against the Wests Tigers.
• Round 19 - Cooper Cronk played his 200th NRL game.
• Round 20 - With their fourth consecutive loss, the Storm equalled their second worst losing streak in the club's history to date.
• Round 21 - With their fifth consecutive loss, the Storm recorded a new second-worst losing streak. It was the Storm's longest losing streak during Craig Bellamy's ten-year tenure.^[7]
• Round 22 - The Storm ended their losing streak with a 46-6 defeat of the Penrith Panthers. The game was notable for Sisa Waqa scoring the NRL season's fastest try after only 35 seconds of play. It was also the Storm's biggest score of the season.
• Round 23 - Mahe Fonua made his debut as the first fully born and bred Victorian to play NRL for the Storm.^[8] Jessie Bromwich also played his 50th game for the Storm.
• Round 24 - Cameron Smith scored his 1300th career point.
• Round 25 - The Storm recorded a 20-18 win against the Cronulla Sharks with two tries inside the final three minutes of play, after trailing 18-10. The result meant that the Storm's overall wins percentage increased to 63.64%, elevating the Storm to first place on the 'all-time' score table for the first time, ahead of the Brisbane Broncos.
• Finals Week 1 - The Storm began their finals campaign with a win over the South Sydney Rabbitohs, earning them a week's break and a home preliminary final.
• Finals Week 3 - The Storm completed a 40 - 12 defeat of Manly to secure a spot in the 2012 NRL Grand Final against the Canterbury Bulldogs.
• Grand Final - The Storm defeated the Canterbury Bulldogs 14 - 4 to claim the 2012 NRL premiership. Cameron Smith, while having a bad night with the boot (1 from 5 attempts), kicked his 600th career goal. The Grand Final was also notable because it was the first to feature a scoreless second half of football.

Statistics

Statistics source:^[9] Statistics current following the Grand Final.

Most points in a game: 14

• Cameron Smith with 1 try and 5 goals vs Manly in Round 15 (18 June 2012).
• Cameron Smith with 7 goals vs Penrith in Round 22 (4 August 2012).

Most tries in a game: 3

• Will Chambers vs New Zealand in Round 8 (25 April 2012).
• Justin O'Neill vs Penrith in Round 9 (5 May 2012).

