Melbourne players have praised the impact made by Geelong Cats legend Joel Selwood, who is helping fast-track the club’s leadership group following the mass exodus of forwards over the summer.
The Storm will be without 791 NRL games worth of experience this season after Brandon Smith joined the Sydney Roosters and Wayne Bennett snapped up the Bromwich brothers, Jesse and Kenny, as well as Felise Kaufusi for NRL newcomers the Dolphins.
Christian Welch is tipped to captain the club again – he led the team out in round one before he suffered a season-ending Achilles injury last year – with Jahrome Hughes, Harry Grant, Ryan Papenhuyzen and even Cameron Munster, who is back in the leadership group, a chance to join him.
Selwood, who won four AFL flags with Geelong including last year’s decider as skipper, started working with the Storm last month, and has quietly gone about talking to each player about what it takes to be a better leader.
Storm football manager Frank Ponissi and coach Craig Bellamy were impressed with way Selwood conducted himself after Geelong’s grand final win over Sydney, and reached out to him soon afterwards. There are plenty of similarities between Melbourne and the Cats in terms of their finals success, and the Storm enjoyed working with former Collingwood captain Nick Maxwell in a similar role for five years.
Given Selwood’s stature down south, the 34-year-old remains the most popular Storm staffer at any given public training session.
Geelong legend Joel Selwood has made an immediate impression at the Melbourne StormCredit:The Age
Welch, who has already had several one-on-one conversations with Selwood, said: “He’s big on ‘being the CEO of your own career’. Billy Slater used to say the same thing. What that means is, ‘the resources and coaches are here, but if you don’t have the drive and commitment [you will not succeed]’.
“He’s keeping everyone happy and energetic. But he’s also been a calming influence for us.”
Selwood has told stories about Geelong and how most of their pre-season training days never started before 10am and finished before 3pm. Welch was a big fan of the shortened summer days and hoped coach Bellamy had taken note.
“Their big emphasis was on wanting players bouncing into the joint and being really enthusiastic about going about their work,” Welch said.
Christian Welch says he is happy to skipper the club again if neededCredit:Getty
Welch led the Storm out against the Wests Tigers in round one, and pointed out his win rate as leader was “100 per cent”.
To captain the Storm remains “one of the proudest things I’ve done”, and welcomed the role again if the club wanted to go in that direction.
Selwood said on Melbourne radio last week one thing that appealed about working with the Storm was Munster.
Munster, a Western Bulldogs fan, was flattered when he first learned of that public praise, and said of Selwood: “It was very humbling to hear that, and I’ve always admired him from afar when he was playing with the Cats.
“He’s just come in and simplified a few things for us as leaders and as a group.
“We can sometimes over-complicate things in rugby league, we can make it harder than it really is, but he’s settled things down and put a focus on the little things that make up the DNA of a club.”
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