Melbourne set to shun World Club Series

Melbourne Storm are likely to shun playing in the World Club Series next season, unless the commerical offer made to them is vastly improved.

The club has some concerns about the disruption to its preseason schedule that travelling to the UK would exert.

NRL clubs in last year’s WCS reportedly received an Aus$100,000 appearance fee, in addition to Aus$300,000 to cover travel and accommodation costs.

The Storm are under no contractual obligation to play in the World Club Series.

“It would need to be really commercially attractive for us to compromise our pre-season preparation to partake,” Storm cheif executive Dave Donaghy said, speaking to Aussie paper the Herald-Sun.

“There is a group of us internally that’ll meet later this week to talk about our preparation for the 2017 NRL season.

“However, we do have some serious concerns about travelling across to the other side of the world two weeks out from our season starting for what is effectively a trial match.

“We’ve had two trials matches locked in (in Australia) for a long time and that may be a better option for us as we look to build into the season for next year.”