If anyone had any concerns about Melbourne Storm's future, they are first and foremost a wee bit silly and secondly they need not worry because the Storm have sealed the long-term futures of their most talented youngsters. From a #KiwiNRL perspective, we already knew that Nelson Asofa-Solomona and the Bromwich bros had been re-signed and now the Storm have announced that Jahrome Hughes and Brandon Smith have re-up'd with the Storm as well.

The major dose of funky comes as both Hughes and Smith signed multiple-year deals last year when in moving to Melbourne, so neither was actually coming off-contract. Smith had signed on for three years which would have had him off-contract at the end of 2019, but Smith has now signed on until the end of 2022. Hughes signed a two-year deal which would have wrapped up after the 2018 season and has now signed for two more years, keeping him under the Storm umbrella until the end of 2020.

So why would the Storm lock in Hughes and Smith down on such long contracts after they had already both committed to Melbourne Storm for multiple years? I suspect Melbourne wanted to lock these two down on deals that they wouldn't need to then upgrade once Smith and Hughes had really established themselves in the NRL. Hughes and Smith have only featured during Origin and despite looking the goods, they aren't in Melbourne's top-17, so they've been offered long-term security which most fringe NRL players want.

Melbourne don't have to worry about making breaking the bank to keep Hughes and Smith in Melbourne once they prove themselves to possibly be worth a whole lot more.

It will still take Smith and Hughes another season or two for them to start to cash in with Melbourne. Brandon Smith may not take Cameron Smith's starting dummy half role until 2020, or 2021 and the length of his extension overlaps nicely with Cameron Smith's twilight years. Cameron Smith hasn't signaled how his future looks, but you'd have to assume that Melbourne would have talked to Cameron to get some insight and build their plan around Brandon - who has clearly been identified as Cameron's successor.

The same goes with Hughes as he's mainly featured at fullback in limited opportunities with North Queensland and Melbourne, where Billy Slater's running a'muck. Slater has shown that he's still got a couple years left and that he's still the best fullback in the world, so Hughes isn't going to be over-taking Slater any time soon. Hughes will only get a sniff once Slater nears retirement, which could very well be at the end of this season.

I reckon that the deals offered to Hughes and Smith offer a funky safety net for Melbourne should Slater (end of 2017) and/or Smith (end of 2018) retires at the end of their respective deals. Hughes and Smith would be on much more economical deals than Slater and Smith, so should either retire, Melbourne will stroll into a nice salary cap spot. I'm of the view that these deals signal a belief that Slater and Smith will play on beyond the end of their contracts and that Melbourne want Hughes and Brandon Smith to be there when the OGs do decide to retire.

There's clarity around Brandon Smith, while Hughes doesn't enjoy such a luxury. The fantastic work of Cameron Munster could see Melbourne roll with Munster and Brodie Croft (signed on until end of 2020) as their halves pairing, opening the door for Hughes to be a mid/long-term fullback after Slater. Hughes impressed at fullback during Origin, so he's got to have the inside running there, although it's largely thanks to Munster's impressive work in the halves for Melbourne and Queensland.

Outside back Jeremy Hawkins is off-contract at the end of this year, while Shem Tatupu has a 'team option' for next year meaning that it's up to Melbourne to extend his contract for 2018. Tatupu is a very interesting case because he was signed by Melbourne from AFL and you would have to assume that as long as Tatupu is doing what Melbourne want, Melbourne would take up the team option otherwise they've just wasted a contract. Tatupu needed time to develop and Melbourne should give him adequate time.

Here's Melbourne's #KiwiNRL contract situation beyond 2017...

Jesse Bromwich: 2020 (end of) with play option for 2021.
Kenny Bromwich: 2020.
Nelson Asofa-Solomona: 2019.
Jahrome Hughes: 2020.
Sam Kasiano: 2020.
Brandon Smith: 2022.
Shem Tatupu: 2018 (TO).

Two notes to finish with...

Suliasi Vunivalu is contracted until the end of 2018 and it'll be interesting to see what Melbourne do with the gun Fijian winger who came to Melbourne via a schoolboy rugby stop-over in Auckland.

Brandon Smith and Dale Finucane are the only players contracted beyond 2021. Jesse Bromwich has an option in his favour for 2022, but Smith and Finucane are locked in.

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