Fixtures

Regular season

Date	Round	Opponent	Venue	Result	Score	Tries	Goals	Attendance	Report
3 March	Round 1	Canberra Raiders	Canberra Stadium, Canberra	Win	19-24	Slater (2), Cronk, O'Neill	Smith 4/4	7,862	[10]
11 March	Round 2	South Sydney Rabbitohs	AAMI Park, Melbourne	Win	24-10	Nielsen (2), Slater (2), Duffie	Smith 2/4	15,872	[11]
18 March	Round 3	Gold Coast Titans	Skilled Park, Gold Coast	Win	6-30	Duffie (2), Slater (2), Manu, Quinn	Smith 2/5, Widdop 1/1	11,254	[12]
24 March	Round 4	Sydney Roosters	AAMI Park, Melbourne	Win	44-4	Slater (2), Cronk (2), Nielsen, Proctor, Hoffman, Chambers	Smith 5/7, Widdop 1/1	11,897	[13]
31 March	Round 5	Newcastle Knights	AAMI Park, Melbourne	Win	34-22	Widdop, Duffie, Hoffman, Slater, Chambers, Lowrie	Smith 5/6	11,369	[14]
8 April	Round 6	North Queensland Cowboys	Dairy Farmers Stadium, Townsville	Win	18-42	Duffie (2), Proctor (2), Chambers (2), Hinchcliffe, Ryles	Smith 5/8	20,206	[15]
14 April	Round 7	Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs	AAMI Park, Melbourne	Win	12-6	Hinchcliffe, Hoffman	Smith 2/2, Cronk 0/1 (FG)	14,912	[16]
25 April	Round 8	New Zealand Warriors	AAMI Park, Melbourne	Win	32-14	Chambers (3), Nielsen (2), O'Neill	Smith 4/6	20,333	[17]
5 May	Round 9	Penrith Panthers	Centrebet Stadium, Penrith	Win	10-44	O'Neill (3), Duffie, Cronk, Hoffman, Chambers, Hinchcliffe	Smith 5/7, Widdop 1/1	9,517	[18]
13 May	Round 10	Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks	Endeavour Field, Cronulla	Loss	12-10	Nielsen, Duffie	Smith 1/2	14,595	[19]
18–21 May	Round 11	Bye
25 May	Round 12	Brisbane Broncos	AAMI Park, Melbourne	Win	34-10	Lowrie (2), Slater (2), Chambers, O'Neill	Widdop 5/6	13,200	[20]
3 June	Round 13	New Zealand Warriors	Mount Smart Stadium, Auckland	Win	10-22	Widdop, Lowe, Chambers, Smith	Smith 3/5	20,487	[21]
8 June	Round 14	Wests Tigers	AAMI Park, Melbourne	Loss	6-10	Nielsen	Widdop 1/2	11,274	[22]
18 June	Round 15	Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles	Brookvale Oval, Manly	Win	22-26	Lowrie, Smith, Norrie, Duffie	Smith 5/5	12,106	[23]
24 June	Round 16	Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs	Virgin Australia Stadium, Mackay	Loss	20-4	Quinn	Smith 0/1	11,876	[24]
29 June-2 July	Round 17	Bye
7 July	Round 18	Canberra Raiders	AAMI Park, Melbourne	Loss	12-40	O'Neill (2)	Widdop 2/2	12,214	[25]
14 July	Round 19	North Queensland Cowboys	AAMI Park, Melbourne	Loss	16-20	Duffie, Quinn, Widdop	Smith 2/3	10,688	[26]
21 July	Round 20	Parramatta Eels	Parramatta Stadium, Parramatta	Loss	16-10	Kostjasyn, Hoffman	Smith 1/2	9,029	[27]
27 July	Round 21	St George-Illawarra Dragons	WIN Stadium, Wollongong	Loss	26-18	Chambers, Hinchcliffe, Proctor	Smith 3/3	11,477	[28]
4 August	Round 22	Penrith Panthers	AAMI Park, Melbourne	Win	46-6	Cronk (2), O'Neill (2), Waqa (2), Bromwich, Manu	Smith 7/8	9,223	[29]
10 August	Round 23	Gold Coast Titans	AAMI Park, Melbourne	Win	24-16	Slater, Cronk, Hoffman, Widdop	Smith 4/4	9,108	[30]
17 August	Round 24	Brisbane Broncos	Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane	Win	18-19	Waqa (2), Cronk	Smith 3/3, Cronk 1/1 (FG)	41,467	[31]
27 August	Round 25	Cronulla Sharks	AAMI Park, Melbourne	Win	20-18	Hoffman (2), Waqa, Chambers	Smith 2/4	12,847	[32]
1 September	Round 26	Wests Tigers	Leichhardt Oval, Balmain	Win	6-26	Hoffman, Manu, Norrie, Proctor, Waqa	Smith 3/5	10,834	[33]

Finals

Date	Round	Opponent	Venue	Result	Score	Tries	Goals	Attendance	Report
8 September	Week 1 - Qualifying Final	South Sydney Rabbitohs	AAMI Park, Melbourne	Win	24-6	Hoffman, Slater, Fonua, Waqa	Smith 4/5	19,750	[34]
21 September	Week 3 - Preliminary Final	Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles	AAMI Park, Melbourne	Win	40-12	Cronk (2), Slater (2), Chambers, Bromwich, Proctor	Smith 5/8, Widdop 1/1	25,543	[35]
30 September	Week 4 - Grand Final	Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs	ANZ Stadium, Sydney	Win	4-14	Hoffman, O'Neill, Slater	Smith 1/5	82,976	[36]

