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'Very, very interested': Melbourne Storm eager for Reds recruit Suliasi Vunivalu to stay in NRL
By AAP
Melbourne will happily re-sign star NRL winger Suliasi Vunivalu should his switch to rugby union fall through.
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Vunivalu is set to depart the Storm at the end of the NRL season after inking a massive deal with Queensland Reds and Rugby Australia late last year.
But since then the financially-stricken RA has been looking to slash costs with Australia’s professional players taking an average 60 per cent salary cut until the end of September.
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Vunivalu told AAP he was still keen to play rugby if his two-year contract was guaranteed, and would prefer to stay with the Storm if he remained in the NRL.
The 24-year-old said his family was settled in Melbourne and he loved the club, where he made his debut in 2016.
That was welcome news for coach Craig Bellamy, who said he spoke to Vunivalu on Friday morning about staying on.
The Storm are already set to lose their other representative winger Josh Addo-Carr, who wants to move home to Sydney to be closer to family.
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“I had a chat with him this morning, exactly about that,” Bellamy said.
“We’d certainly be very, very interested if Suli wanted to stay.
“At this stage I don’t think rugby union is too sure of the position that they’re in and what they can and can’t do so it’s going to take a bit of time.
“But if they can’t guarantee they can honour Suli’s contract we’d certainly be interested in looking at him staying here.”
Vunivalu will line up for the Storm against Newcastle on Saturday afternoon, and has an impressive strike-rate against the Knights, scoring eight tries in their past six games.
