With no World Cup ahead, Melbourne's Jesse Bromwich says his motivation this finals campaign is all about repaying the Storm faithful with an NRL premiership.
The prop lost the Kiwis captaincy and was banished from the upcoming World Cup when he was involved in a drugs scandal while on Test duty in May.
Ahead of Melbourne's preliminary final clash with Brisbane at AAMI Park on Friday night, Bromwich said he had had a tough year but the support of coach Craig Bellamy, his teammates and Melbourne fans has helped him through.
Bromwich says that Bellamy regularly checked in on him and his wife Les when he was at his lowest to make sure they were OK.
And repaying them all has been driving his season.
"All I wanted to do this year was repay the club members and fans for what happened and the opportunity is here to do that," Bromwich said.
"I feel lucky to be able to play in such a big game off the the back of the year I've had and hopefully I'll be able to put in one of my better performances of the year and get us through to next week.
"It's no easy task taking on the Broncos but the chance to be able to repay everyone is what's driving me at the moment."
After coming so close to a grand final victory against Cronulla last season Bromwich said the Storm hadn't changed much in their finals approach.
"We played well in last year's preliminary final so I don't think there was anything wrong with the preparation so its been the same and has been good," said the 28-year-old prop, who is set to take over the Storm captaincy when Cameron Smith finally retires.
Bromwich said he was on guard for the threat of ex-Storm forward Adam Blair, who he expects to bring plenty of aggro to the contest.
"He (Blair) brings a lot of aggression and effort in the defensive side of things," he said.
"He will come out and rush our halves and probably give them a knock if he gets a chance so you can count on him to come down there and bring that and hopefully we can match that."
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