Melbourne Storm: Craig Bellamy, football department accepts 50 per cent pay cut

Melbourne Storm's football department, including premiership coach Craig Bellamy, has agreed to sacrifice 50 per cent of its unpaid wages to help the club ride out the COVID-19 shutdown.

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Melbourne Storm's football department, including premiership coach Craig Bellamy, has agreed to sacrifice 50 per cent of its unpaid wages to help the club ride out the COVID-19 shutdown.

The drastic and honourable cost-saving will allow Storm to retain the vast majority of its staff.

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Salary sacrificing will allow the Storm to retain the majority of it’s staff while the NRL season is suspended. Picture: AAP.

Bellamy's assistant coaches, football manager and strength and performance staff are among those to take hefty haircuts in a united bid to ease the club's financial burden and exposure.

Storm chief executive Dave Donaghy has also accepted a 50 per cent cut.

It comes as pay negotiations between the NRL and its players looks set to linger into this coming week.

A worst-case scenario 87 per cent drop was presented last week, in the event the league is forced to abandon the 2020 season altogether.

NRL contracts run from November 1 annually, so players are five months into the 2020 cycle.

Storm head coach Craig Bellamy and assistant Ryan Hinchcliffe will both take pay cuts amid the coronavirus crisis. Picture: Getty Images.

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It is hoped clubs will again take the field as early as June 1 but an August-September start is the more realistic option. The next round of broadcast money was due on April 1 but it is now unlikely to drop Nine and Fox Sports balance sheets hammered by the coronavirus fallout.

A meeting of all 16 NRL club bosses is scheduled for Monday morning.

Originally published as Melbourne Storm: Craig Bellamy, football department accepts 50 per cent pay cut