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Melbourne Storm crisis will save rugby league’s soul

Paul Ritchie

by Paul Ritchie

23 Apr 01:03pm

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Filed under: David Gallop, Melbourne Storm, Nrl, Rugby League, Sport

44 comments

In our shock, it is so easy to think of yesterday as a black and terrible day for Australian sport.

Going up not down: Gallop's tough response has saved the code. Photo: Brett Costello

In that we discovered one of our sporting teams cheated and deceived it was – but in time, yesterday will be remembered as the day Rugby League regained its soul. 

It will be remembered as the day that David Gallop and the Board of the NRL decided they would rather fold their tent than tolerate cheating in their ranks. It’s the day when a major Australian sport said that the values on which it was founded was more important than the corporate support and the enterprises that fund it.

Whilst the cunning and calculated greed of the Storm’s management is stunning, in the cool light of day, we saw the leaders of Australia’s premier football code front the public, expose the wrongdoing and demonstrate everything that we hope and expect from our leaders. How refreshing.

After a decade when fans so many times questioned the code and its values because of the indiscretions and misbehaviour of its stars, yesterday we saw good old fashioned leadership and integrity re-assert itself as the governing force of the game.

Who would have thought that Rugby League would risk its very existence in the second largest Australian city because it believes the values of fair play were more important than the very competition it runs? 

I suspect throughout Melbourne last night there were thousands of parents having difficult conversations with young children trying to explain how their heroes broke trust.  I have no doubt there were tears and the decision of Storm fans to take back their jerseys represent one of the most authentic moments in sport I have seen in my lifetime. Maybe to be only surpassed when the players themselves add their own cherished premiership rings to that discarded pile of rubbish. 

Yet though the shock, there is also clarity that will ensure the day is remembered for all the right reasons. It is the clarity that saw the leaders of rugby league act in a way that truly reflected the values of sport– they reminded us to show courage, to play by the rules, to confront wrongdoing and to play by the spirit of the game. David Gallop didn’t cover it up, he didn’t try to spin, he didn’t hide behind an inquiry or taskforce, he simply fronted the public and faced the consequences. 

At this point, some will try and rationalise what has happened and argue that the NRL needs to introduce new rules, new safeguards and measures to ensure this never happens again. However those calls miss the point, those that cheated sought to break the existing rules and they have no respect for rules. 

As a Sea Eagles fan it would be easy for me to say, like any Parramatta fan, hand us our premierships, but I don’t think we want the Storm’s tarnished trophy. In fact, we got something better than a tarnished premiership yesterday, for in the decision to put an asterisks next to the Premierships of 2007 and 2009, we have a reminder for all time that the values of rugby league are not for sale. In every sense, every rugby league fan that had wondered about the increasing professionalism and corporatisation of sport got their game back yesterday. We discovered that rugby league would rather be sold and close up shop then sell its values. We got back a competition that in every sense represents the very best of sport. Indeed it represents the best of Australia.

Will the Storm survive? Who knows? The real answer lies with the fans and if they are willing to forgive this breach of trust. The Bulldogs fans forgave their team after 2002, so there’s hope, but trust needs to regained. Maybe Gallop’s decision to make the Storm play for honour only this year and no points is the way for the team to regain its pride and to experience redemption. 

Whether the Storm survives or not, I have no doubt yesterday will be an enduring day in the history of rugby league. For yesterday, after a hiatus that began in the courtrooms of Phillip Street back in 1996, the game of rugby league re-established itself not just as one of the beacons of Australian sport, but Australian life. Rugby league has reclaimed and regained its soul.

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44 comments

Show oldest | newest first

    • Ash says:

      01:51pm | 23/04/10

      You lost me at “we saw the leaders of Australia’s premier football code front the public”... Australia’s premier football code? Oh really? Only a muppet would truly believe that the NRL is more popular than the AFL Australia-wide. If the Storm go, it’s certainly time to lose the ‘N’ in NRL.

      Reply

    • Jonathan says:

      02:43pm | 23/04/10

      Spot on Ash. That’s where the article drifted into irrelevance.

    • Tony Danza says:

      03:58pm | 23/04/10

      Ash - wham bam there pal.