Ladder

2012 NRL season Pos Team Pld W D L B PF PA PD Pts 1 Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs 24 18 0 6 2 568 369 +199 40 2 Melbourne Storm (P) 24 17 0 7 2 579 361 +218 38 3 South Sydney Rabbitohs 24 16 0 8 2 559 438 +121 36 4 Manly Warringah Sea Eagles 24 16 0 8 2 497 403 +94 36 5 North Queensland Cowboys 24 15 0 9 2 597 445 +152 34 6 Canberra Raiders 24 13 0 11 2 545 536 +9 30 7 Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks 24 12 1 11 2 445 441 +4 29 8 Brisbane Broncos 24 12 0 12 2 481 447 +34 28 9 St. George Illawarra Dragons 24 11 0 13 2 405 438 -33 26 10 Wests Tigers 24 11 0 13 2 506 551 -45 26 11 Gold Coast Titans 24 10 0 14 2 449 477 -28 24 12 Newcastle Knights 24 10 0 14 2 448 488 -40 24 13 Sydney Roosters 24 8 1 15 2 462 626 -164 21 14 New Zealand Warriors 24 8 0 16 2 497 609 -112 20 15 Penrith Panthers 24 8 0 16 2 409 575 -166 20 16 Parramatta Eels 24 6 0 18 2 431 674 -243 16

2012 Coaches

• Craig Bellamy - Head Coach
• David Kidwell - Assistant Coach
• Dean Pay - Assistant Coach
• Kevin Walters - Halves Coach
• Alex Corvo - Strength and Conditioning
• Adrian Jiminez - Assistant Strength and Conditioning
• Tony Adam - Player Development
• Craig Sultana - Head Trainer

2012 Squad

As of 16 July 2013.

No.	Nat.	Player	Pos	First match with club	Previous club
55		Cameron Smith (c)	HK	2002	Melbourne Storm
60		Billy Slater	FB	2003	Melbourne Storm
62		Ryan Hoffman	SR,LK	2003	Melbourne Storm
73		Cooper Cronk	HB	2004	Melbourne Storm
93		Anthony Quinn	WG,CE	2007	Newcastle Knights
98		Will Chambers	CE	2007	Queensland Reds
99		Sika Manu	SR	2007	Melbourne Storm
105		Dane Nielsen	WG,CE	2008	Melbourne Storm
106		Kevin Proctor	SR	2008	Melbourne Storm
110		Ryan Hinchcliffe	HK,LK	2009	Canberra Raiders
116		Luke Kelly	FE,HB	2009	Melbourne Storm
119		Jesse Bromwich	PR	2010	Melbourne Storm
120		Rory Kostjasyn	HK,LK	2010	Melbourne Storm
122		Todd Lowrie	SR,LK	2010	Parramatta Eels
123		Bryan Norrie	PR	2010	Cronulla Sharks
124		Matt Duffie	WG,CE	2010	Melbourne Storm
125		Gareth Widdop	HB	2010	Melbourne Storm
127		Justin O'Neill	WG	2010	Sydney Roosters
130		Jaiman Lowe	PR,SR	2011	South Sydney Rabbitohs
135		Maurice Blair	WG,CE	2011	Penrith Panthers
136		Sisa Waqa	CE,WG	2011	Sydney Roosters
138		Jack Afamasaga	PR	2011	Cronulla Sharks
139		Siosaia Vave	PR	2012	Cronulla Sharks
140		Jason Ryles	PR	2012	Sydney Roosters
141		Michael Greenfield	SR,LK	2012	St George Illawarra Dragons
142		Richard Fa'aoso	PR,SR	2012	Newcastle Knights
143		Mahe Fonua	CE	2012	Melbourne Storm
-		Slade Griffen	HK	Yet to Debut	Melbourne Storm
-		Mitch Johnson	FB,WG	Yet to Debut	Melbourne Storm
-		Kenny Bromwich	PR,LK	Yet to Debut	Melbourne Storm
-		Jordan McLean	PR	Yet to Debut	Melbourne Storm
-		Mitch Garbutt	PR,SR	Yet to Debut	Newcastle Knights
-		Ben Hampton	HB	Yet to Debut	Melbourne Storm
-		Kirisome Auva'a	WG	Yet to Debut	Melbourne Storm
		Matt McGahan	HB,FE	Yet to Debut	Melbourne Storm
		Shea Moylan	WG,FB	-Yet to Debut	Brisbane Broncos

2012 player movement

2012 squad signings

2012 squad transfers

Representative honours

The following players have played a representative match in 2012. (C) = Captain

Awards

References