• 4 February – Chief Executive Officer Ron Gauci announces that
Crown Melbourne will be the club's new major sponsor. With the club's management also able to secure long-term commitments from a number of other sponsors. • 13 February – Club owners
News Limited announce that they will officially exit the game on 30 April 2011, as part of the competition's move to an independent commission to control rugby league in Australia. News vows to continue to support the Melbourne Storm via the $8m grant provided to the club. • 18 February – Four prominent player managers are named in investigation reports into the club's 2010
salary cap breaches, as the fallout continued. • Pre-season – In a trial match against
Queensland Cup teams
Easts Tigers and
Ipswich Jets, Melbourne open their 2011 season with a win and a loss. Melbourne faced Ipswich in two 20-minute halves, winning 34–0, then faced another two 20-minute halves against affiliate team Easts, losing 10–0. • 16 March – The NRL call in police to investigate a betting plunge that reportedly earned punters $200,000 by using inside information before Melbourne's salary cap breach news broke in April 2010. • Round 20 – After six weeks away from AAMI Park, Melbourne return to Victoria in a heavily promoted match against the Broncos. Almost 23,000 spectators attended the match, seeing the Storm victorious 26–6. Cameron Smith notched up his 500th goal during the match. Other players would also receive suspensions, with the club fined $50,000 by the NRL, with NRL chief
David Gallop saying "this kind of ugly brawling is simply not on." Craig Bellamy also won coach of the year and Cameron Smith won the Representative player of the year award. • Qualifying final – Melbourne jump out to a 16–0 lead in the first half of their final against the eighth-placed
Newcastle Knights, eventually winning 18–8 to earn a home preliminary final and a week off. After the match NRL chief David Gallop presents Melbourne with the
J. J. Giltinan Shield, with Gallop receiving a torrent of
boos from the Storm fans over his role in the punishments handed out to the club. • Preliminary final – Melbourne's season comes to a sudden end, upset 20–12 by the New Zealand Warriors at AAMI Park. Opposition halfback
Shaun Johnston playing a starring role for the visitors, who led 14–12 at half time and withstood Melbourne's pressure in the second half. Craig Bellamy saying "I don't care what else comes out of tonight, we are disappointed, we're bitterly disappointed, but at the same time this club has come a long wat to where we were this time last year." with their corporate logo added to the front of the jersey.
Suzuki Australia continued as major sponsors as well, with their logo appearing on the sleeves. There was no sponsorship on the rear of the jersey.
Makita also announced a continuation of their sponsorship and their logo on the players shorts.
Heritage In round 5 for the NRL's heritage round, Melbourne wore a replica of their original 1998 home jersey.
Special In the round 20 home game against the
Brisbane Broncos, Storm wore a special "platinum battle" jersey. The jersey was mostly navy blue with a large grey and white chevron on the front, also featured the word "Melbourne" printed across the upper back. This jersey was to symbolise the links to the state of Victoria and Melbourne, following the
City of Melbourne's sponsorship of the match.
Attendance averages == Fixtures ==