      NRL may just be Australia’s most insignificant sporting code - numbers aside, it has not moved with the times, internally content with its heart-land support and as a result - we have results like yesterday.

      i thoroughly believe that if a league wide investigation is held - all teams will be guilty of under the table arrangements, if not plain and simple, over the table malpractice and fraud.

      sink into ‘amateurity’ rugby league - i hope one day you will rise from the unfortunate ashes of the past 10 years, however, for now - be damned into boyish obscurity.

    • Tom says:

      05:43pm | 23/04/10

      Footy is for Dads to take their kids to. The skills and heroics on the field are what the kids watch.

      Those good aspects of the game were not matched by the actions off the field. Is this a good enough reason to destroy the weekend for those kids? I say no, it is an over-reaction.

    • Joe Stephens says:

      07:50pm | 23/04/10

      The above is great evidence as to why the AFL’s supporters are the biggest muppets of all.

    • Mark young says:

      08:03pm | 23/04/10

      Yeah you are right Ash. That comment isn’t true so obviously the rest of the article is rubbish. It definitely doesn’t make any good points about integrity, honesty and how some good will come out of this very difficult decision.

    • andy says:

      09:43am | 25/04/10

      Ash, how do you gauge what is Australia’s premier football code? if it is how many people watch it, then it is NRL mate, have a look at the ratings from last year. Of course you could mean participation, therefore it would be soccer.

    • Ash says:

      07:07pm | 25/04/10

      I think you’ll find the AFL has it over the NRL both in terms of crowd attendances and tv. The AFL’s next tv deal will show this to be true when compared to what they’ll pay for the NRL.

      http://www.talkingfooty.com/tv_ratings_2009.php

    • Jack Thomas says:

      08:50pm | 27/04/10

      Really? You lost me at the headline.

      The only time I have heard the words “rugby league” and “soul” in the same sentence there was “arse-” in front of it.

      The NSW and Brisbane Rugby League competition calling it self national is like the Yanks calling their baseball the world series.  My childhood backyard kick to kicks with my cousins from Perth at Gran’s was of more national significance, and probably more spectators than the NRL too (when you count her little Foxie chsing the ball).

      After years of being ignored by Melbournians, adding to the poor turnout at their own games in NSW and Qld, the big clubs in Sydney lined up the Storm in the cross hairs and actually shot themselves in the foot. Well done. Millions of dollars setting these guys up, watching them beat you, and now you want to close it down? Errr…

      Forget your gang rapes, your drug scandals, your weekly bashings, your team bonding over one naiive Kiwi girl, and let’s nail the Storm! This is like the guy who blows up his house to kill some termites.

      Except the Storm was never Melbourne, except in name. Set up by rugby league carpet baggers from up North, staffed and played by an assortment of NSW’ers and Queenlanders and Kiwis. The only Melbourne connection were a few shysters looking to make a quick buck or maybe because they couldn’t get a job in the AFL. The biggest of all was made CEO. Nice one.

      And if you think the Storm is alone in its salary cap rorting, you are dumber than you look.

      I thought the comedy festival had ended here until I read “l suspect throughout Melbourne last night there were thousands of parents having difficult conversations with young children trying to explain how their heroes broke trust.  I have no doubt there were tears..”

      What complete toss. The three Storm fans will go back to watching their family playing for Auckland expats in some muddy suburban park.

      There will be some difficult conversations, but they will be between Gallop and News Limited when News asks him how he’s going to keep their investment alive?

      Integrity restored? Sorry but you need to have some, or at least be able to spell it, first.

    • H of SA says:

      10:15am | 28/04/10

      NRL is the most watched football code on TV?

      Andy that is just blatantly untrue

    • kels says:

      02:08pm | 23/04/10

      wow. the writer of the piece is really clueless….!!
      MANY clubs do what the storm have done. The NRL are to blame for this mess -
      1. they didn’t discover for years, and now have cancelled out two seasons of hard work by everyone to mean absolutely nothing
      2. the salary cap punishes success, and drives our best players to other codes and comps.
      3. they have made a joke of this year’s comp for storm fans, and made the game even more laughed at in victoria

      I’m not a storm fan, and I acknowledge there were dodgy ppl in their ranks, but yesterday was NOT a proud day for the NRL admin. Rather it revealed just how inept they are. the sooner we have an independent comission, the better.

