Brian Waldron

[Fehring]

I wonder if the mods aren't deleting threads about Brian Waldron b/c I am amazed nothing's on here at the moment. I will keep myself to the facts.

The Melbourne Storm has been handed the greatest penalties in the history of professional sports in this country today. At the press conference, John Hartigan, CEO of News Ltd which part owns the Storm, declared Waldron to be the architect of the scheme, which involved running two sets of books, Al Capone style.

These are - at this stage - only allegations, but I raise them because Waldron was of course the Saints' CEO before jumping to the Storm. There but for the grace of god go us?

 

[MacMum]

Unfortunately, a lot of things go undiscovered...lets hope for your sake, it stays that way, now is not a good time....

My husband is a Saint, he voiced very similiar thoughts as above post..

 

[Joffaboy]

Lets look at it from a cynical point of view.

If Waldron was rorting the books at the Saints

1) The Saints will have to be as dumb as Carlton who presented the wrong books to the AFL, or the Storm who didn't have the brains to hide the second set of books.

The Saints have had five years to hid the evidence.

Now lets look at it dispassionately.

Saints have been audited by the AFL on numerous occasions and have been given the all clear.

AFL has a different setup to the NRL and it is easier to keep players (due to the draft) than it is at NRL where players walk out mid season to other clubs.

Waldron left in 2004. The admin, the majority of players, the whole coaching staff, and admin are completely different.

Even if (and it is a HUGE if) the Saints breached the Salary Cap in any way, the penalties would not be harsh, mainly to the Saints dignity.

But it was 6 years ago when he left, and it will be a remote chance that the Saints did anything wrong at all.

Even if Waldron came out and stated that he cheated at the Saints - his reputation is trashed beyond repair and his word will mean nothing.

Anyway, thats my take.

 

[Bazzar]

I don’t know his name, but it will be in tomorrows press, He has also been implicated along with Waldron and he was apparently with him when he was at the Saints. Anyone here know who it was?

 

[Kildonan]

For those that don't know reigning premiers Melbourne Storm have been stripped of two NRL premierships and 3 minor premierships. The club has furthermore been fined $500,000 and will be forced to return $1.1million in prize-money (the prize-money is to be distributed evenly among the other fifteen clubs) after being found guilty of massive, long-term salary cap breaches. The Storm had a long-term system of effectively using two sets of books and they went to elaborate lengths to cover up that they had rorted the salary cap by at least $1.7 million over five years.

Yes Brian Waldron has been heavily implicated in the Melbourne Storm salary cap breeches.

(From Saxton.com) In October 1999 he joined the St Kilda Football Club as General Manager, Football Operations and was promoted to CEO in late 2001. In his time in charge of the Saints, Waldron oversaw turnover growth in excess of 50% from 2002 to 2005 . Under his leadership the Club achieved a net turnaround in business operations from a loss of $3.7million in 2002 to a profit of $580,000 in 2003 and $1 million EBIT in 2004.

Brian commenced as CEO with the Melbourne Storm in the National Rugby League, in November 2004. In his five years with the Club the Melbourne Storm achieved unprecedented success on and off the field including two NRL premiership and the emergence of the Storm brand as an iconic sporting brand in the country.

In February 2010 Brian commenced as CEO of the newly formed Melbourne Rebels Rugby Club who will participate in the international Super Fifteen Rugby competition in 2011.

Remembering back that $3.7 million loss was mainly a paper loss i.e. a writedown of assets (?Moorabbin stadium) so what Waldron was mainly involved with at the Saints was a restucturing of the club in preparation for the modernisation of the Linton St facility. I can't imagine that we had the on-field personnel that was worthy of finding extra funds to illegally retain.

His focus at the Storm was continued success. It appears as if he achieved that through simply ignoring the cap and paying what was needed to get the players there.

 

[Joffaboy]

I don’t know his name, but it will be in tomorrows press, He has also been implicated along with Waldron and he was apparently with him when he was at the Saints. Anyone here know who it was?

Hanson.

 

[Bazzar]

Hanson.

Thanks Joffa. It will be interesting listening to KB in the morning as he is good mates with Waldron. I love the Storm and feel gutted, but im more shattered with Waldron (Richmond connection) How the hell could he do something so major and think he could get away with it. You would think his career and business life is totally rooted now.

 

[CHBench]

Is it too much to ask for us to have one week, just one week where we're not involved in some off-field shit?
No doubts the books he was in control of when he was here will be carefully looked at, even more so now that his right hand man was also involved.

Brian's talents as an organisational leader and his ability to nurture and operate successful sporting entities at the highest level are well evidenced.

I lol'd.
Fired up the St Kilda tank, then orchastrated the biggest scam Australian sport will ever see and jumped ship before it unravelled.

 

[Plugger35]

I don't see how the current administration and the club could be penalised for any breaches a past administration was responsible for.

 

[Blueboys11]

St Kilda should have nothing to worry about....

What is there to strip the club off?? Spoons??

 

[lihei]

St Kilda should have nothing to worry about....

What is there to strip the club off?? Spoons??

