The Melbourne Storm's long-term partnership with the Brisbane Tigers is set to continue until at least the end of 2024.
The Tigers have acted as a feeder club - alongside the Sunshine Coast Falcons - for the Storm since the beginning of the 2011 season, allowing Storm fringe first grade players to play in the Queensland Cup, while also providing a development and recruitment region for the Storm to pick players up from.
The three-year extension of the partnership with the Tigers comes at a crucial time for the Storm, given their deal with the Sunshine Coast-based Falcons could well come to an end at the end of the next contract period.
The Storm did extend their partnership with the Falcons until the end of 2024 earlier this year, however, the Dolphins are looking to make the region between the north of Brisbane to the Sunshine Coast their own.
It means the Dolphins could well eventually have their eyes set on taking over the Sunshine Coast as a second option for their own fringe NRL players, alongside the Redcliffe entry who will remain in the Queensland Cup from 2023 once the NRL team begins its journey.
The Storm also confirmed that five Tigers players - Tony Pellow, Wes Lolo, Bacho Salem, Francis Tualau and Darius Farmer - will be joining the club for pre-season.
Melbourne general manager of football Frank Ponissi said the club's enjoyed a great association.
โWe have had a great association for the Tigers for the past 11 seasons and weโre delighted to announce the extension of our partnership today,โ Ponissi said.
โOver the years there have been number of players who have been able to progress from the Tigers to being premiership winners with the Storm squad including the likes of Cameron Munster, Christian Welch, Felise Kaufusi and Kenny Bromwich.
โJordan Grant became the latest success story this year when he made his NRL debut against Newcastle.
โWe expect the number of Tigers to Storm players to increase over the next three years. As well as sending our players to play Intrust Super Cup during the season, the partnership continues to allow selected contracted Tigers players to come down for pre-season training each season.
โThose couple of weeks can turn into a Storm contract like Jordan achieved this season and Brenko Lee and Aaron Booth in 2020."
The Storm formerly were linked with the Newtown Jets in the New South Wales Cup, however, that partnership was short lived, with the Jets currently linked to the Cronulla Sharks.
The only Queensland Cup teams not currently linked with an NRL club are the Ipswich Jets, Central Queensland Capras and PNG Hunters.
