Leeds Rhinos v Melbourne Storm: Leeds must be at their best to challenge, says McDermott - have your say

They host Australian premiers Melbourne Storm at a sold-out Headingley Carnegie tonight, but such home advantage could become a thing of the past.

Leeds chief executive Gary Hetherington has long espoused the idea of a six-team World Club Challenge rather than just the Grand Final winners of both competitions facing off.

Although reports that has now been firmed up may be a little premature, there is growing support.

Hetherington envisages it being staged over one weekend – possibly in Hong Kong or Dubai – with Super League’s top three teams tackling their NRL counterparts.

McDermott was a player for Bradford Bulls during the ill-fated World Club Championship in 1997 when all English sides took part and were generally embarrassed.

However, certainly at the top end of Super League, the chasm is no longer so wide.

“It’s easy to find reasons why you can’t do something like this, but there’s more than enough reasons to actually do it,” said the Leeds coach.

“Certainly our top three or four sides would give the NRL’s leading clubs a great game.

“Things have moved on since 1997 and extending it would generate a massive amount of interest.

“I’d also like to see it played at the end of a season. Often players playing in the side that actually won the Grand Final have left come February and some clubs even have different coaches.

“We played Manly last year with Geoff Toovey as head coach when it had been Des Hasler who was in charge when they lifted their title.It’s good that things are moving, though.”

Leeds produced an epic display to defeat Manly 12 months ago, but it is generally considered they will have to raise the bar significantly again to overcome a stellar Melbourne outfit.

McDermott, who has guided his team to every possible final since taking over two-and-a-half-years ago, accepts this is the acid test.

“I think we need to come up with a performance to match anything we’ve ever done before,” he said.

“We put a few big performances in last year and the season before, but we’ll need to be better than in any of those.

“We have to deliver a performance as a team that’s technically spot on – with the skill level needing to be so very high – but also in terms of our commitment and energy to each other.

“Melbourne are a very, very good team.”

Although the victory over Manly last season was a significant endorsement for Super League, being the first time an English side has conquered their antipodean rivals in four years, it is the forthcoming meeting with the side from Victoria rather than Sydney that really whets the appetite.

Gilded Melbourne are the Australian version of Leeds; the dominant side of their competition in recent history.

While the Rhinos have sealed five titles in the last six years alone, Craig Bellamy’s men have hoisted three championships in the same period.

Admittedly, two of those – 2007 and 2009 – were later eradicated due to salary cap irregularities along with the World Club Challenge win against Leeds three years ago, but it does not alter the consensus of opinion that the Storm are pre-eminent.

With superstars and long-time custodians such as Billy Slater, Cameron Smith and Cooper Cronk, the spine of their team is insanely strong. McDermott added: “Melbourne are renowned for being relentless.

“Relentless in both the way they defend and also with some of their offensive stuff which you have to be very, very good to stop.

“When it comes to how you cope with Melbourne it comes down to a couple of main areas. You cannot have many players off defensively at all – for most plays you will have to be right on it – while with the ball you simply have to be excellent to break them down.

“When you think of it like that it’s a huge task and worthy of this final.

“If you come out on top of a game like this you deserve to be World Club champions.

“That’s our aim again and we’re looking forward to being able to test ourselves in this arena.”

Whether or not it is the last one-off decider in this style – England has hosted the last 14 finals – remains to be seen.

A working party set up by the RFL to investigate ways of developing the World Club Challenge has made progress, with Hetherington and Wigan chairman Ian Lenaghan certainly winning some allies in Australia.

It is thought next year’s event will be transported Down Under before the six-team event is introduced in 2015, but nothing yet has been formalised.