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News.com.au
42 minutes ago
- News.com.au
Melbourne Storm records its highest ever membership tally for 2025
More Melbourne rugby league fans are dancing in the purple rain than ever before as the Storm clocked their largest membership tally in the club's 27-year history. The 40,237 figure is also just the second time they've eclipsed the 40k mark. 'It's a massive achievement and significant milestone for the club... it shows the incredible loyalty and passion our supporters have,' Melbourne Storm Chief Executive Justin Rodski said. The club's membership base has increased 40 per cent in the past four seasons, which Rodski puts down to continued on- and off-field achievements. 'Our on-field success is not only entertaining to watch, but makes the people of Melbourne proud. We have the best rectangular stadium in Australian sport, our members enjoy great accessibility to players and feel an emotional connection to the club.' The Storm are sitting second on the table for 2025 and have secured a remarkable 15th straight finals appearance. 'It's just an awesome achievement in AFL heartland to reach this in our history,' Rodski said. 'Hopefully we're well positioned to not only make it to the grand final this year, but win that next premiership.' The team's average 2025 home crowd sits at 21,289, and that number is tipped to increase with two expected sellout home games to end the season against the Bulldogs Friday night and Roosters next week. Tonight's night's blockbuster will be dedicated to Storm Chairman Matt Tripp's daughter Bella, who passed away in 2022 from a respiratory complication resulting from a bone-marrow transplant, following a lengthy battle with leukaemia. 'The whole club was impacted by Bella's death, no-one deserves to go through what she and the family went through and this is just a small way that we can continue to legacy of Bella and help raise money to find a cure.
The Age
42 minutes ago
- The Age
The Tigers are finally free of the wooden spoon. Where do they go from here?
Regardless of whether the Tigers win another game this year, they're already playing with house money. Most would agree that nine victories is better than a break-even outcome, given their starting point. It is their best return from any season since 2019. Now the challenge is to finish this campaign in the strongest possible fashion and lay the foundations for a full-scale finals assault next year. The Tigers haven't featured in the play-offs since 2011 – the longest period any NRL team has spent in the post-season wilderness – but now they are daring to dream. 'I think we've got the team to do it, to take it all the way,' Tigers fullback Jahream Bula said. 'We've just got to keep building these combinations for next year … but we've got a job to do this year. We've got three more games left, so we're just going to take it one at a time and hopefully get a win in all of them.' A finals appearance next season would be a realisation of the three-year plan Shane Richardson put in place when he was initially appointed as chief executive of the long-suffering, joint-venture club. 'You've got to stick to the plan … that's the only way you get yourself out of the shit,' Richardson said in a recent interview with ABC radio, before adding: 'People don't realise how hard it is to turn around unsuccessful clubs.' Richardson has been forced to deal with some curveballs, in particular the soap opera that culminated in the release of playmaking tyro Lachlan Galvin to Canterbury. The Galvin saga received saturation media coverage for weeks, and it did not augur well when the Tigers slumped to four consecutive losses after his departure. But they have overcome that distraction and regrouped to win four of their past six games. 'We've moved on from that,' Bula said of Galvin's exit. 'We just focus on what we need to do now.' Their late-season revival has coincided with Adam Doueihi's move into the halves to replace Galvin. Doueihi's form over the past month has been arguably the best of his career, prompting the Tigers to re-sign the injury-plagued 27-year-old for a further two seasons, just as St George Illawarra prepared to swoop. They have also extended the tenure of centre Starford To'a for a further two seasons and were hoping to upgrade former Penrith utility back Taylan May, who joined them on a train-and-trial contract, to a full-time deal. Meanwhile, they have been active in the player market for next season, signing English back-rower Kai Pearce-Paul from Newcastle, Mavrik Geyer (Penrith) and Jock Madden (Brisbane), as well as highly rated rookies Ethan Roberts (Roosters) and Javon Andrews (Titans). Despite all the controversy sparked by the exits of Galvin and young hooker Tallyn Da Silva (to Parramatta), the Tigers have overcome those setbacks to salvage some respect from 2025. And there would seem no reason why they can't continue the upward trend next year, when the roster reinforcements arrive to boost a squad that is already shaping up positively. Loading As coach Benji Marshall said after beating Manly: 'The last couple of weeks we've found what works for us in our style and the way we need to play … we've always had effort, we've had effort and competed on most of our games this year. 'It's about putting together the smarts of our footy, the way we want to play, the weapons that we do have and put it onto the field.' One of those weapons is 23-year-old Bula, for whom wins were few and far between (eight from 39 games) in his first two NRL seasons. 'I experienced two wooden spoons, so it's good to be off the bottom of the ladder … I think we've just improved a lot from the past two years, and I think that's a big step for us,' Bula said. 'We've just got to keep building off of that.'
