NRL: Slater hopeful Storm can stay together

Storm fullback Billy Slater says his side has received plenty of support since the salary cap scandal broke last week. Photo / Getty Images

TOWNSVILLE - Star Melbourne fullback Billy Slater remains hopeful the Storm playing group can stay together in the wake of the NRL club's salary cap scandal.

Melbourne are currently A$700,000 ($916,130) over the cap, a figure which could increase to more than A$1 million in 2011 if they don't shed at least some of their stable of big names.

The Storm today flew to Townsville, where they will take on North Queensland in their second points-less match on Saturday night.

"I think it's going to take a little bit more than this to ruin what the Melbourne Storm have done down there over 12 years," Slater said.

"We've just got to stick together, there's not much else for us to do other than play football at this moment.

"We'd love to hold this group together, we're not just colleagues, we're great mates.

"We've played a lot of football together, I've played with some of these guys for about 10 years now.

"The future is a little bit unknown for what's going to happen to the playing roster, hopefully we can stay together.

"But certainly over what's happened over the last seven days, who knows what's going to happen?"

Slater said he hadn't even considered the prospect of leaving the club.

"To be honest I haven't even thought about (entertaining other offers), we've had a lot of other things on our mind," he said.

"That's something that you would have to sit down and have a talk to your family and think about."

The players are heartened by the support they have received as they travelled for their first NRL away match since the scandal.

"To be honest, people in the public have been really supportive of the players," Slater said.

"We stopped over in Brisbane today and walking in the terminal there every second person there was wishing us luck and hoping we can get through this situation together.

"Certainly people are going to be against us and certainly we're going to have our supporters, that's life in general - some people are going to like you, some people aren't.

"We've obviously been shattered and disappointed by the penalty but we've got to get on with playing football now."

Slater said the side had done just that in last Sunday's 40-6 thrashing of the Warriors.

"Three days before that we were devastated, we were heart-broken," he said.

"It was hard to put those feelings into words but to play a game like that for nothing but pride and letting out a little bit of steam over what we've been through the last three days, it felt good.

"The crowd was good, to have the support of 24,000 Victorians down there, to have 3000 there the day before that (at the fan day) shows you that rugby league does have a place in Victoria."

- AAP