MELBOURNE Storm forward Christian Welch is okay with several of his star teammates departing the club at season\u2019s end.<\/p>\n
Welch, who is also the director of the Rugby League Players Association, isn\u2019t frustrated by the fact that the likes of Brandon Smith, Felise Kaufusi, Jesse Bromwich and Kenny Bromwich have already signed with rivals next season, believing that player movement is merely a product of modern rugby league.<\/p>\n
With the NRL being a salary cap league and with the Dolphins entering the competition in 2023, Welch believes that their departures only help create competitive balance, ultimately helping the league prosper.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt happens,\u201d Welch said on SEN Breakfast<\/em>. \u201cEvery year we seem to lose three or four players, that\u2019s just the salary cap.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s a good thing, when you look at the English Premier League only three or four teams can win it every year, but that\u2019s not what we like here in Australia, we like competitive balance.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s one of the mechanisms that maintains that [competitive balance], every fan base every year has a bit of hope that on their day they can beat anyone in the competition.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously, as a player, you\u2019d love to be able to keep those players, but yeah, I totally get it.\u201d<\/p>\n While the Storm have several stars on the way out, their squad still looms as one of the competition\u2019s strongest in 2022.<\/p>\n Melbourne bowed out in a preliminary final loss to Penrith after finishing as minor premiers last year, and Welch said he and his teammates are keen to right those wrongs this season.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was such a disappointing end for such a special season along the way,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe put in a lot of effort, we worked really hard, and we were based up in Queensland for a second year straight.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s thoroughly disappointing, but that\u2019s how finals football works, it\u2019s the beauty of those big games.<\/p>\n \u201cWe just weren\u2019t good enough, we were beaten by a team that went on to win the premiership.<\/p>\n \u201cThe hunger is there, we\u2019ve spoken about it a fair bit over the pre-season, we\u2019ve watched a fair bit of clips specific to that game.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re pretty fired up to start the season pretty hard.\u201d<\/p>\n The Storm begin their 2022 season with a round one clash against the Wests Tigers at CommBank Stadium.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n