The 2014 Melbourne Storm season was the 17th in the club's history. They competed in the 2014 NRL season and were coached by Craig Bellamy and captained by Cameron Smith. In 2014 the Storm struggled to achieve consistent success, however won enough games late in the season to qualify for the NRL finals in 6th place. The club finished outside the top four for the first time since 2005 (other than when competition points were stripped in 2010). It was a roller coaster campaign that kicked off with consecutive one-point wins, courtesy of field goals from Smith and Cooper Cronk. Five of the club's wins during season came at a combined 17 points. Injuries to Cronk (broken arm) and Billy Slater (shoulder) during the Origin period saw the Storm lose four of six games during that stretch, as they were left clinging to eighth spot on the NRL ladder. The team managed to steady the ship by winning six of their last eight regular season games to finish sixth.
In a significant boost for the club, captain Cameron Smith signed a four-year contract extension just one week into the season.[1]
Season summary
Pre-season – New recruits took part in Melbourne Storm IDQ camp for pre season training before New Years. Matt Duffie was awarded the IDQ Iron bar with special recognition to both Justin O'Neill and Kenny Bromwich.[2]
Auckland Nines – The club competed in the inaugural Auckland Nines tournament on the weekend of the 15th and 16 February. After losing two of three pool games they failed to progress to the finals of the tournament. Ryan Hoffman captained the squad.
Round 1 – The Storm opened their season with a golden point extra time win over the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles. Cameron Smith kicked the winning field goal. Smith also equaled the Storm games record in the match. George Rose, Ben Roberts and Young Tonumaipea all made their debuts for the Storm. The victory also meant the Storm won their season opener for the 10th successive year.[3]
11 March – Cameron Smith officially announces that he has signed a four-year contract which will see him end his NRL career at the Storm.[4]
Round 2 – Cameron Smith played his 263rd game for the Storm breaking the club record held by Matt Geyer. Also, Billy Slater played his 250th match for the club.
18 March – Jesse Bromwich commits to the Storm by signing a new four year playing contract.[5]
Round 5 – Dayne Weston makes his playing debut for the Storm.
Round 6 – The Storm score a try after the siren to secure a 28–24 victory over the St George Illawarra Dragons. The Dragons had led 24–10 with 13 minutes left on the clock.
Round 9 – Kurt Mann makes his debut for the Storm scoring the winning try in a 22–19 win over Manly.
Round 10 - Craig Bellamy coached his 300th NRL game and Joel Romelo made his playing debut for the club. In addition when Cameron Smith, Billy Slater, Ryan Hoffman and Cooper Cronk ran out against South Sydney, it was the first time in NRL history four players of the same side had played a combined total of 1000 games.[6]
29 May – Both Kevin Proctor and Young Tonumaipea sign new playing contacts with the Storm.[7]
30 May – Cooper Cronk breaks his arm in the first State of Origin game ruling him out for 12 weeks. Billy Slater and Cameron Smith also suffered injuries in the game but Smith was able to follow up in the round 12 game against the North Queensland Cowboys.[8]
Round 15 – Melbourne Storm returned to form with their biggest win of the season thus far 46–20 over the Parramatta Eels. Billy Slater also moved to equal third on the all–time NRL try scorers list with Andrew Ettingshausen.[9]
Late June – The Storm sign Fijian Marika Koroibete from the West Tigers just before the 30 June deadline. Koroibete is noted as one of the fastest players in the NRL and made his impact straight away scoring tries in the Storm's wins over Canberra and Brisbane.[10] This followed the news that Sisa Waqa would depart for the Canberra Raiders and the end of the season and Mitch Garbutt would depart for the Brisbane Broncos.
Round 19 – The Storm return to the winners list with a 28–14 win over Canberra, with Mahe Fonua scoring his second double of the season.
Round 22 – Newcastle score two converted tries in the final 3 minutes of the game to snatch victory 32–30. Sisa Waqa scores a Storm season record of 4 tries in the game, he also equals the club record for most tries in a game.
Round 25 – Cooper Cronk plays his 250th NRL game.
Round 26 – The Storm defeat the Brisbane Broncos ensuring they qualify for the 2014 NRL Finals Series.
Finals Week 1 – Following the conclusion of Round 26, the Storm finished in 6th place meaning they were drawn against the Canterbury Bulldogs in an Elimination Final in Week 1 of the Finals Series the Storm's higher placing than Canterbury ensured it was played at home. The Storm ultimately lost the Elimination Final 28–4 ending their season. Ryan Hoffman also played his final game with the Storm.
For the 2014 season, sportswear company KooGa completed their rebrand to BLK, releasing a similar home jersey design for the Storm as the 2013 version, with the main difference being the addition of purple shoulder panels.[11] The away jersey was also similar to the 2013 version, worn with white shorts.
After initially not re-signing with the club as main jersey advertiser, Crown Resorts modified their logo on the jerseys to read "Crown Resorts". For the first match of the season, this logo was gold in a black box (similar to the application of their logo on the South Sydney Rabbitohs jersey), before reverting to a white logo inside a navy blue box to match the Melbourne Storm colours.
Special
Round 8 – Added ANZAC Appeal logo with text "Storm vs Warriors" in the centre of the chest.
Round 9 – A "Women in League" design that featured a pink and purple gradient with thin blue hoops and side panels.
Round 13 – Storm wore a heritage jersey design, which was replica of the club's 1999 blue jersey, with wide gold collars.
Round 23 – For the NRL's Indigenous Round, Melbourne wore an updated version of the club's 2012 Indigenous jersey designed by Lenny Briggs and Dixon Patten. The 2014 version featured more purple than the original version, but was still mostly orange.
^Players are listed with the cap number as they appear on the Melbourne Storm honour board. Additional squad members do not have a cap number.
^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.
