Melbourne Storm officials have emphatically denied rumours their players will boycott the rest of the NRL season.
Club officials have quashed suggestions the Storm will not take the field against the New Zealand Warriors on Saturday, with the squad due to board a flight to Auckland at 1610 AEST on Friday as planned.
Melbourne radio station 3AW had reported a rumour the Storm players could pull out of their remaining matches this season following Thursday’s release of an independent investigation into the club’s salary cap rorting.
The audit, carried out by accounting firm Deloitte and announced by owners News Limited, found the Storm were $3.17 million over the cap since 2006, more than 80 per cent more than originally thought.
It also named 13 players who received payments outside the cap.
The club was stripped of two premierships by the NRL in April and is playing for no points this season.
When asked about the rumours, News Ltd owner John Hartigan told 3AW: “Look I don’t know anything.
“You’ve cold decked me there, I certainly haven’t heard that.”
A Storm official told AAP the rumours had no basis.
The squad were in a meeting on Friday morning before they were due to train, with a leading player likely to address the media on Friday afternoon.
Warriors chief executive Wayne Scurrah laughed off the suggestion that the Storm could boycott Saturday’s match.
“We’d be pretty disappointed if they didn’t turn up,” Scurrah said.
Billy McClure
Roar Rookie
If I was a storm player I would go hide instead of boycotting. I am sick of the players and the coach carrying on like they didn't know what was going on. Are they all that stupid? Although, we are talking about league players who manage to do stupid stuff on a regular basis. Bellamy should walk. There is enough proof now that he only ever won so much for melbourne because he spent 3 million more than everyone else. He lost the State of Origin series again because he couldn't buy the best players. Wally Lewis as coach could even win the premiship if he spent an extra 3 million more than the rest. Would be nice to hear what other clubs admin, coaches and players think about the whole situation or are they not saying anything because they have rorted the system at some stage.