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There’s more to this Storm front than meets the eye

Anthony Sharwood

by Anthony Sharwood

23 Apr 05:55am

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Filed under: Melbourne Storm, Nrl, Salary Cap, Sport

74 comments

Everyone’s blaming the suits and an assortment of guys with big fancy calculators for the revelations of the Melbourne Storm’s $1.7 million salary cap breaches, which has seen them stripped of two NRL premierships, three minor premierships and a bunch of prize money which they must repay.

It's enough to make your hair turn grey. NRL boss David Gallop yesterday.

And yes, clearly the chief bad guys here are the engineers of the intricate system of book-fudging which has deceived NRL auditors for the best part of five years. But this isn’t a problem like the Murray River, where the problem of the muddy, salty brine downstream can be pinned entirely on the greedy, negligent vandals upstream.

There are others who might consider themselves lucky not to be implicated, and there are broader issues at play which allowed these sneaks to think they could get away with their cheating shenanigans. Here’s a selection:

The players: David Gallop effectively exonerated the Storm players of any wrongdoing at yesterday’s presser.

And coach Craig Bellamy said it’s all just a huge shock to both himself and his players. Righto, fine. But surely, some of the Storm’s stars must have had an inkling they were being paid extremely handsomely, especially in a team with so many stars and so much silverware.

The NRL cap is just $4.1 million, spread between a club’s top 25 players. That’s an average of $164,000 per player. So if you’re receiving annual payments above a certain level you don’t have to be even a distant relative of Einstein to work out you’re on a great wicket.

The Salary Cap itself: Love the cap – in principle. It’s equalising effect is the reason eight different NRL teams jogged a victory lap in the noughties.

In yesterday’s presser, David Gallop said this was not the time to talk about the cap. Nice try, Dave, but it is. The problem with the NRL Salary Cap is not that it’s too low. If it were much more than $4.1 million, the game would be bankrupted, as rugby league treads a fine financial line at the best of times.

But the cap is too inflexible. All sorts of measures need to be brought in that would make allowances for things like player loyalty and family links. So if your dad played for the club, or if you’ve been there eight years or more, your club could get salary cap concessions.

These might only add up to a few hundred thousand dollars a year, but it would be enough to keep the game solvent, and allow successful clubs to keep superstars without cheating.

Sport’s professional era: How ironic. How very ironic that on the day Juan Antonio Samaranch dies, this story unfolds. Samaranch, you’ll recall, was the IOC president who removed the last pretensions of amateurism in the Olympic movement.

This was actually one of his meaningful legacies, as it cleared up a huge, shambolic mess. But it meant that virtually all big-time sport in virtually all countries was now interlinked with big bucks.

Not saying this is an inherently bad thing. But I am saying that the combination of sport and money inevitably lead to outbreaks of Storm-type corruption.

The people of Melbourne: Bit of a long bow here, but if the AFL-obsessed citizens of Australia’s self-professed sporting capital had taken their champion rugby league team to heart, and actually paid them a bit of attention, the potential for legitimate second-party deals might have nipped this whole evil scheme of under-the-table payments in the bud. Just a theory.

The devil: Gods cops a rap for so many of sport’s uplifting moments, we can only assume the other guy is behind this one. As the NRL auditors will tell you, he was last spotted lurking in the detail.

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74 comments

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    • colin says:

      06:27am | 23/04/10

      Quite agree that it is a little odd that the players who get the payments hardly ever seem to be in trouble in these things. Remember the Carlton salary cap rorting? Now as to that: it kind of shows how silly it is to suggest that the good sports fans of Melbourne might have been able to stop this thing. They do pay a lot of attention to Aussie Rules, but that had no effect on Carlton. And last I checked, the fans were unlikely to have been given access to the club’s administrative rooms, particularly not those containing secret contracts recording payments above the salary cap.

      Reply

    • Stuart says:

      05:22pm | 26/04/10

      The salary cap is a farce for one reason only. Clubs that cheat cannot be caught unless there is a whistle blower. The auditors, like all auditors, can only report on the information given to them. Bring in a draft, because a draft and a salary cap go hand-in-hand, and relax the rules on third party sponsorships. Gus Gould is correct…the present system is merely thinning out the talent.

