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Storm adopt motto for NRL tough times

3 minute read

Melbourne adopted a motto for the NRL season - adapt and overcome - as part of their mindset for their challenging NRL season away from home.

NELSON ASOFA-SOLOMONA
NELSON ASOFA-SOLOMONA Picture: Tony Feder/Getty Images

Melbourne's motto for 2020 - adapt and overcome - has taken them all the way to the NRL grand final, with a win over Penrith on Sunday signalling mission accomplished, according to Nelson Asofa-Solomona.

The giant prop says the Storm players and staff came up with the slogan in May when they were first sent packing from Victoria, where coronavirus rates were on the rise.

"It's something that was brought up at the beginning of COVID in the meeting room," Asofa-Solomona said.

"We talked about a lot of the potential obstacles that we were going to face.

"The first person I heard it from was (football manager) Frank Ponissi and he brought up that motto and all the boys bought in.

"It made the job a lot easier when a lot of us boys didn't complain - we all knew what we wanted, which was to get to the grand final and to be victorious, so we had to get the job done and it's worked for us."

The Storm first shifted to Albury and then, after a brief return to Melbourne, landed on Queensland's Sunshine Coast, which they hoped would be their home base for a few weeks.

But those weeks turned into almost four months and while they played home games at Sunshine Coast Stadium, they also endured hit-and-run matches in Sydney that would see them arrive back at their accommodation at 3am.

In the past 10 weeks they've only being permitted to move outside their strict biosecurity bubble for just 24 hours.

Asofa-Solomona said such adversity would make a grand final victory at ANZ Stadium even sweeter.

"We've had a few obstacles along the way but we've chosen to run straight through those walls," the 24-year-old said.

"To win a grand final, especially with what we've been through, is going to be one of the most memorable.

"When you talk about 2020 everyone is going to have some kind of feeling attached to it and we want our feeling to be a good feeling."

One of 11 Storm players still in the side from the 2018 grand final, Asofa-Solomona admits the 21-6 loss to the Sydney Roosters still burns.

"It still does hurt a bit personally, but we've taken the learnings out of that game and want to implement what we learnt into this game," the Kiwi said.

"The boys are really hungry."

Asofa-Solomona played 22 minutes off the bench in Melbourne's 2017 title win over North Queensland.

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