Melbourne Storm, cop that ...

[Ford Fairlane]

****, the NRL doesn't stuff around with salary cap breaches.

link

NRL chief David Gallop has just announced the extraordinary penalty, after it was uncovered that the club paid $1.7 million to its players outside the cap in the past five years.

The Storm have been stripped of their premierships in 2007 and 2009, three minor premierships and their eight competition points this season. They will not be able to accrue any more points this season, have been fined $500,000 and must pay back $1.1 million in prize money.

link

 

[tribey]

The merits of docking points and stripping premierships can easily be debated in the affirmative, but gee whiz, unprecedented move ruling that they are ineligible to win more points from hereon-in.

What incentive is there for the players to risk life and limb?

What incentive is there for the fans - in such a fledgling, over-saturated market - to bother rocking up?

 

[_Christoh_]

Wow, That will send a strong message to any other clubs thinking about it. Can see a bit of a supporter backlash in NRL now that 2 premierships have been stripped.

Does that mean the runners up of 07 and 09 are now awarded the premierships?

Imagine being a player who has to hand back his premiership medal or whatever the NRL award to premiership players.

That is massive news even from an AFL perspective

 

[Shane_Mag]

Some may say the two premierships being stripped is a bit harsh but you gotta remember the whole salary cap breach makes the NRL look bad as well. I dont blame them for going down hard on the Melbourne Storm. Breaching salary cap should not go unpunished. Maybe now any club in any sport will realize what could happen now if the same thing happened to them.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

A ****en massive story!!! Probably the biggest sports story in Australia since the Sydney Olympics. Maybe ever???? Despite the Melbourne media (first 12 pages of the Herald Sun)and also Australia wide over the hysteria back in 2002 re Wayne Carey sleeping around, this is truly massive. Wayne didn't have to hand back two premiership cups and his 2 premiership medals.

If you were a Storm player on the weekend and knew that if you won it would mean 0 pts then you would ask why bother putting your body on the line. They might play angry this weekend and go in hard, but after that it would be why should I give a stuff!

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

^^ I'm in SA at the moment so I will be staying up after midnight and watching the NRL footy show tonight on Ch 9. If you have access to the show then tape it if its on after midnight in your time zone and watch it later to see what the impact is lie on players commentators and officials.

Times like this I wish I had access to my foxtel. I'm listening to 3AW at they moment over the net and they are doing a joint broadcast with 2UE. They are all pretty shocked. They said David Gallop looked sick before the press conference. Talk back callers are shattered and angry.

 

[Macca19]

What incentive is there for the players to risk life and limb?

What incentive is there for the fans - in such a fledgling, over-saturated market - to bother rocking up?

None and none, but given they are apparently $700k over the salary cap this season, what choice did the NRL have?

The Bulldogs lost 37 points, but that was near the end of the season so gaining points from wins would have had zero impact. Here, Melbourne could still finish well into the finals given how early in the season it is.

Good on the NRL. Melbourne get zero sympathy from me.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

From the link Ford put up.

"This morning the Storm representatives have come in and confessed to a well-organised system of paying players outside the cap. On what we know this amounted to $1.7 million in the last five years, including approximately $700,000 in 2010.
"The breakthrough in the investigation was the discovery by the salary cap auditor [Ian Schubert] and his team of a file in a separate room at the Storm to the room that contained the file with the players' contracts."

In statement released by the NRL, it was revealed that "the Storm maintained a dual contract system and the club has today confirmed that side letters promising extra payments were stored in a secret file at the home of the Chief Executive. The accounts were structured in such a way that it would appear the commitments were not apparent to either the Melbourne Storm Board or its owners."

So despite what happened in 2003 to the Cantebury Bulldogs Waldron and others risked their flags for $250k a year between 2006 and 2009 which went

2006 minor premiers and GF
2007 premiers and minor premiers
2008 minor premiers and GF
2008 premiers.

Just bloody dumb for so little $$$$$ involved.

 

[WhyAlwaysMe]

Is this the death of RL in Melbourne? I imagine quite a few fans will walk away from the club and it will take at least a decade for the team to recover both on and off the field.

 

[Schulzenfest]

Hopefully it's the death of RL in general.

 

[Quadzilla]

Brian Waldron - allegedly the man behind this rort was at the AFL Saints before he moved to the Storm.

... it may yet have an impact on the AFL?

 

[aneale]

Wow, That will send a strong message to any other clubs thinking about it. Can see a bit of a supporter backlash in NRL now that 2 premierships have been stripped.

Does that mean the runners up of 07 and 09 are now awarded the premierships?

