The Melbourne Storm are confident in securing the signature of superstar Cameron Munster after putting forward a new contract offer to the 27-year-old on Tuesday.
While Munster has always been keen on remaining in Melbourne, his future remained up in the air beyond the 2023 season after the Storm originally offered a new deal worth $800,000 a season compared to the reported offer tabled by the Dolphins of $1.3 million per year for four seasons.
With the five-eighth knocking back that initial contract offer, Storm CEO Justin Rodski confirmed that the club has since put a new deal in front of the playmaker which he believes “represents and reflects” Munster’s worth.
“I’d like to think so,” Rodski said in response to whether the Storm will keep their star on Sportsday.
“We’ve spoken to Cameron and his management again earlier today (Tuesday).
“We think that we’ve put forward an offer that represents and reflects what he brings to our club.
“I know he wants to be a one-club player and I know that he loves Melbourne, we’re hopeful that offer is enough for him to stay, and we can sign him on long-term and he can become that one-club player.”
Given that the Dolphins are the Storm’s biggest competitors in the Munster race, Rodski was hopeful that the culture Melbourne has built takes precedence over the extra dollars available at Redcliffe.
“It’s extremely difficult, you’re effectively injecting $10 million into the marketplace,” Rodski said.
“That obviously brings opportunity to players to earn more money if they were to go to a franchise like that.
“We like to think that the environment that we’ve created, the culture, the development the players get, the coaching from Craig Bellamy and ultimately for a lot of players coming down to Melbourne to get away from the spotlight in Sydney and Brisbane.
“For Cameron, he’s a Queenslander, but he still gets the opportunity to represent his state in State of Origin and we hope that’s enough for him, and he can continue his career down here in Melbourne.
“He’s a much-loved player, he’s a respected player in our organisation and we hope he can finish his career with us and finish it with more success.”
In response to the new offer, Munster’s manager Braith Anasta told NRL 360 that he considered the deal “impressive” and that the Storm have put themselves back in the “ballpark” of retaining his services.