The Melbourne Storm are willing to make Cameron Munster one of the highest-paid players in the NRL for half a decade, tabling a $4-million, five-year deal to keep him at the southern club. The extension would run until he was 32.
Melbourne has kick-started contract negotiations with their central playmaker, with a mega-upgrade for Munster at the forefront of their staggering play to keep the five-eighth.
The 27-year-old is already contracted to the Storm until the end of next season. He will be paid $1.2m and $1.3m for the next two years respectively. This deal from Melbourne would stretch his contract out to the end of 2026, and effectively make him a one-club player. The extension would dip in value slightly towards the tail end of its length, into five figures.
It’s the price the Storm are willing to pay to keep the Maroons match-winner though.
Part of the reason the oft-victorious club is willing to open their checkbooks for their number six is Redcliffe and Wayne Bennett; the Dolphins have been circling Melbourne’s roster since expansion was first announced.
Felise Kaufusi and brothers Jesse and Kenny Bromwich are already Queensland bound at the end of their contracts, and Bennett’s start-up outfit has reportedly been eyeing either Munster or Jarome Hughes as a centrepiece signing to guide his team around the park in its early years competing in rugby league’s top competition.
The Storm doesn’t want to risk losing any more playmakers, however, with Nicho Hynes leaving the system already. The club has retained — for now — Munster, Hughes, Ryan Papenhuyzen, and Harry Grant.
The 27-year-old hit headlines at the end of the 2021 NRL season for all the wrong reasons, after being filmed with a mysterious white powder in a hotel room after the club’s preliminary final loss. He was fined $30,000 by the NRL for the incident and will serve a one-match premiership ban at the start of the next campaign.
Despite that, the Storm has earmarked him as a “must keep” player.
“We’re keen to extend Cameron, that’s part of our strategy,” Storm recruitment chief Paul Bunn said. “We’ve initiated talks with quite a number of our players. You need a quality spine to be competitive and Cameron and Jahrome helped us win a premiership).
“At the end of 2023, Cameron will be 29 years old, so if he continues to train well and look after his body the way he is doing, I can’t see any reason why he can’t play for quite a few years.
“We are looking at our roster moving forward. We will not lose Munster, I’m confident of that.”