    • Rob says:

      07:09am | 23/04/10

      Gallop may have exonerated the various players involved, but I doubt the Australian Taxation Office will be so forgiving if, as suspected, they haven’t been declaring these ‘top up’ payments on their tax returns.

      Reply

    • S.L says:

      07:24am | 23/04/10

      If the Storm players could count they would have figured out years ago they were on a better than fair wack. It was in News Limiteds interest to have a succsessful team down south and I bet they are in it as deep as Storm management, but I have a question…..
      How many Victorian players are in the Storm side or the NRL for that matter after 10 years in the competition? As Ray Hadley would say a duck egg! (zero!) So what’s the point of being down there?

      Reply

    • iansand says:

      09:55am | 23/04/10

      For that matter, is the NRL junior comp thriving in Melbourne?  Does it exist?

    • Realist says:

      11:27am | 23/04/10

      Storm players mostly came as also rans or juniors from the northern states.  the expertise of the coaching staff at Melbourne made them what they were - not the wankers up north.

    • Chris says:

      12:18pm | 23/04/10

      Our Under 20’s team won the competition last year, you fool. There are a lot of juniors coming through the system.

    • Tim says:

      12:19pm | 23/04/10

      SL,
      there are actually a couple of Victorian players getting around in the NRL at the moment, but from memory only Jeremy Smith played his junior footy there.
      But the same can be said of the Swans, when they came to Sydney they had no locals playing. Now there are quite a few locals kicking around.

    • iansand says:

      01:36pm | 23/04/10

      Chris - If I are the fule to what you refer of, I don’t think the Under 20s count as juniors.  I think, even in Melbourne, they probably have at least one pubic hair amongst the team.

      How are the Upper West Footscray Heights under 13s travelling this year?

    • Joan says:

      07:31am | 23/04/10

      A salary cap is nonsense - a player should be able to get what he can as in any other area of life.- openly, Why should it be capped by the lowly standard of another. What about the other clubs- what are they up to?  Time to cleanup and scrap the salary cap.

      Reply

    • iansand says:

      09:57am | 23/04/10

      The salary cap gurantees an even competition.  Admittedly a second rate competition where there are other comps unhampered by the cap, but at least it is even.

      I have always been puzzled about why the whole thing is not unlawful as a restraint of trade.  Do they have an exemption from the ACCC?

    • ABC says:

      01:31pm | 23/04/10

      What?  And have the completely ridiculous situation of otherwise viable clubs (with the salary cap) going under? Unlike the UK with soccer the market for both ARL and AFL is not big enough to sustain the ridiculous 100,000 pound a week salaries (ie Wayne Rooney etc) that Premier League soccer players get. (Wayne Rooney for example get’s paid per year pretty much the equivalent of the CEO of Citicorp - which has 1000’s of employees around the world),  If players want to go and get “market rates” they can quite easily go and play rugby overseas - Sonny Bill anyone??.  Anyone with a basic understanding of economics knows that the salary cap promotes competition in Australia.  It is a reflection of the actual sporting market in Australia. 

      And seriously, these blokes get paid a shedload of money in any event anyway.  You spend 5 months of the year playing and the rest biding your time keeping fit for the next season.  And please don’t tell me its equivalent to a full-time career. Yes these blokes are “professional footballers” but they do not work “full-time”.

    • mazzy says:

      07:41am | 23/04/10

      gallop may have exonerated the players, but time and maybe the ATO will ultimately decide that point.

      Reply

    • Pete says:

      07:52am | 23/04/10

      I do not follow football at all, but I have to agree that players and ancillary staff were aware, these guys have been around the game for years, they know the max you can earn under the cap, so they probably did the maths and kept their collective mouths closed.

      I’m sorry but they are as guilty as the perpetrators, by keeping silent.  How can they feign ignorance, when directly after the story broke all the usual suspects were rolled out in front of cameras and almost to a man they had decreed they had “heard rumours”
      This has not finished by a long shot. I am sure if it is happening in one place it will be happening in other places, perhaps to a lesser degree, but human nature beng human nature.