Pay that, but then I guess you would know about that sort of thing

 

[Kildonan]

St Kilda should have nothing to worry about....

What is there to strip the club off?? Spoons??

Normally I'm pretty harsh on Carlton trolls (well any trolls really), but today I reckon your lot are entitled to look at the St Kilda involvement with Brian Waldron and wonder if we should be investigated. I am sure we already have been as all clubs would have been looked at after Carlton were found out.

I would be mortified to hear that anything untoward had been happening at my club, after all the pontification and criticism I have given to cheats, cheating and Carlton fans in particular (many of whom were avid denialists of their club's cheating).

Sadly - your troll provides the best evidence that we haven't been cheating - our lack of success and, as I alluded to earlier, before Waldron left we were mainly a team of kids - we would have been lucky to reach the minimum payments in 2001/2002/2003 and our kids started to achieve some success in 2004. By 2005 many of these kids could now bargain for a decent contract, but by then Waldren had already left for the Storm.

 

[Fehring]

St Kilda should have nothing to worry about....

What is there to strip the club off?? Spoons??

Pay that, but then I guess you would know about that sort of thing

Yep, pay that. Very nice.

Can't imagine we've got too much to worry about for reasons we've already mentioned. I was glad to see that our big deals during that period - Hamill and Gehrig - were done before he became CEO. We had very few stars in their prime/later years (Harves, Spider, Loewe, Burkey) when he took over as CEO.

 

[Naughton]

Gee, I remember one Mr. Brian Waldron didn't mind sinking the slipper into Carlton after we got caught paying over the cap. Was quoted on more than one occasion pontificating on how awful Carlton was, etc. Sometimes you've gotta laugh.

 

[Fehring]

Gee, I remember one Mr. Brian Waldron didn't mind sinking the slipper into Carlton after we got caught paying over the cap. Was quoted on more than one occasion pontificating on how awful Carlton was, etc. Sometimes you've gotta laugh.

Waldron is hated north of the border for the same reason - massive pontificator. If the allegations are true, his fall will be mighty.

 

[Hammers_Saints]

Waldron left because he allegedly *rumour that everybody seems to know but we won't print it here*

 

[superfreak]

Cameron Vale who is also implicated also was with St Kilda and left with Waldron and Hansen to joint he Storm before heading to North Melbourne.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/p...lary-cap-rorting/story-e6frf9if-1225857163988

Five past and present club officials face investigation.

They are Waldron, acting CEO Matt Hanson, chief financial officer Paul Gregory, former chief financial officer Cameron Vale, who left after a falling-out with Waldron to join North Melbourne, and former recruiting manager Peter O'Sullivan.

Interesting that is was a former employee that was the whistle blower...hmmmmmm

 

[u396]

Joffa makes a good point. This should not take away from or besmear your current squad. They're a great side and good to watch.

So far as cooking the books at the Saints: Despite the diminished ability of players to leave a club, the expanded salary cap etc the fact exists that the payment of players through game day concessions (3rd party or direct) started at the storm in 2005, the year waldron took over. I think it would be a far cry to think a member of a club's executive would suddenly invent such a clandestine scheme and put it in place in his 1st year as head of that club. Unfortunately i think it may well have been taking place at the saints prior to Nov 2004.

What must be said of the Storm's breach is that it started out small and got larger. rapidly. This year it was estimated to be 700k. last year 400k. That is 1.1 mil of a total 1.7 mil for the duration of the breach. So hopefully it was small or relatively innocuous if these types of breaches were taking place at the saints.

Having said that also fail to see how a CEO can have such a scheme in place without the CFO either being complicit, or negligent for not realizing a pie cost $15,000.

If it did happen I hope this was just a bad period in the club's history. I am sure the Saints will coolly distance them selves from Waldron in the coming days. Further, I'm also sure your CFO van Lint will be looking at the list and checking it twice as we speak out at morrabbin and they'll make a statement in the coming days saying the investigation took place and "we've alerted the AFL to prior breaches during waldron's tenure" or "nothing untoward was found"

 

[sainter]

My number one sporting team has and always will be the St Kilda Football Club but even so as a member and supporter of the Melbourne Storm I've been left pretty much devastated by this.

From a selfish perspective I don't want to even think of the amount of money I've spent on memberships, merchandise, flights, accomodation and tickets over the years but it's more the emotional attachment that you have with your sporting teams that is going to be the hardest thing to rationalise over the coming days.

Anyway it's been described as one of the biggest scandals in Australian sports history so we'll be receiving plenty more information over the coming days. We'll obviously keep this thread open because there's a St Kilda link to the story but I'd ask everybody to be careful with what you say.

 

[Pie eyed]

If, and a big if, Waldron in his time at the Saints was involved in the same sort of rorting then what?

Overtly it does not appear that the Saints retained a higher percentage of "elite" player over the Waldron years so what would the imagined breaches have achieved?

You can't very well strip the club of anything.
Most of the administrators around him at the time are gone.

The AFL version of the cap is a rubbery item as we all can see from the "accepted" third party payment system.

