Many of the Storm faithful will have been saddened to see Greg Inglis move to Brisbane this week. It brings about the end of an era as the Storm say goodbye to the once gangly teenager who became one of the most genuinely thrilling superstars in the NRL in a little over six seasons in Melbourne. Inglis has won a Clive Churchill Medal, a Golden Boot and represented Queensland and Australia, among a litany of other honours, while scoring 76 tries in 114 games for the club. His brilliance has been a sight to behold and his achievements worthy of reverence.

It was also critical for the immediate future of the Melbourne Storm that Inglis go. The Storm claimed they could keep Inglis along with Billy Slater, Cameron Smith and Cooper Cronk but keeping Inglis would not only be an ordinary look to say the least but it would have forced the Storm to field a significantly weaker team in 2011 than they otherwise will.

Had Melbourne have kept Greg Inglis, it is likely at least three further first-graders would have had to leave the club. Those players were likely to be international forwards Adam Blair and Sika Manu and the highly touted centre Dane Nielsen. A team with Inglis - and sans the aforementioned three - would have had too much of a "stars and scrubs" feel to it. Allowing Inglis to leave gives the Storm faithful hope in 2011 as the team will have a deeper and more balanced look to it with the salary of Greg Inglis spread over three players.

The Storm will not only benefit from the departure of Inglis but they will be legitimate title hopefuls in 2011.

There is no doubt the Storm have lost some star-power for the 2011 campaign. Aside from Inglis, the club will be without representative players Jeff Lima, Ryan Hoffman, Brett White and Brett Finch along with Aiden Tolman, Ryan Tandy and Luke MacDougall.

Over the last few seasons rep players Dallas Johnson, Steve Turner, Israel Folau, Michael Crocker, Antonio Kaufusi, Jeremy Smith, Matt King, Matt Geyer and Ben Cross have also moved elsewhere.

One of Craig Bellamy's great strengths as a coach has been his ability to mould first grade talent. He has constantly been forced to replace home-made stars with young kids and those kids have consistently proved adequate replacements. Bellamy has maintained the spine of the team in Slater, Cronk and Smith and he has surrounded them with talented young players who buy into the Melbourne Storm culture of hardy defence, sound fundamentals and high football intelligence.

Bellamy will have his toughest ask to date next year but if any coach is capable of moulding young talent into an NRL quality playing roster, he can. Since Bellamy arrived at the club in 2003, the Storm have never missed the finals, winning at least 13 games every season. Until this year, the Storm had never lost three consecutive matches. Regardless of the players Bellamy has had at his disposal, the Storm have finished among the top two defensive outfits since 2005 and have never ranked worse than fifth. Such consistency is reflective of the defensive systems and patterns in place and the heavy focus the culture places on defence rather than the individual players wearing the Storm jersey.

History suggests that the Storm will continue to set the benchmark for defence in the NRL in 2011 regardless of their personnel changes. Bellamy has instilled the importance of defence to every player in the club and young forwards like Robbie Rochow, Jesse Bromwich, Hep Cahill and Sione Kite will carry on the torch of the Storm being a top class defensive outfit.

In terms of roster changes, the Storm are certainly going to be worse off in the forwards than the backs.

The Storm have already unearthed outstanding young three-quarter prospects Justin O'Neill and Matt Duffie this year while Chase Stanley and Dane Nielsen have both proven themselves as first graders over the last two seasons. Five-eighth in waiting Gareth Widdop has already played for England. These young prospects will adequately cover the departures of Inglis and Finch.

The worry will be up front. The Storm have lost prop forwards White, Lima, Tolman and Tandy as well as backrower Ryan Hoffman. It is presumed Melbourne will look for at least one experienced-yet-cheap prop to fill out the roster but at present prop forward looks the club's weakness in 2011. Saying that, Blair and Norrie have done a very good job this year and the likes of Kite and Bronwich have plenty of potential.

Melbourne looks to be a top-four team in 2011 and a premiership before 2013 is not out of reach.

Forecasting the Storm's 2011 prospects are not easy but the best comparison is how Canterbury performed in 2003. Canterbury certainly didn't lose the talent that the Storm have with internationals Paul Rauhihi, Willie Talau and a retiring Darren Smith the only players to leave the club but the team still had to deal with the mental scars of 2002 as well as the loss of some high-profile players. The Bulldogs went on to finish third in the regular season before losing to the Sydney Roosters 28-18 in the preliminary final. The Bulldogs started slow with four losses in their first seven games before going 13-4 to finish the season. They then won the premiership in 2004.

The keys to the success of the Melbourne Storm under Craig Bellamy have been outstanding coaching, the maintenance of the spine, impregnable defence and the development of young players into top quality first-graders. There is no sign that the club will lose any of those characteristics next year. That is why they will be premiership contenders once more in 2011.

Likely Melbourne Storm 2011 Team:

1. Billy Slater

2. Justin O'Neill

3. Chase Stanley

4. Dane Nielsen

5. Matt Duffie

6. Gareth Widdop

7. Cooper Cronk

13. Ryan Hinchcliffe

12. Kevin Proctor

11. Sika Manu

10. Adam Blair

9. Cameron Smith ©

8. Bryan Norrie

****

14. Todd Lowrie

15. Sione Kite

16. Jesse Bromwich

17. Robbie Rochow