The Melbourne Storm have had a number of players re-sign in recent months including Jahrome Hughes and Xavier Coates, but they are far from done on the recruitment and retention front.
Stars like Cameron Munster, Ryan Papenhuyzen, and Harry Grant have all come up in Rugby 360’s rumour mill and still need their futures locked in.
In order to re-sign their marquee players, the Melbourne Storm may very well need to release one of the mainstays of their forward pack over the last decade.
Nelson Asofa-Solomona has become somewhat of a cult hero in Melbourne, with an intimidating presence exemplified by his 6’8, 115kg frame.
MORE: Ennis named as Dragons assistant coach
Despite that, reports in recent days suggest the Warriors were approached by a third party to gauge their interest in taking the massive Storm prop.
It is understood the Warriors may have been interested except for one major issue — Asofa-Solomona’s current contract.
At a reported $800k-plus per season until the end of 2028, it is a huge amount of money for a front-rower who has only averaged 15 first-grade games a year across recent seasons and typically plays around half a game minutes-wise.
Coach Craig Bellamy has also shown his hand, having left Asofa-Solomona out of his preferred 17 on multiple occasions and only playing him 38 and 33 minutes in his last two matches returning to first grade.
At 29 years of age the hulking prop still has plenty to offer, and would no doubt attract interest on the open market should the Storm allow him to leave, but Melbourne would almost certainly need to subsidise his contract to move him on.
Based on similar scenarios in recent memory, it isn’t out of the question that any NRL club willing to take on Asofa-Solomona would expect around $300k of his salary to be paid by the Storm in order to provide a market-value deal.
With that in mind, the Storm’s best hope may lie in rugby union, with the potential salaries in the rebel R360 competition far higher than the NRL and more capable of accommodating the full contract of Asofa-Solomona.
Several years ago the Storm worked out a loan deal with the Wests Tigers, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see them consider something similar as a short-term solution — with Rugby 360 capable of taking on one year of his contract before he either returns to Melbourne or continues in rugby.
Wherever big Nelson ends up, one thing is clear — the Storm will probably struggle to re-sign the rest of their stars and fend off expansion team interest unless they can offload his behemoth deal.