The 2020 Melbourne Storm season was the 23rd in the club's history and they competed in the 2020 NRL season. The team was coached by Craig Bellamy, coaching the club for his 18th consecutive season. Melbourne Storm were also captained by Cameron Smith, who had been the sole captain for the team since 2008—making this his 13th consecutive season. The season was suspended indefinitely on 23 March due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic; however, on 28 April the NRL announced it would recommence on 28 May as a 20 Round competition with a revised fixture.
After the recommencement of the season, Melbourne Storm initially played home games at AAMI Park as usual; however, an escalation in coronavirus cases and a subsequent second lock-down in the state of Victoria forced the Storm to relocate in late June, firstly, to New South Wales and then to the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. This has meant that the Storm have had to play home games at multiple venues interstate throughout the 2020 season including Netstrata Jubilee Stadium in Sydney, Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane and Sunshine Coast Stadium on the Sunshine Coast.
The club had a successful season on the field and after twenty rounds, finishing the regular season in second spot and earning a "home" qualifying final against the Parramatta Eels which was played at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane. The Storm won this final, progressing through to a week three preliminary final at the same venue, where they played and defeated the Canberra Raiders for a spot in the 2020 NRL Grand Final. The Storm defeated the Penrith Panthers in the 2020 NRL Grand Final to finish the season as Premiers.
Season summary
Pre-season – New recruits took part in Melbourne Storm IDQ camp for pre season training before New Years. Aaron Booth was awarded the IDQ Iron bar. [1]
14–15 February – Melbourne lose both their matches at the 2020 NRL Nines in Perth, to finish bottom of Pool 4. Sandor Earl and Tui Kamikamica were named as co-captains of a squad which included Fijian Siti Moceidreke.
Round 1 – The Storm continued their unbeaten run in Round 1 matches a record that stretches back to 2001 by defeating Manly at Brookvale Oval.
Round 2 – The Melbourne Storm defeated Cronulla at an empty WIN Stadium. All NRL matches were played in empty stadiums for the first time in the league's history, in response to government restrictions on non-essential public gatherings of 500 or more people due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[2]
23 March – Due to the escalating COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 NRL season was indefinitely suspended, for the first time in history.[3]
28 April – The NRL announce that the competition will resume on 28 May and that it would be cut back a 20-round season, with the first two rounds scores and points remaining. The NRL will also release a revised fixture.[4]
4 May – The Storm announce that they will temporarily set up a training camp in Albury, New South Wales to prepare for the resumption of the NRL season. Restrictions on group gatherings mean't it could not happen in Victoria.[5]
7 May – The Storm begin their training camp at the home of Albury Tigers Football Club after the Albury Council elected to prevent the club using the local government managed Greenfield Park.[6]
15 May – The NRL release the revised fixture for Rounds 3 and 4.[7] Melbourne Storm will play the Round 3 fixture on 30 May.
21 May – The full revised fixture is released for the remainder of 2020. Venues are only confirmed to Round 9, with the Storm to play home games at AAMI Park at this stage with no crowd.[8]
Round 3 – On 30 May the Melbourne Storm recommenced their season with a 22–6 loss against the Canberra Raiders.
Round 4 – The Storm return to the winners list with a win over the South Sydney Rabbitohs. Brenko Lee and Chris Lewis both make their playing debuts (For the Storm and NRL respectively). Brenko Lee also became the 200th player to play a game for the Melbourne Storm.
23 June – The Melbourne Storm and NRL announce that the team will relocate indefinitely to either NSW or QLD after a sharp increase in coronavirus cases over the previous week in Victoria [9]
Round 7 – The Storm defeat the NZ Warriors 50–6 in their home game at Netstrata Jubilee Stadium in Sydney the match was notable as following the game Cameron Smith, Craig Bellamy and Ryan Hoffman all went into the Warriors' room to thank and acknowledge the sacrifice that they are making by moving to Australia during the COVID pandemic.[10] In addition, West Tigers Loan player Paul Momirovski made his debut for the Storm scoring 2 tries.
27 June – Further to the report on 23 June the Storm confirm that they will indefinitely relocate to the Sunshine Coast, Queensland playing home games out of Suncorp Stadium.[11]
Round 8 – The Storm defeat the Sydney Roosters 27-25 after the game was sent into Golden Point with Ryan Papenhuyzen leveling the scores by kicking a field goal with 10 seconds remaining in regular time.
8 July – Melbourne Storm announce that they will play their next three home matches at Sunshine Coast Stadium (Rounds 10, 12 and 13).[12]
Round 9 – The Storm defeat the Canberra Raiders 20–14. Darryn Schonig made his NRL debut and Cameron Smith reached another milestone with 300 wins in the NRL.
Round 10 – Melbourne Storm play their first home game on the Sunshine Coast with a 42–6 win over the Gold Coast Titans.
