HOW could we have been so stupid?

Even after all these years and all these dramas - everything from salary cap breaches to gangbangs - we actually believed that we could come between fans and their footballers.

We - I - thought the Melbourne Storm brand was tarnished, that the club would have to move to the Central Coast and that no-one would show up to watch a team play for no points.

Doh. Double-doh.

The one thing you (should) learn from covering sports for 20-plus years is that no matter what, teams and players always emerge spotless and blameless in the eyes of supporters.

Of course, the Melbourne Storm players may actually be blameless, which only made it more obvious - in retrospect - that they would draw one of their biggest home crowds for their first match after being stripped of two premierships for salary cap abuse and that they would win by around 40.

There is one constant in sports, ladies and gentlemen - the media, match officials and administration are always the bad guys and whoever is wearing the jumper are always the heroes.

A team (or its chief executive and chief financial controller) could go on a month-long killing spree across five states and the fans would still put up a banner saying: "Cops Suck" when they played their next home game.

I made a comment on the ABC on Sunday night after about 20 minutes of the game that this drama will not be remembered as the breaking of the Melbourne Storm. It will be the making of them. I am even more certain of that now.

As the Storm beat the Warriors 40-6, Melbournians showed for the first time in really compelling fashion that they actually cared about rugby league. There were 23,906 of them on hand.

State of Origin makes a fortune every year because NSW flogged Queensland using canetoad players tempted to Sydney by big bucks for 60 whole years. That's a mighty big chip on the Queenslanders' shoulders.

Victorians couldn't get as passionate about rugby league because, well, they had their own game and NSW kind of sucked up to them by sending Tests and Origins and a whole team there. Can't be too eager, treat ‘em mean, etc.

The only way to make the Victorians as passionate about rugby league as Queenslanders was to have their team win two premierships and then .... take them away.

Genius.

Now the crowds at Melbourne Storm games are as loud as the "red neck Queenslanders" Willie Mason (currently) loves so much. League has finally cashed in on that war raging across the Murray for a century.

About time, I guess.

But the message late on Monday night was clear: the salary cap isn't just for talent equalisation. It's a great tool for marketing!