2003 Melbourne Storm season

The 2003 Melbourne Storm season was the 6th in the club's history. They competed in the NRL's 2003 Telstra Premiership and finished the regular season 5th out of 15 teams, before reaching the semi-final where they were knocked out by Bulldogs RLFC. It was Craig Bellamy's first season as head coach of the club. ^[1]

Under new coach Craig Bellamy, the 2003 season for the Storm was one of regaining premiership credibility. Melbourne reached the finals for the first time since 2000 with evergreen Robbie Kearns and a confident Matt Orford showing the way.

A disappointing exit two weeks before the Grand Final was tempered by the rise of young Queenslanders Billy Slater and Cameron Smith. Unheard of at the start of 2003, the steady hooker and dummy-half Smith gave splendid service to Orford and his forwards. He was rewarded with a place in the Maroons Origin side and was unlucky to miss the Kangaroos train-on squad.

The silky - and pacy - moves of Slater in the centres and at fullback were attention getters for fans and keen judges of football talent alike. His debut season for the Storm realised a record 19 tries and talk of a big future in the game. ^[2]

Draw and Results

^[3]

Round	Opponent	Result	Mel.	Opp.	Date	Venue
1	Cronulla Sharks	Win	36	32	Mar 16	Toyota Park
2	Penrith Panthers	Win	42	16	Mar 22	Olympic Park
3	BYE
4	Newcastle Knights	Loss	28	44	Apr 5	Hunter Stadium
5	Cronulla Sharks	Win	18	12	Apr 12	Olympic Park
6	Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles	Loss	14	20	Apr 20	Brookvale Oval
7	North Queensland Cowboys	Loss	12	32	Apr 26	Dairy Farmers Stadium
8	Newcastle Knights	Win	46	6	May 3	Olympic Park
9	Canberra Raiders	Win	30	10	May 10	Olympic Park
10	Brisbane Broncos	Loss	16	36	May 18	QE2 Stadium
11	Parramatta Eels	Win	12	10	May 24	Parramatta Stadium
12	Sydney Roosters	Loss	20	27	Jun 1	Olympic Park
13	South Sydney Rabbitohs	Loss	14	41	Jun 8	Sydney Football Stadium
14	Penrith Panthers	Win	32	12	Jun 14	Penrith Stadium
15	Bulldogs RLFC	Loss	12	26	Jun 22	Olympic Park
16	Wests Tigers	Win	16	8	Jun 28	Olympic Park
17	Canberra Raiders	Win	18	8	Jul 6	Bruce Stadium
18	North Queensland Cowboys	Win	22	16	Jul 12	Olympic Park
19	Brisbane Broncos	Loss	22	26	Jul 20	Olympic Park
20	South Sydney Rabbitohs	Win	24	6	Jul 26	Olympic Park
21	New Zealand Warriors	Win	14	12	Aug 2	Mt. Smart Stadium
22	Bulldogs RLFC	Loss	4	50	Aug 10	Sydney Showground Stadium
23	Parramatta Eels	Win	50	12	Aug 17	Olympic Park
24	St. George Illawarra Dragons	Win	22	14	Aug 22	WIN Stadium
25	BYE
26	Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles	Win	40	10	Sep 6	Olympic Park
Qualifying Final	Canberra Raiders	Win	30	18	Sep 12	Bruce Stadium
Semi Final	Bulldogs RLFC	Loss	0	30	Sep 21	SFS

Ladder

	Team	Pld	W	L	B	PF	PA	PD	Pts
1	Penrith	24	18	6	2	659	527	+132	40
2	Sydney Roosters	24	17	7	2	680	445	+235	38
3	Bulldogs	24	16	8	2	702	419	+283	36
4	Canberra	24	16	8	2	620	463	+157	36
5	Melbourne	24	15	9	2	564	486	+78	34
6	New Zealand	24	15	9	2	545	510	+35	34
7	Newcastle	24	14	10	2	632	635	-3	32
8	Brisbane	24	12	12	2	497	464	+33	28
9	Parramatta	24	11	13	2	570	582	-12	26
10	St George Illawarra	24	11	13	2	548	593	-45	26
11	North Queensland	24	10	14	2	606	629	-23	24
12	Cronulla-Sutherland	24	8	16	2	497	704	-207	20
13	Wests Tigers	24	7	17	2	470	598	-128	18
14	Manly-Warringah	24	7	17	2	470	791	-321	18
15	South Sydney	24	3	21	2	457	758	-301	10

Awards and honours

Player of the year: Robbie Kearns^[4]
Rookie of the year: Cameron Smith

References

↑ http://stats.rleague.com/rl/teams/melbourne/melbourne2003_sc.html
↑ http://www.melbournestorm.com.au/evolution-storm
↑ http://stats.rleague.com/rl/teams/melbourne/melbourne_by.html#2003
↑ "NRL Honour Board". melbournestorm.com.au. Melbourne Storm. Retrieved 10 February 2014.

Melbourne Storm

Est. 1998 in Melbourne, Victoria

The club	Records Players Coaches History (2010 Salary cap breach)

Home grounds	Olympic Park Stadium Docklands Stadium AAMI Park

Culture	Rivalry with Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles We Are the Storm

Important figures	John Ribot Chris Anderson Glenn Lazarus Matt Geyer Craig Bellamy Cameron Smith Billy Slater Cooper Cronk

League	NRL

Titles	Premierships (2) 1999 ~~2007~~ ~~2009~~ 2012 World Club Challenge (2) 2000 ~~2010~~ 2013

Seasons (19)	1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019

Other competitions	National Youth Competition Auckland Nines New South Wales Cup S. G. Ball Cup

Affiliations	Central Coast Storm Eastern Suburbs Tigers Albury Thunder

2003 in rugby league

« 2002

2004 »

International Rugby League

British Rugby League

Competitions	Super League Grand Final National Leagues Challenge Cup Northern Rail Cup

SL Teams	Bradford Bulls Castleford Tigers Halifax RLFC Huddersfield Giants Hull FC Leeds Rhinos London Broncos St Helens Clash of the Codes Wakefield Wildcats Warrington Wolves Widnes Vikings Wigan Warriors

Australian Rugby League

Competitions	State of Origin NRL season Grand Final Queensland Cup NSWRL Premier League

By club	Brisbane Broncos Bulldogs Canberra Raiders Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles Melbourne Storm Newcastle Knights New Zealand Warriors North Queensland Cowboys Parramatta Eels Penrith Panthers South Sydney Rabbitohs Sydney Roosters St. George Illawarra Dragons Wests Tigers

Other Domestic competitions

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