Round 12 – The Storm defeat the Knights in their 6th consecutive win. Cameron Smith injures his shoulder while scoring his try.
Round 13 – Due to the injury and resting of Cameron Smith, Jesse Bromwich was named as acting captain.[13] Originally Dale Finucane was named as a co-captain but dropped out of the side due to a minor injury. Jahrome Hughes played his 50th game for the Storm after playing his 50th NRL game overall two weeks earlier[14] in the win over Canterbury.
18 August – The Storm announce that the remaining 3 home games in the 2020 season will be played at Sunshine Coast Stadium[15]
Round 15 – Kenny Bromwich is announced as captain of the team replacing brother Jesse due to suspension, Kenny becomes the club's 22nd Captain. Also Cooper John (son of Matthew Johns) will make his NRL debut.
Round 19 – Melbourne secure 2nd spot on the ladder after defeating Wests Tigers at Sunshine Coast stadium. This game was also notable as it was the club's 600th game in the NRL.
Round 20 – The Melbourne Storm make massive changes to the side resting almost the entire team that won in Round 19 due to them not being able to lose second place. Ryan Papenhuyzen is announced as the captain for the team making him the fourth captain in 2020 and 23rd overall for the club.[16] In addition, the game saw both Aaron Booth and Aaron Pene making their NRL debuts and Ricky Leutele making his Storm debut this also meant that the Storm had used a total of 32 players in its 2020 season more than any other season to date. Finally Max King played his 50th NRL game.
Finals Week 1 – The Storm defeat the Parramatta Eels to earn a week off and progress straight to Week 3 and a "Home" preliminary final.
Finals Week 3 – The Storm defeat the Canberra Raiders to advance to the 2020 NRL Grand Final. Dale Finucane plays his 200th NRL Game.
Grand final – The Storm defeat the Panthers 26-20 finishing with 11 players on the field to be crowned Premiers.
This table contains playing statistics for all Melbourne Storm players to have played in the 2020 NRL season. The table is up to date as of end of the 2020 regular season, it does not include statistics from finals matches.
Round 19 : Cameron Smith (1 Try, 7 goals) vs. West Tigers
Most tries in a game: 3
Round 7: Suliasi Vunivalu vs. New Zealand Warriors
Round 16: Justin Olam vs. Manly Sea Eagles
Winning games
Highest score in a winning game: 50 points
Round 7: vs. New Zealand Warriors
Round 19: vs. West Tigers
Lowest score in a winning game: 12 points
Round 2: vs. Cronulla Sharks
Greatest winning margin: 46 points
Round 7: vs. New Zealand Warriors
Greatest number of games won consecutively: 8
Round 7 - Round 14
Losing games
Highest score in a losing game: 22 points
Round 20 vs. St. George Illawarra Dragons
Lowest score in a losing game: 0 points
Round 15 vs. Parramatta Eels
Greatest losing margin: 16 points
Round 3 vs. Canberra Raiders
Jerseys
On 1 March 2020 at the Melbourne Storm family day the Storm unveiled their new jersey for 2020 which included a new major sponsor - Redzed Lending Solutions. The new jersey is predominantly navy blue and purple with fading chevrons down the front and white lightning bolts on the sides.[51]
Throughout the season the club also wore some commemorative jerseys namely for Indigenous round also an Anzac jersey was created, but because of the suspension of the season it was not worn until June.
Also as of 13 June 2020 the Club added an embroidered V with the words "Our home Victoria" to both home and away jerseys to show support for their home state during the COVID pandemic.[52]
There was a change in sponsorship from Round 18 onwards with Rockcote replacing TigerAir on the front of the jersey and fuelyourlife.com.au replacing Tigerair on the back, this was due the brand being retired in Australia by Virgin Australia. Both new sponsors are also sponsor of the Sunshine Coast Lightning as well.[53][54]
Jersey choice
RD1
RD2
RD3
RD4
RD5
RD6
RD7
RD8
RD9
RD10
RD11
RD12
RD13
RD14
RD15
RD16
RD17
RD18
RD19
RD20
QF
SF
PF
GF
Clash
Home
Home
Home
Clash
Clash
ANZAC#
Home
Home
Home
Clash
Indigenous^
Home
Clash
Clash
Home
Clash
Home
Home
Home
Home
—
Home
Clash
# The jersey designed for ANZAC Day commemorations was eventually worn against the Warriors in the Michael Moore Trophy game.
^ Designed by Ky-ya Nicholson Ward.[55]
^Previous First Grade RL club: This column denotes the previous RL club the player was signed to and played first grade RL for. If they are yet to debut then this is stipulated. If they were merely signed to the club but did not play then it is not counted
^ ab2020 season player loan deal: players returned to their original clubs at the end of 2020.[48]