      Reply

    • Hermano says:

      02:26pm | 23/04/10

      Saying the NRL is to blame is implying that the storm were forced to cheat.  They did that out of the goodness of their own hearts, they lied, they hid information, they passed money around secretly.  Zero integrity.  And if other teams are doing the same thing they deserve the same treatment.
      Sure, the NRL maybe could’ve acted sooner, but at least they’ve acted.  And they sure as hell didn’t force anybody to break the rules.

    • iansand says:

      03:05pm | 23/04/10

      Many clubs may do it, but I bet they are all spending today having a long hard think about themselves.

    • Tom says:

      11:07am | 24/04/10

      The salary cap is a necessary evil. Do you really want an English Premier League - style competition where only the riches 3 or 4 clubs are any chance of winning the competition?

      And if the Victorians think the NRL is a joke, then perhaps they need to take a look at the AFL, which has seemingly swept many salary cap breaches throughout the 90’s under the carpet. I would rather the drastic action of the NRL to none at all.

    • Flutz says:

      11:45am | 24/04/10

      Of course you have evidence to support your claims that “MANY clubs do what the Storm have done”.

      I am sure there are other clubs that have and do occassionally go over the cap (in fact I have seen evidence to prove this to be true, and they have been punished accordingly) - but to claim that MANY clubs engage in long-term, systematic, purposely hidden fraud as the Storm have been found to have done is ridiculous at best.  Police are investigating the issue as a Major Crime - this is far beyond what other clubs have and may in the future do.

    • H of SA says:

      02:17pm | 23/04/10

      Paul, interesting article and a lot of what you say is true. The game has restored some of its sporting integrity, but the cynic in me will not be surprised if this is systematically destroyed over the next few months as we see how many other clubs were doing this. Phil Gould said in his article the belief is common on the game that the rules force clubs to cheat. If I were a gambler I would bet storm is the tip of the iceberg.

      Also, though the fine leadership of Gallop has restored competition integrity - what of the criminal behavior of league players and the group sex culture? Is that going to stop because of today?

      Also finally, your article overestimates the relevance of the events to most Australians who don’t follow league.

      Finally to call league Australia’s premier football code is just plain wrong, how is the code superior to the other football code’s. Popularity? International relevance? Participation? It falls behind one of the other codes in all these categories.

      Reply

    • Adam Diver says:

      03:26pm | 23/04/10

      Quality.

      Whats with the NRL bashing, obviously it peaks your interest enough to comment on it. I wouldn’t even open an AFL article because quite frankly I wouldn’t want to waste my time.

    • H of SA says:

      03:35pm | 23/04/10

      It piques my interest for the same reason Rugby League is usually in the news - scandal is unusual.

      Oh and you have obviously mistaken me for someone who thinks well of the AFL

    • Tom says:

      11:10am | 24/04/10

      The NRL is bad at keeping stories out of the media. An A League player was charged with sexual assault of a minor a while back, whilst I recall reading that one AFL club paid off a woman raped by two of its players to not press charges. I don’t think there is much evidence that NRL players on the whole are much if any worse behaved than those of any other code.

    • Fen says:

      02:18pm | 23/04/10

      this is probably one of the worse kept secret around…..and Gallop didnt know? yeah right. If the league wants to focus getting back it soul clean up the salary cap breaches that happen in the other clubs as well. Dump the storm and get another team in Qld

      Reply

    • Flutz says:

      11:49am | 24/04/10

      Whether Gallop and the NRL administration may have suspected for a number of years is very different to what they were able to PROVE before they could act.  This was such a systematic FRAUD perpertuated by Brian Waldron and his cronies, that it took this time to find the evidence.  Of course there have been suspicions for years, at first the NRL could not find any evidence - but instead of giving up at that first hurdle, they continued to monitor and investigate the Storm until they found the PROOF they required.  It’s called due diligence.

    • Chris O'Neill says:

      02:25pm | 23/04/10

      I’m sure there are plenty of accountants right now in the other clubs frantically trying to erase the paper trail of their similar schemes.

