A decade on from the NRL salary cap crisis that almost wrecked the Melbourne Storm, club great Billy Slater says he feels it’s now a positive.

The Storm were stripped of two premierships, faced massive fines and were forced to play for no points through the 2010 NRL season as part of their wide-ranging penalties.

A reflective Slater, who retired at the end of the 2018 season, likened that crisis to the current shutdown and said the game could emerge better from it.

“Looking back, it’s times that you’re down and out and you have to pick yourself up off the canvas that you really understand what your club is made of,” Slater told Wide World of Sports radio.

“To go on and lose so many players at the end of 2010 and win a minor premiership in 2011 and then the premiership in 2012, I think it’s actually enhanced the club and how it galvanised it.

“It’s really funny that it took something like that.

“I look back at it and it’s a part of the club’s history and funnily enough it’s a positive thing in the end.

Slater, who now works as a match day commentator, felt the game could also emerge better for the current crisis, which saw NRL chief executive Todd Greenberg step down.

“It has the potential to galvanise the game and the people within it,” he said.