The Melbourne Storm have suffered a devastating double blow with two more stars to leave at the end of the season, with the talented duo expected to sign with the Bears as the Perth team\u2019s inaugural squad continues to grow.<\/p>\n
Nick Meaney and Tyran Wishart made their Storm debuts in round one of the 2022 season and have been outstanding contributors in a number of roles.<\/p>\n
Meaney joined Melbourne after stints with the Knights and Bulldogs, and has been terrific on the wing, at centre and at fullback when Ryan Papenhuyzen was injured.<\/p>\n
With Papenhuyzen gone and Meaney set to leave, the Storm desperately need to find a goal-kicker for 2027 given it\u2019s an area they have no depth in.<\/p>\n
\u201cComing to this club was the easiest decision I\u2019ve ever made, but deciding to leave has been the hardest,\u201d Meaney said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy wife and I are forever grateful for everything this club has given us. We\u2019ve met some of our closest friends and have raised our two boys here, who absolutely love everyone at the club.<\/p>\n
\u201cRegardless of my future, I am 100 per cent committed to helping Storm achieve our ultimate goal in 2026. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a true honour to wear the purple jersey, and it\u2019s going to be incredibly tough to leave.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the Bears haven\u2019t confirmed anything, it is expected the pair will become the latest signings for a club that is starting to put together a very competitive squad.<\/p>\n
Wishart looms as a key get for Perth but it\u2019s unclear what role he will play given he is an outstanding bench utility who can also comfortably start in the halves or at dummy-half.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll be forever grateful to Storm for many things, but especially for giving me the opportunity to play first grade footy,\u201d Wishart said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe club welcomed me in almost five years ago and I\u2019ve learned so much in that time.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe quality of people within the club made it incredibly hard to make this decision and I know I\u2019ll always look back on my time in Melbourne fondly. <\/p>\n
\u201cFor now though I\u2019m fully committed and focused for a big 2026, and can\u2019t wait for the season ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n
The impending loss of two key players from their grand final side is a further blow to the Storm who have already lost Papenhuyzen, Nelson Asofa-Solomona and Jonah Pezet for the 2026 season and beyond.<\/p>\n
They do have plenty of cash to splash and will have to rely on their growing pathways program for young talent to provide much-needed depth. <\/p>\n
\u201cBoth Nick and Tyran have been fantastic contributors to our club over the past four seasons,\u201d Storm chief executive Justin Rodski said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s always difficult to lose people of the calibre of Nick and Tyran but we understand their decision given the opportunity in front of each of them.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know both players will be looking to finish their time in purple on the best possible note and will be fully focused on the task at hand between now and the end of 2026.\u201d<\/p>\n
Read related topics:Melbourne<\/a>Perth<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Melbourne Storm have suffered a devastating double blow with two more stars to leave at the end…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":402452,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,13149,4466,761,762,4609,158,22798,85,25724],"class_list":["post-402451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-contracts","tag-melbourne-storm","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nick-meaney","tag-nrl","tag-perth-bears","tag-sports","tag-tyran-wishart"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/402452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}