Defiant Melbourne Storm skipper Cameron Smith has dismissed talk of a NRL season boycott and says his side will play to win as long as they're together.

There were suggestions the Storm wouldn't take the field against the New Zealand Warriors on Saturday and pull out of their remaining matches this season following Thursday's release of an independent investigation into the club's salary cap rorting.

But just before boarding a flight to Auckland Smith reaffirmed his team's commitment to playing out the season.

"I heard a rumour this morning that we weren't going to be turning up and travelling to New Zealand to play and sitting out the rest of the season, that's never been the case, it hasn't been the case all year," he said.

"We're committed to playing football for our club for the rest of this season, playing for our fans, they're the ones that have stuck behind us the whole time and come out to all of our home matches and even travelled away for us.

"There's no chance that we're going to be boycotting any matches this year, we'll play out the season as best we can."

Smith said he had no idea if the "big four" superstars - himself, Greg Inglis, Billy Slater and Cooper Cronk - would be able to stay at the club after the audit, carried out by accounting firm Deloitte and announced by owners News Limited, found the Storm were $3.17 million over the cap since 2006, more than 80 per cent more than originally thought.

But he hinted the Storm needed to retain a strong line-up if it was to survive in the AFL heartland.

"I think all the players and the administrators are pleased that the investigation is finished so we can start to rebuild our great club.

"It's important that we start things as soon as we can for the next season to have a competitive side.

"It's important for this competition and I know that NRL certainly know that, our club certainly knows that so the quicker they can both sort something out the better off we'll all be."

News Limited boss John Hartigan revealed 13 players - including seven who are still on the Storm's books - as having received payments outside the regulations of the cap.

The players were unwilling to cooperate with investigators, however the audit found no evidence to suggest they knew they were involved in salary cap breaches, which Smith claimed vindicated their stance.

"We'd like to think that we were given fairly good advice by the people we trust and at the time we did what we thought was right for us.

"John Hartigan came out yesterday and said that there was no evidence of any player having knowledge of what went on so that was a very pleasing thing for us."

Smith also said the players still "absolutely" deserved the NRL premierships they won in 2007 and 2009 - stripped as part of the penalties.

As well as their fans he said players still had their futures to play for.

"There's a lot of incentive to keep playing well," Smith said.

"There's players off contract at the moment, they're playing for contracts next year whether with us or with other clubs.

"It's just about keeping players focused for games, because we need to play well and we all want to pay well, it's our job."

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