The Melbourne Storm have been a picture of consistency in the NRL for as long as Craig Bellamy has been at the helm.
Through various periods of transformation, plenty of calls that they were about to sink and a host of other issues, the last time Melbourne missed the finals for non salary cap related reasons was 2002 - also the last time Bellamy wasn't the coach of the men in purple.
So much have we come to expect of the Storm that 2024 saw the club widely regarded to be well short of their best, despite the fact they made a preliminary final.
There were certainly some big question marks throughout the course of last season, mostly around their forwards and leadership, but certainly issues in the spine weren't completely non-existent.
Some of those same questions lay in front of the Melbourne-based club heading into 2024.
Here are the five big ones.
5. Is Harry Grant the right captaincy option?
The Storm made the surprise announcement recently that Harry Grant would take over sole captaincy of the team.
That comes with Christian Welch removed from a six-man leadership group entirely after he was a stand-alone captain in 2023, supported by three vice-captains, a group which Grant was involved in.
For 2024, Grant will be backed up by Jahrome Hughes and Cameron Munster as vice-captains, while Ryan Papenhuyzen, Tui Kamikamica and Josh King are also in the leadership group.
On the surface, Grant, who is 25 years of age and less experienced than all of his fellow leadership group members, is an intriguing decision to captain the side.
I'm not going to suggest I know more about rugby league than Craig Bellamy, but it's still a decision which comes across as a play in setting the Storm up for the future, likely without Bellamy in charge from the start of 2025 as retires from clipboard duties.
Grant has just 78 games under his belt, but is Queensland's walk-up starting hooker, and played 25 games last year. He was arguably the Storm's best, and needs to be again in 2024 if Melbourne are to improve. Whether he can do that with the added responsibility of sole captaincy remains to be seen.
