MELBOURNE five-eighth Scott Hill is set to decide his future within days - and the former international hasn't ruled out staying at the Storm.
Hill, who is considering offers from Parramatta and three Super League clubs, will make his 13th appearance of the season for Melbourne in tomorrow night's top-of-the-table clash with Brisbane in a remarkable turnaround after being dropped to the Storm's North Sydney feeder team just six weeks ago.
More significantly, the game entitles Hill to activate a clause in his contract giving him the option of remaining with the Storm for a further two years.
The club has been grooming teenager Jackson Nicolau, who played five-eighth for Queensland Residents in the curtain-raiser to last night's State of Origin, as Hill's long-term replacement and last week re-signed the Maroons' under-19s representative to a new two-year deal.
But Hill's form since serving a two-week suspension for pushing referee Sean Hampstead and his subsequent banishment to premier league has been good enough to have him considered as the next option to Mark Gasnier for the NSW five-eighth job.
"It seems a while ago now that Scott and I were sitting alone in the dressing room at North Sydney Oval wondering where we went from there," Hill's agent, Brian Satterley, said.
"The big thing was to get to 13 games. Once Scott does that it gives him the option of staying in Melbourne if he wants to."
A member of the Storm's inaugural team in 1998, changes to the NRL salary cap rules next year allowing clubs a $100,000 concession for players with eight years' service rather than 10 mean Hill is eligible for the discount if he remains in Melbourne.
But Satterley said Hill and his wife, Brooke, were also keen to move closer to their families, who live in Forster on the mid-north coast of NSW, as they now have three children under the age of five.
"When Scott went to Melbourne he was single and had no kids," Satterley said.
"It's tough on Brooke because half of the Storm's games are interstate and it generally means Scott's away . . . every second week."
Playing for the Eels would make Hill's family life easier as he would not have to travel outside of Sydney for many away games and would be near family.
However, Satterley said Hill and his wife also liked Melbourne and he was enjoying his football at the Storm again, while the Super League options had not been ruled out.
"The first priority for Scott at the moment is Friday night's game against the Broncos but after that we will sit down and make a decision probably by the end of the weekend or early next week," he said.
"The option with the Storm is his way so there's that to consider and I'm in contact with the Eels virtually every day so he has another option if he wants to stay in Australia, and then there's overseas.
"If Scott was to go to England, most of the teams are close to each other so there's not a great deal of travelling and Brooke has family over there, too, which would make things easier."
