SO FAR in Melbourne Storm's long quest to win recognition - and even to be recognised - in their home city, they have: won a premiership in just their second season; fielded the current once-in-a-generation team stocked with some of the game's finest players; and, most recently, claimed martyrdom in the bitter and high-profile grapple-tackle debate.

Yet for all the hearts and minds that have been won, they might as well have asked the Storm Man to wander along Bourke Street with a sandwich board saying, "Please Love Us!" Indeed, the only thing that has really improved the Storm's visibility in recent times was the wrecking ball that brought down the grandstand at their training ground in Carlton, meaning tram commuters now get a glimpse of the anonymous stars going through their paces.

This week, then, represents another chance for the club to fulfil its costly and - given the poor treatment they get from official broadcaster Nine - flagrantly disregarded objective of creating a self-sustaining place for league in Australia's second-largest city.

This will be the first of the Storm's three successive grand finals played a full week after the AFL grand final, which means that, once the last celebrating Hawthorn player staggers from a local nightspot, the Storm should take the spotlight.

"The AFL should die down by Wednesday, which should give us a good opportunity," said chief executive Brian Waldron. "It's just unfortunate we've got to go to Sydney on Wednesday [for Thursday's grand final breakfast]."

Last year's grand final attracted strong ratings in Melbourne, with a peak audience of 876,000 and 49 per cent of viewers in its timeslot - an amazing result even if many tuned in at 7.30pm expecting to watch 60 Minutes .

This year, the compromise between the commercial night kick-off and the media-driven return to a barbecue-friendly afternoon game could reduce that audience significantly.

Not that the newly conciliatory Waldron - a $50,000 fine always will refine your diplomatic skills - was complaining.

"Five o'clock on a Sunday afternoon?" he mused. "You would probably like to think there are a lot of youth out there that will watch the game." But will many of those kids be wearing Storm jerseys, as Matt Geyer's three children wore Hawthorn jumpers to Saturday's AFL grand final?

Geyer says that remains in the hands of the television gods.

"We need TV to get more on board," he says of Nine, which usually refuses to suffer the same ratings hits showing the Storm in prime time as Ten has done with the Swans in Sydney.

"The newspapers are doing pretty well. The radio is doing pretty well. Some AFL identities are becoming Storm fans and talking about the Storm a bit. But we need the TV coverage; that's the last bit of the puzzle that will help us go that step further."

Michael Crocker suggests the club's move to a new, purpose-built stadium beside Olympic Park in 2010 could be the breakthrough. "It's going to be a lot more comfortable for the first-timer than having to go to Olympic Park and stand up in the outer in eight degrees with a minus-five-degree wind coming off the Yarra," he says. "Corporate-wise, I think it is going to help too."

Yet, as one of the stars leaving a team that will begin to unravel after Sunday, Crocker acknowledges that, ideally, the new stadium would have showcased the current line-up.

Instead, the next generation of Storm players could end up talking about the cliched benefits of isolation - the close bonds and disciplined culture created when northern heroes are no more feted than postmen.

"I could play rugby league in China with this bunch of blokes and this coaching staff and we would succeed," says halfback Cooper Cronk of the Storm's bond.

The problem is that, for many Melburnians, they might as well be the Shanghai Storm already.