You can say what you want about the Storm’s propensity to manipulate the salary cap rules in the past but their ability to turn journeymen into premiership players is unquestionable
Front-rower Josh King is the latest little-known recruit who has risen from anonymity at his previous club to become an important cog in Craig Bellamy’s machine.
And with Kangaroos coach Mal Meninga scratching around for front-rowers, King should be in contention for his first representative jersey a few months shy of his 30th birthday.
The middle-forward rotation is shaping up as a selection conundrum for Meninga in next month’s Pacific Championships up against the big boppers from New Zealand and Samoa.
Payne Haas is out of action due to foot surgery, Tino Fa’asuamaleaui has been out all year due to his ACL tear while Tom Flegler won’t be back after representing Australia in the corresponding tournament last year due to ongoing nerve damage in his shoulder.
King played for the Prime Minister’s XIII a couple of years ago but has never played Origin or Test footy.
Patrick Carrigan, Isaah Yeo, Cameron Murray and Reuben Cotter are walk-up starters for the Kangaroos squad if fit, leaving King vying with the likes of Manly’s Jake Trbojevic, Warriors veteran Mitch Barnett and Roosters prop Lindsay Collins for the last couple of middle-forward slots in the 21-man squad.
King, who played 78 matches for Newcastle over five seasons before joining Melbourne in 2021, is the kind of non-stop worker that every successful rugby league team needs.
He averages 57 minutes per game (fifth highest for props in the NRL), didn’t miss a match through injury all year (only when Bellamy rested most of his team in Round 26) and powers through for 26 tackles per game while doing every piece of dirty work that gets little attention from fans but plenty of thanks from teammates and coaches.
He was a standout in Melbourne’s 37-10 demolition of Cronulla in week one of the finals, chalking up 208 metres from 21 runs, including 73 post contact, a try assist, a couple of offloads and 16 tackles across two stints of 29 minutes to bookend each end of the match.
It has been a hallmark of Bellamy’s tenure, with plenty of credit also going to his long-time right-hand man Frank Ponissi, that the club has been able to find value on the margins.
In the three premierships the Storm have collected since the salary cap rorting was uncovered 13 years ago which led to their 2007 and ‘09 titles being stripped, their success has been built on superstars like Cameron Smith, Billy Slater, Greg Inglis, Cooper Cronk and Cameron Munster.
Josh King is tackled by the Rabbitohs. (Photo by Brendon Thorne/Getty Images)
But one of the main reasons why they have been able to afford to keep those top-line talents on their sole set of accounts is that they have saved plenty of coin by picking up players who were undervalued at other clubs or not wanted altogether.
In the rebuilding years post 2011 when they were relegated to the wooden spoon for their salary cap rorts, they found diamonds in the rough like well-travelled props Bryan Norrie, Jaiman Lowe and Richie Fa’aoso, Canberra’s back-up hooper Ryan Hinchcliffe, centre Dane Nielsen from Cronulla and ex-Roosters winger Sisa Waqa.
Todd Lowrie was recruited from the Eeps to fill Bellamy’s beloved workhorse lock role which is a trademark of his line-ups. These players who were all part of their Grand Final win over Canterbury the following year.
They are hardly household names and only the hardcore NRL fans will remember their impact but they played their roles to complement the Storm’s headline acts.
It was a similar situation in 2017 when Josh Addo-Carr became a star at the Storm after being let go by Wests Tigers, Dale Finucane had been brought south from the Bulldogs to go from a young forward with promise to become a leader on and off the field while the likes of Tim Glasby and Slade Griffin were plucked out of the Queensland Cup to become reliable contributors.
And in their most recent premiership in 2020, the additions of Ryan Papenhuyzen from the Wests Tigers’ lower grades, a journeyman extraordinaire in Brenko Lee and Brandon Smith from the Cowboys’ under 20s ranks proved masterstrokes.
This time around it’s the likes of King, former Tigers forward Shawn Blore, ex-Warriors second-rower Eliesa Katoa, Bulldogs utility Nick Meaney, St George Illawarra lower-grader Tyran Wishart and Alec Macdonald, after joining the club on a train-and-trial contract, who have delivered elite value despite not being on lucrative deals.
They have ensured there has been no drop-off in excellence at Melbourne despite the departures of Cameron Smith, Addo-Carr, Jesse and Kenny Bromwich, Brandon Smith, Suliasi Vunivalu and Fa’asuamaleaui since the 2020 premiership triumph.
The valuable Storm boys
1 Ryan Papenhuyzen
2 Sisa Waqa
3 Brenko Lee
4 Dane Nielsen
5 Josh Addo-Carr
6 Nick Meaney
7 Jahrome Hughes
8 Josh King
9 Brandon Smith
10 Bryan Norrie
11 Shawn Blore
12 Eliesa Katoa
13 Dale Finucane
14 Ryan Hinchcliffe
15 Richie Fa’aoso
16 Jaiman Lowe
17 Todd Lowrie
The current crop have a chance to also get their hands on a premiership ring (or should that be get a premiership ring on their hands) heading into the final three games of 2024.
Melbourne edged out the Roosters 18-12 at Allianz Stadium in April before dominating them 24-8 in Round 20 and are red-hot favourites to be the first team through to the Grand Final heading into Friday night’s showdown at AAMI Park.
Most years when a team goes all the way there is a bolter who comes from the clouds to claim a representative jersey and the way King is playing, he is the kind of player who would add some much-needed starch to the Kangaroos in the middle in their bid to avoid a repeat of last year’s 30-0 drubbing at the hands of New Zealand in the Pacific final.