      Reply

    • The Rampant Fairy says:

      02:36pm | 23/04/10

      “I suspect throughout Melbourne last night there were thousands of parents having difficult conversations with young children trying to explain how their heroes broke trust.”

      You suspect wrong - no-one in Melbourne could give a firm-fisted toss about the Storm.

      Reply

    • Stephen says:

      02:50pm | 23/04/10

      Wrong. There are plenty of people in Melbourne who care about the storm. Just because you don’t doesn’t mean everyone doesn’t.

    • Wirewolf says:

      02:43pm | 23/04/10

      Irrespective of whether the fans forgive the Storm organisation, its hard to see how it will be able to remain a economically viable entity. Given the scale of the penalties and the subsequent loss of sponsors and memberships that will inevitably result, they might as well have simply wound the whole thing up. As sad as it is to say, the Melbourne Storm is dead, they just don’t know it yet.

      Reply

    • Cameron says:

      02:45pm | 23/04/10

      Give us a break! This is just News Ltd trying to justify their ownership of a rotten sport. “Rugby league has reclaimed and regained its soul”! Spare us from this sanctimonious drivel. This is not an isolated incident. This is part of a pattern of behaviour evident in league at all levels.

      Reply

    • Gavin says:

      12:26am | 25/04/10

      yeah, maybe. But gee it is good to watch!!
      By far the best TV sport in the world.

    • Darren says:

      02:54pm | 23/04/10

      is this the same Paul Ritchie quoted in the Oz as ‘However, NSW Business Chamber spokesman Paul Ritchie urged the Government not to take the unions’ demands seriously.’ - he is clearly unAustralian!

      Reply

    • Steph the Ref. says:

      02:56pm | 23/04/10

      One of the best and most well balanced articles I have read on this issue. I am a Victorian born & bred. I am also a rugby union enthusiast first and AFL follower second. But the events of this code have shocked me to the core. I only hope that the leaders of the other sporting codes controlled within this country adopt a similar style of sanction if code and rule breaches are

      Reply

    • BTS says:

      02:57pm | 23/04/10

      Let the spin begin…

      Reply

    • Adam Diver says:

      03:33pm | 23/04/10

      The responses above are so terrible and so cynical it suprises and dissapoints me.

      1. If you don’t care don’t read an article on the topic and then respond. Just ignore.

      2. The NRL took a decision that directly affected the league in a absolutely negative way. Sponsers, TV deals, and a club in the second biggest market in Australia are impacted and so is the bottomline of the entire league. It is almost unbelievable. Imagine our politicians making tough decisions for the greater good.

      Reply

    • Joe says:

      04:19pm | 23/04/10

      1. Um, you cant get any wronga. Conversation and debate is what this site is all about.

      2. They had to. if the NRL wasn’t already drenched by past criminal activity/thuggery, the punshment would have been a lot less. Lets not get all lovey dovey about the NRL. They run a code that consistently shoots itself in the foot. Its terrible.

    • Sam says:

      03:54pm | 23/04/10

      Its funny how in the article he does ramble on about how it is the premier sport but either way the issue the NRL now has in Melbourne is that they have ruined a good team. Yes they cheated and yes they deserved to be punished but taking the 2 premierships away stinks of appeasing the fact that no one in NSW or QLD want Melbourne to have a team let alone a successful one.

      Either way the NRL now has the problem of what happens when its a NSW or QLD club who does this.

      Reply

    • Tom says:

      11:15am | 24/04/10

      Sam, the point is they would have struggled to win those premierships without the elaborate salary cap scam. 2 or 3 of their star players wouldn’t have been there if it were not for this deception. If anything, the punishment for this year is probably the harshest, as having them play with no chance of accruing points seems somewhat futile.

      However, there is an established precedent across almost all sports of stripping achievements gained when rule violations are later exposed. Hence, the decision to strip the premierships was in no way unfair.

    • Poppy says:

      04:27pm | 23/04/10

      Rock on Adam Diver!

      In other news everyone who sees this salary cap as just one example of a practice that is spread throughout league left out the part where it happens in EVERY other sport too.

