Storm 2017 NRL side the best says Ponissi

Long-time Melbourne football director Frank Ponissi has seen plenty of talent but he rates the 2017 Storm crop as the best due to their consistency.

They've made seven grand finals in the past decade, but the 2017 Melbourne side are the club's best, according to the Storm's Frank Ponissi.

Ahead of Sunday's grand-final clash with North Queensland, long-time football director Ponissi said the consistency of the current crop set them apart from the rest.

With only four defeats this season and none in their past nine outings, the Storm claimed the minor premiership with two regular rounds still to play.

They only dropped one game through the usually taxing State of Origin period, while their biggest loss for the year was by 16 points.

"This has been by far the most-consistent team we've had," said Ponissi, who joined the Storm in 2007.

"We had a consistent team last year but this has gone to another level.

"There's been some teams who have played in grand finals when we've been up and down and had a big finish or, in 2012, we had a great start then lost five on the trot and then came good again.

"This year has been consistently high and so I think, for that particular reason, this marks them as the best."

That puts them above the teams who won grand finals in '07, '09 and '12, although they were stripped of the first two for salary-cap cheating.

After a low-key build-up with most eyes in Melbourne on Richmond's long-awaited AFL grand-final appearance, the Storm flew to Sydney on Wednesday planning a repeat of the preparations from last year's NRL decider.

Ponissi said that on review, they identified it was their poor start that cost them the premiership against Cronulla rather than anything that they did in the lead-up.

He said the Storm were expecting the ANZ Stadium crowd to be pro-Cowboys because of their underdog status after coming from eighth to make the decider after an injury-ravaged season.

Ponissi revealed that his club were also cheering on North Queensland early in the finals until they realised they might have to play them.

"We understand they're the Cinderella story and the so-called underdogs and Australia love the underdog.

"Against Cronulla and Parramatta and to a degree against the Roosters, we were actually cheering for the Cowboys because, like everyone else, we were cheering for the underdogs but it got to the stage last week when we said, 'We've got to stop supporting them because we could be playing them next week'."


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Source: AAP



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