Melbourne Storm are considering imposing a contract deadline on star halfback Cooper Cronk who is reportedly set to join the embattled Gold Coast NRL club.
The issue has not hampered the form of the unbeaten Storm, or Cronk who scored a double in their eight-try 44-4 romp over the Sydney Roosters at AAMI Park on Sunday.
But Storm football manager Frank Ponissi said the club needed to make plans should the 27-year-old decide to play elsewhere.
“It’s not affecting his demeanour and it’s not affecting the rest of the team,” Ponissi said after the match.
“From that point of view there’s no need to put a deadline but it’s more that we need to make some decisions on our recruitment and our retention for next year.
“We may consider one.”
Ponissi said they hadn’t looked at any alternatives, dismissing a link with in-demand Manly five-eighth Kieran Foran.
There were reports Cronk had already agreed a three-year deal with the Titans despite revelations the club is $35 million in debut and it’s property group could be facing insolvency.
However the Storm are adamant that’s not the case.
Ponissi said they were still confident Cronk, who has played 188 games for Melbourne, would stay.
“There’s one thing about Cooper, we’ll be the first to know if that was to happen,” Ponissi said.
“At the end of the day it’s a tough decision and we respect that.”
Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy said he hoped there would be an outcome soon, although he said Cronk hadn’t been affected by the decision.
“He does really well to put it to the side when he needs to train and play and it doesn’t really concern us as a footy department,” Bellamy said.
“We’re desperate for him to stay and we’ll be hugely disappointed if he doesn’t stay but we’ve still got to perform … and if we’re thinking about whether Cooper’s staying or going, that ain’t going to help us.”