      As a league fan I’m proud that the NRL handled it the way it did.

      Reply

    • Peter Simmons says:

      06:36pm | 23/04/10

      95,000 at the MCG Sunday.  Last time NRL got a crowd like that for a Home and Away game was .... oh surprise the MCG.
      NSW supporters are as fickle as a promise from Krudd.
      Melbourne Storm will survive as the Bulldogs did,  though all they got was a slap on the wrist.
      Manly better start looking in the closet.

      AFL is the ONLY spectator sport that is a spectacle worth watching.

      Reply

    • Tom says:

      11:21am | 24/04/10

      I wouldn’t call having all your points stripped for a season when on track to win a minor premiershp a slap on the wrist…

    • S.L says:

      07:01am | 24/04/10

      I’m from NRL territory and follow that code but I’ve never seen a bigger load of dribble written on any subject about rugby league in my life. I’m waiting for the “all involved were suffering from Bi Polar disorder” defence or something just as silly. “Thousands of parents trying to explain to their kids what their heros did”? Do the Storm have that many supporters? The game at junior level is only propped up by the Polynesian comunity and the Catholic education system through their sport programs. Everywhere else the game is dead or getting there. I haven’t heard of the code expanding at all at a junior level since the 70s.

      Reply

    • FJ says:

      11:36am | 24/04/10

      Rugby League must never hire former AFL men to run their clubs. Waldron is a disgrace and an AFL man through and through.

      No wonder GWS hired League men. They know their code has no ethics.

      Reply

    • Alan Gould says:

      12:27pm | 24/04/10

      Absurd spin. The reason the NRL made the decision it made has far less to do with attempting to restore credibility than internal political battles with News Ltd over the future of the club. Storms cheating has been an open secret for a long time and this whole affair shouldn’t be surprising to anyone.

      By the way, the NRL have never been and never will be remotely close to being the premier football code in Australia. You really have no grasp of the insignificance the sport outside a few Sydney suburbs.

      Reply

    • TMan says:

      01:16pm | 24/04/10

      I find this constant league vs AFL battle amusing - they’re completely different sports and each to their own.
      I grew up playing union in Africa and now live on the Gold Coast. I am a Titans member and can’t wait for GC17 to make an appearance. I was one of the 5000 that consistently showed up to watch Gold Coast United (admittedly on a complimentary ticket). I made my way to a few Blaze NBL games this year too. Why? because I love sport.

      So what if AFL is only played in Australia, or if league can’t get 95000 to a game. Who cares if the final score between two A League sides is one nil.
      The main thing is its all entertainment and each one of us has differing preferences.

      Instead of sitting at a keyboard and flaming each other based on what footy code we follow, why not just celebrate the fact that we are lucky to have all that choice?

      Reply

    • Paul says:

      01:13pm | 25/04/10

      It’s a manifestation of Sydney’s long standing parochial insecurities in respect to Melbourne. You’re not local so you haven’t inherited the prejudices.

      If you want evidence compare the AFL stories in Sydney’s Daily Telegraph with NRL stories in Melbourne’s Herald-Sun. The unsyndicated DT stories are loaded with vitriol and overt hostility towards the AFL, while the HUN articles are fairly routine. Note that soccer escapes similar hostile treatment even though it probably presents more of a ‘risk’ to the NRL than the AFL.

    • Jackson says:

      09:30am | 25/04/10

      To the Melbourne people pouring scorn and hubris on the Storm and on NRL in general, has it escaped your notice that the primary instigator of the alleged rorting is one of your own ?

      Reply

    • Seano says:

      12:11pm | 25/04/10

      I’m starting to come around to the view that the salary cap is punishing success and thining the ranks of talent in our game. Watching Phil Gould give it to Gallop today on the footy show where Gould highlighted the long list of players that the themselves have development. So their crime was to try and hold on to their team, not to buy others. That said plenty of clubs have had to let players go because of the cap, many times players who’ve gone on to great things.

      Of course if we get rid of the cap clubs like mine (the Knights) who struggle financially every season will likely get swamped by cashed up clubs. So I’m not sure what the solution is but punishing success and sending players to other codes isn’t the right one.

      Reply
 
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