The Melbourne Storm have confirmed Tepai Moeroa, Grant Anderson and Dean Ieremia have taken up new one-year deals with the club.
All three were off-contract at the end of 2023, but suspiciously not announced as departures along with the remainder of their exiting crew.
But that question has now been answered with the trio confirming they will remain part of the Storm in 2024 as Craig Bellamy's side look to push a step further than they did in 2023, where an exit in the preliminary finals against the Penrith Panthers was the end result.
“We see a lot of potential and up-side in Tep, Grant and Dean,” the club's head of football Frank Ponissi said in a statement confirming the three signings.
"Overall, we're really excited to have secured the trio for another year and we're looking forward to getting them on the park in pre-season to hopefully see them all go to new heights."
While Moeroa and Anderson both made first-grade appearances in 2023, Ieremia, who was born in Samoa but is regarded as a local junior for the Storm having played his junior rugby league in Victoria, suffered an ACL injury in the pre-season that ended his campaign before it began.
Prior to that, he had debuted in 2021, and scored 9 tries in his 21 NRL games across the two seasons.
“Dean had a rough run with injury this year but we're confident with a good pre-season that we can get him back into a position to put his hand up for selection week-in and week-out," Ponissi said on Ieremia.
Anderson, also an outside back, was parachuted into the side amid an injury crisis during 2022, and has gone on to play ten NRL games.
“When Grant wasn't named in the NRL line-up he was playing some impressive footy with the Sunshine Coast Falcons. His Round 27 game against the Broncos was probably one of the best games we've seen him play where he scored two tries and hopefully we can continue to build on that talent and see more of it throughout the season," Ponissi said.
Meanwhile, Moeroa joined the Storm after a stint in rugby union.
The ex-Parramatta Eel had made 112 NRL appearances with the Western Sydney-based club before switching to the Storm, where he has played another 18 NRL games, including the final six regular season games in 2023.
“Tep has a lot of NRL experience and was showing some really good form in particular towards the last half of the season in 2023. We'll look to get a really good pre-season into him and hopefully, we can see him go to new heights next year," Ponissi said.
All three players will return with the club to pre-season in the coming weeks.
Melbourne is expected to commence their 2024 season against the Penrith Panthers, although full fixtures are likely to be confirmed next week.
