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Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy and chief executive Dave Donaghy are among those taking big pay cuts to help keep the club afloat during the NRL shutdown.
Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy, chief executive Dave Donaghy and the Storm football department will take 50 per cent pay cuts to help the club through the coronavirus pandemic shutdown which threatens to seriously damage the NRL.
While Storm CEO Donaghy spoke this week of his belief that the club will be able to ride through the competition postponement, they are not immune from the challenges facing the sport.
Donaghy confirmed on Saturday the Melbourne club has been forced to temporarily stand down about 20 members of staff, with a number coming from the football department.
But the bulk of that department, including coach Bellamy, hope to soldier on by giving up half their weekly pay.
"These have not been easy decisions to make but were done to give us the best possible chance of protecting the club from even greater financial stress, to preserve jobs in the long-run and to assist in the bounce-back when we get through this challenge," Donaghy said.
"While roles have been stood down, their positions will be kept open with a view of them returning to work when normality resumes.
"They are being given as much support as possible to help them through a very difficult time and I'm immensely proud (of) how they have reacted to a situation which is completely out of their control."
Elsewhere, the Bulldogs this week stood down their entire football department including head coach Dean Pay, while Brisbane announced late on Friday they have closed down their entire administration building and laid off many of their staff.
Wests Tigers chair Lee Hagipantelis said the club was waiting on the outcome of Monday's meeting between the NRL and clubs to make any firm decisions on staffing, while most others are already operating with a skeleton crew.
The Rugby League Players' Association and NRL are still negotiating for wage cuts to keep the game alive through the toughest financial challenge it has ever faced.
