Melbourne Storm joined the National Rugby League (NRL) in the 1998 season, playing their first NRL matches that year as the competition’s new Victorian club.

Quick Scoop

  • The club was formed in 1997 as a new professional rugby league team for Melbourne.
  • Storm entered the NRL competition in 1998, which is when they officially “joined the NRL”.
  • Their first-ever NRL game was played on 14 March 1998, against the Illawarra Steelers (often associated with the Illawarra Dragons name historically).

So if you’re answering “when did Melbourne Storm join the NRL?”, the precise answer is: in 1998.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.