 

[stfan]

Unfortunately i think it may well have been taking place at the saints prior to Nov 2004.

Why?

1/ The Saints were short of cash in those years.

2/ FFS we could not even buy enough footballs for training let alone extra illegal payments.

3/ And just why would we be making extra payments to a list that was bottom of the ladder and short of the legal salary cap of the time anyway?

I mean what stupid bozzo is going to make illegal salary cap payments when you could legally pay more anyway?

 

[Kildonan]

Joffa makes a good point. This should not take away from or besmear your current squad. They're a great side and good to watch.

So far as cooking the books at the Saints: Despite the diminished ability of players to leave a club, the expanded salary cap etc the fact exists that the payment of players through game day concessions (3rd party or direct) started at the storm in 2005, the year waldron took over. I think it would be a far cry to think a member of a club's executive would suddenly invent such a clandestine scheme and put it in place in his 1st year as head of that club. Unfortunately i think it may well have been taking place at the saints prior to Nov 2004.

What must be said of the Storm's breach is that it started out small and got larger. rapidly. This year it was estimated to be 700k. last year 400k. That is 1.1 mil of a total 1.7 mil for the duration of the breach. So hopefully it was small or relatively innocuous if these types of breaches were taking place at the saints.

Having said that also fail to see how a CEO can have such a scheme in place without the CFO either being complicit, or negligent for not realizing a pie cost $15,000.

If it did happen I hope this was just a bad period in the club's history. I am sure the Saints will coolly distance them selves from Waldron in the coming days. Further, I'm also sure your CFO van Lint will be looking at the list and checking it twice as we speak out at morrabbin and they'll make a statement in the coming days saying the investigation took place and "we've alerted the AFL to prior breaches during waldron's tenure" or "nothing untoward was found"

There have been no suggestions of any breaches at the Saints before or after Waldron's tenure. Be very careful with your allegations or inferences please. Lest you find yourself at the wrath of both Saints moderators.

Waldron did not have to suddenly invent these practices nor would he have needed to develop them over time at the SKFC - he would have had them all explained to him as part of the investigation into how Carlton went about rorting the AFL.

Any further suggestions of "cooking the books" or anything similar without evidentiary support will result in a harsh response from the moderators.

 

[StFly]

We forget that in 2005 we had a minor breach and were fined $40k, that is not exactly good timing on behalf of the club in the current climate. In saying that, a hypothetical based on dates;

Waldron was CEO up til 2004, Carltons systematic breaches were in 2002 and it was found that waldron cheated the system at the Storm since 2005. One inherently does not need to partake in cheating the system when he would have been privy to how it was done through the explanations / warnings a part of the Carlton fiasco at the time, a smart man would translate that, the reaction and work his way around it to try and apply it. Now assume this is what Waldron did in 2003, try to find a way around the system by using the Saints books as a tester (without actually attempting to cheat the system since he'd get caught) he then left in '04, this then means one of two things;

He found a way and tested it in '04 which led to the '05 breach being a "tip of the iceberg"
He could not find a way, decided to stay out his contract and then buggered off to a place where he could, that being the NRL and the Storm.

When you look at 2003 as far as incidents go, clubs for quite larger fines in comparison to years before or years after, so you would assume a "hot zone" on TPP monitoring, it boils down to Waldron had to be one stupid individual to try and cheat the system so soon after Carlton was caught and not only ensure that he wasn't caught, but also ensure that it was not caught in 6+ years.

 

[westernrangers]

If, and a big if, Waldron in his time at the Saints was involved in the same sort of rorting then what?

Overtly it does not appear that the Saints retained a higher percentage of "elite" player over the Waldron years so what would the imagined breaches have achieved?

You can't very well strip the club of anything.
Most of the administrators around him at the time are gone.

The AFL version of the cap is a rubbery item as we all can see from the "accepted" third party payment system.

It's simple: in the UNLIKELY, AND I STRESS UNLIKELY EVENT that the Saints or any other AFL club were somehow involved in shonky dealings, you can strip them of future draft picks in the manner the AFL did to Carlton, you can hand out a heavy fine and you can strip the club of all it's points in the coming seasons.
Let's hope it doesn't include the Saints because as a Bulldogs fan I know how hard it is to be scraping the bottom of the barrel for many years.

Let's hope no past deals come to bite the Saints because the Storm/Canterbury Bulldogs/Carlton precedents have been set.

 

[Plugger35]

One thing that people seem to be forgetting in their haste to drag St Kilda into this scandal is that the Storm's situation is very different to St Kilda's situation.

The Melbourne Storm are a rugby league club in an AFL market and so they had more difficulties than the average league club in recruiting or keeping players. They obviously felt they needed to pay certain players a bit extra to keep them at the club, which led to them breaching the salary cap.

Both Brisbane and Sydney have faced similar difficulties in attracting or keeping players, being AFL clubs in rugby league markets, which was why the AFL gave them both extra room in their salary cap.

St Kilda being an AFL club in an AFL market didn't face any of these difficulties and so it's much less likely that they would have needed to breach the salary cap to recruit or keep players.