Sydney Morning Herald
42 minutes ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
The Tigers are finally free of the wooden spoon. Where do they go from here?
Regardless of whether the Tigers win another game this year, they're already playing with house money. Most would agree that nine victories is better than a break-even outcome, given their starting point. It is their best return from any season since 2019. Now the challenge is to finish this campaign in the strongest possible fashion and lay the foundations for a full-scale finals assault next year. The Tigers haven't featured in the play-offs since 2011 – the longest period any NRL team has spent in the post-season wilderness – but now they are daring to dream. 'I think we've got the team to do it, to take it all the way,' Tigers fullback Jahream Bula said. 'We've just got to keep building these combinations for next year … but we've got a job to do this year. We've got three more games left, so we're just going to take it one at a time and hopefully get a win in all of them.' A finals appearance next season would be a realisation of the three-year plan Shane Richardson put in place when he was initially appointed as chief executive of the long-suffering, joint-venture club. 'You've got to stick to the plan … that's the only way you get yourself out of the shit,' Richardson said in a recent interview with ABC radio, before adding: 'People don't realise how hard it is to turn around unsuccessful clubs.' Richardson has been forced to deal with some curveballs, in particular the soap opera that culminated in the release of playmaking tyro Lachlan Galvin to Canterbury. The Galvin saga received saturation media coverage for weeks, and it did not augur well when the Tigers slumped to four consecutive losses after his departure. But they have overcome that distraction and regrouped to win four of their past six games. 'We've moved on from that,' Bula said of Galvin's exit. 'We just focus on what we need to do now.' Their late-season revival has coincided with Adam Doueihi's move into the halves to replace Galvin. Doueihi's form over the past month has been arguably the best of his career, prompting the Tigers to re-sign the injury-plagued 27-year-old for a further two seasons, just as St George Illawarra prepared to swoop. They have also extended the tenure of centre Starford To'a for a further two seasons and were hoping to upgrade former Penrith utility back Taylan May, who joined them on a train-and-trial contract, to a full-time deal. Meanwhile, they have been active in the player market for next season, signing English back-rower Kai Pearce-Paul from Newcastle, Mavrik Geyer (Penrith) and Jock Madden (Brisbane), as well as highly rated rookies Ethan Roberts (Roosters) and Javon Andrews (Titans). Despite all the controversy sparked by the exits of Galvin and young hooker Tallyn Da Silva (to Parramatta), the Tigers have overcome those setbacks to salvage some respect from 2025. And there would seem no reason why they can't continue the upward trend next year, when the roster reinforcements arrive to boost a squad that is already shaping up positively. Loading As coach Benji Marshall said after beating Manly: 'The last couple of weeks we've found what works for us in our style and the way we need to play … we've always had effort, we've had effort and competed on most of our games this year. 'It's about putting together the smarts of our footy, the way we want to play, the weapons that we do have and put it onto the field.' One of those weapons is 23-year-old Bula, for whom wins were few and far between (eight from 39 games) in his first two NRL seasons. 'I experienced two wooden spoons, so it's good to be off the bottom of the ladder … I think we've just improved a lot from the past two years, and I think that's a big step for us,' Bula said. 'We've just got to keep building off of that.'
