Three days, one session: Momirovski's latest hold-up in bizarre 2020

Three months of negotiations, one training session and in the end, one hour with his new bed.

Ultimately, just the latest chapter in Paul Momirovski's stranger than strange 2020 season.

After finally securing the long-awaited swap deal between he and Harry Grant, where he and the Storm's future No.9 traded clubs, Momirovski joined his new Melbourne teammates at Kogarah to watch their round-two win over Cronulla.

"I flew down to Melbourne straight away on the Saturday night and got into my new apartment about 1am," Momirovski told NRL.com.

"I set myself up on the Sunday because we had training on Monday. I unpacked everything, Monday we trained and then came home to the news that night -  'NRL's cancelled'.

"On Tuesday we had a team meeting and the club advised us to take a break and go back to our families for a little bit.

"I had been out and bought a bed on the Monday after training. I was at Harvey Norman buying a bed, they delivered that on Tuesday and I was getting on the plane an hour later."

Momirovski is now back at his family home in the Sydney suburb of Belmore, in good spirits and "still excited to be part of something like the swap deal".

"It's something that's going to help me grow and improve as a player," he says.

"I've recommitted to the Tigers for two more years [the second year of Momirovski's new contract is a player option in his favour] too so I'll definitely be coming back.

"So barring anything else unusual I'll be there. I've enjoyed myself at the Tigers and I believe in what they're doing there so in 2021 I'll be back."

Oddly enough the 23-year-old still is catching up with his old Wests Tigers teammates for socially distanced training sessions.

With negotiations around the player trade beginning last December, he has been in a state of flux for several months.

His bags were packed for much of the pre-season and he farewelled his Tigers teammates more than once when his 12-month stint at the Storm looked across the line, only to repeatedly hit hold-ups before the deals were officially lodged.

And the NRL's coronavirus hiatus and any rescheduled competition may yet send his new Storm teammates to him in Sydney if Victoria's government restrictions on gatherings prevent Craig Bellamy's side from training together.

"Having the May 28 date is a relief, hopefully that stays and that's when we can get back out there, but you just never know what happens," Momirovski.

"Melbourne have been really good with things, regular phone calls with everyone there and they're really on top of it.

"There's a few options but from what I know there's still no exemption for us to train in Victoria.

"We're hoping for that to happen, but yeah it could be that I go down to Melbourne and end up back in Sydney again anyway.

"Another whirlwind but it wouldn't faze me, you're still in isolation anyway."

But when the NRL season did get put on hold indefinitely a month ago, he and Grant couldn't help having a chuckle, having developed a friendship throughout the pre-season.

"We had a chat again on the Monday when the season got called off, you just can't write this stuff," Momirovski says.

"I did stop and think if they did cancel the season altogether, I would never have actually played Melbourne. It'd be this weird little period where I was a Storm player but never played for them.

"I haven't played a game of footy in round one or two and I was injured at the Nines and missed trials so I'm just dying to play rugby league."