Imagine being a player who has to hand back his premiership medal or whatever the NRL award to premiership players.

That is massive news even from an AFL perspective

No. And you wouldn't want them anyway would you? Couldn't imagine you would display them proudly. It has a ripple effect. You take the Storm out of the finals, then the team who missed out moves out and then it changes the finals completely, the whole thing becomes a shambles.

So it will officially be in the record books as

...
2005 - Wests
2006 - Brisbane
2007 - Not awarded
2008 - Manly
2009 - Not awarded

etc and so on. So it becomes all rather farcical.

Vacancy at Barwon these days Waldron .... you might want to get a lawyer

 

[blaargh]

The Bulldogs lost 37 points, but that was near the end of the season so gaining points from wins would have had zero impact. Here, Melbourne could still finish well into the finals given how early in the season it is.

I think that they can not accrue points this season - so 2010 is also a write-off. This will seriously damage the supporter base... (probably a good thing actually in my opinion!)

 

[Toots Hibbert]

Rugby Union especially, will benefit from this you'd think given they have just set up a team in Melbourne.

I wonder whether this also helps the AFL expansion sides in NSW and Queensland. Certainly won't hurt their cause as disappointed RL fans look at their comp and wonder if there's a good news story from another code they can take an interest in.

It's amazing the wounds RL has inflicted on itself over the last twenty years.

 

[Natman]

Obviously the harshest penalties in Australian sporting history. I would have thought that a reduction of salary cap by double the % and for double of years cheated would have been appropriate.

I initially thought that 2010 would be a complete write-off for the Storm and RL in Melbourne in terms of each game for competitiveness, but as I understand it, the clubs playing the Storm still have to "win" the game to earn the 2 points.

Irrespective of that, it is difficult to imagine how the Storm players will remain motivated for the remaining 2010 season considering the legality of current and future contracts.

As has been said, the best thing for the AFL is the NRL???

 

[FishingRick04]

ME bank pull the pin lets call em, offer discount lol

Familt club
Successful
Plays by the rules

win win

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

It's amazing the wounds RL has inflicted on itself over the last twenty years.

As has been said, the best thing for the AFL is the NRL???

The biggest stuff ups have all been tied in with News Ltd. The sooner News get out of the game the better off it will be. Sex, drugs and drinking scandals come and go. But the stuff News Ltd gets itself tied up with is about the fundamentals and structure of the game.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

ME bank pull the pin lets call em, offer discount lol

Familt club
Successful
Plays by the rules

win win

Good idea. How many branches do they have? There can be a bit of cross promo with myATM, and stick an ATM at all ME bank branches.

 

[FishingRick04]

Good idea. How many branches do they have? There can be a bit of cross promo with myATM, and stick an ATM at all ME bank branches.

Looks like their atm's are tied in with Westpak.

We would still give them some exposure on a National market, not as much as Melbourne Storm, but who knows. Can only ring the door bell and ask.

 

[tribey]

None and none, but given they are apparently $700k over the salary cap this season, what choice did the NRL have?

The Bulldogs lost 37 points, but that was near the end of the season so gaining points from wins would have had zero impact. Here, Melbourne could still finish well into the finals given how early in the season it is.

Good on the NRL. Melbourne get zero sympathy from me.

I was watching Gus Gould last night who also couldn't understand the rationale - surely, with NRL players moving about all the time, the Storm could have a fully audited cap shuffle with backloading and players cut at which point they're under they become eligible for points again.

Having a club in a development market playing for nothing is a complete and utter disaster.

 

[Ford Fairlane]

Rugby Union especially, will benefit from this you'd think given they have just set up a team in Melbourne.

I wonder whether this also helps the AFL expansion sides in NSW and Queensland. Certainly won't hurt their cause as disappointed RL fans look at their comp and wonder if there's a good news story from another code they can take an interest in.

It's amazing the wounds RL has inflicted on itself over the last twenty years.

Except Brian Waldron, the man at the centre of the allegations, is the CE of the new Melbourne Rebels franchise. Although maybe not for very much longer ...

link

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Waldron has resigned, well, before he could be sacked.

link

This will be a plus for Rugby Union in Victoria. League and Union fans aren't that interchangeable but the Pacific Islanders do tend to like playing and watching both games and they have been a big part of the Storms core base support.

It's more the business/corporate side of things than fans that will swap over eg the corporate boxes etc at the new Bubble stadium in Melbourne called AAMI Park. The RU Super 15 team the Melbourne Rebels and the new Melbourne Hearts soccer team will take advantage of corporates dropping off from the Storm.