Melbourne Storm owners News Ltd have warned there will be consequences for any player proven to have known their NRL contract breached salary cap rules.

Stopping short of saying players aware of irregularities in their contracts would be the first shown the door in any clean-out, News spokesman Greg Baxter said the company would take a dim view.

It had been assumed the Storm's stable of superstars had no knowledge of the club's massive salary cap rort, a position News is no longer prepared to take.

Reports have suggested captain Cameron Smith had three different contracts with the club.

"We've said all along that we've not seen any evidence that players were involved," Baxter told AAP on Friday.

"Based on certain things that (News' auditor) Deloitte has reported to us, we're no longer in a position to say that with the same degree of confidence."

The Storm players, minus their State of Origin stars, met Deloitte representatives on Wednesday and were asked to provide copies of their contracts to the auditing firm next week.

The players, though, have been reluctant to do so and their managers have been examining the confidentiality agreement with Deloitte.

Baxter said questions about who knew what could largely be cleared up by the players' cooperation.

"That's an issue that Deloitte are obviously keen to clear up by seeing the documents the players have and talking to them," he said.

But he added News boss John Hartigan's warning to those at the club involved in the breach applied across the board.

"John Hartigan has said that anybody at the club or anybody associated with the club who was either involved in these breaches or was aware that they were taking place and was somehow complicit in them, there would be consequences for those people," Baxter said.

Asked if players who knew their contracts were irregular would be the first culled to help get the club under the cap, he said: "It's really going to depend on what information comes out of the investigation."

The Storm are reportedly $850,000 over the cap this year and will be $1.5 million over in 2011.

Baxter said exact figures were not yet available but the size of the rort had been increasing.

"Until we've got some clarity I think all the numbers are guesswork but, from a trend point of view, certainly the numbers have been growing rather than declining," he said.

He said the club would not be in a position to begin making decisions on which players it will shed until after the investigation is complete.

"Until you get to a point where you're happy with the numbers that you've got ... it's impossible to form a view about how the club will manage it's playing list for next year in a way that brings it back under the cap," he said.

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