      Reply

    • Andy says:

      08:02am | 23/04/10

      NRL players are not known for their brainpower, but when it comes to money I find it very hard to believe that high paid players didn’t know what was going on.

      Reply

    • Atheistno1 says:

      08:03am | 23/04/10

      I’m afraid that the decision to disqualify the fans & the players of the storm club, is the working mentality of David Gallop. Again & again, Gallop believes he is the law & enforces his thought’s in a manner which is above the law. This matter is a criminal matter that belongs in the hands of the taxation department & the police, to define the guilty members. As far as I’m concerned, the matter here is at the administration level & Gallop is, as usual, trying to throw the ball into the players & public’s hands.

      Reply

    • Brian says:

      11:07am | 23/04/10

      Unfortunately whether we like it or not, David Gallop and the NRL are the law as far as the game is concerned. The response of the NRL has been strong as it should be. My only criticism is Gallop’s exoneration of player and coach - I cannot believe that anyone with half a brain would not have been suspicious.
      I am sure that if there are any criminal issues the police will take the necessay action.

    • Brownie says:

      08:03am | 23/04/10

      It beggars belief that Craig Bellamy and the players weren’t aware of the rort. I just dont believe that only a few are responsible…The only way to salvage some good will from this sordid mess is for those who knew something to confess and apologise. Lying about knowledge just further disenchants us poor mugs - the fans.

      Reply

    • T.Chong says:

      08:05am | 23/04/10

      I wouldnt be at all surprised if Labor and the unions are behind this dastardly plot, right Mavis?

      Reply

    • Ellis says:

      09:16am | 23/04/10

      Wrong, wrong, wrong ! Even a visually challanged Chinese gentleman named Frederick would know with absolute clarity that it’s all John Howard’s dault.

    • Phil says:

      12:06pm | 23/04/10

      No that would have to be Canberra if its occurring. The CFMEU is there sponser. Not at Melbourne. Mind you Melbourne are sponsered by Host Plus the industry super fund, plus ME Bank. No direct union participation here.

      Mind you not a bad day yesterday to announce the scrapping of the Insulation reprogram and the child care centres.

    • Mavis says:

      04:29pm | 23/04/10

      You wound me very deeply, T.Chong. On the other hand, they could have been behind it all. They certainly have a lot of drop kicks amongst them.

    • Super D says:

      08:07am | 23/04/10

      I am completely against the salary cap.  Its institutionalised socialism.  Why can’t one team who pays up dominate the competition at the expense of others who don’t?  Look at the English Premier League - 4 or 5 teams dominate year after year and aren’t forced to pay less so that the also rans canbe competitive.  Frankly the salary cap should be abandoned and clubs free to spend whatever they want - on the proviso that if they bankrupt themselves in the process then they’re gone - no bailouts - and new clubs can be formed to take their places. 

      This will make footy tipping a lot easier too!

      Reply

    • Andy says:

      08:42am | 23/04/10

      Citing the English Premier league as the reason why the salary cap should be abandoned is like citing Charles Manson as a good example of why the death penalty was abolished. The Premier League is the most boring lopsided professional sports league in the world, where all it takes to win is money.

      That said, I agree that the salary cap should be abolished (maybe a luxury tax system like Major League Baseball has would be a better option), but while it is in place it is the law and should be adhered to. Not agreeing with the speed limit is not a valid defense for speeding.

    • Tom says:

      12:52pm | 23/04/10

      I personally would rather have a competition where most teams are a chance at winning the comp over the space of a few seasons. In EPL you get the occasional upset of one of the big teams, but ultimately I find it quite mundane seeing Chelsea, Arsenal and Man U battle it out for the comp.

    • Shano79 says:

      05:32pm | 24/04/10

      Totally agree about scrapping the salary cap. I would rather see a competition of 8 or 10 teams that are made up of the best of the best players week in, week out. The standard of the game would increase substantially

    • pete m says:

      08:12am | 23/04/10

      Absolutely no way the players had no clue.

      At the very least, they would have individually known they received more than the NRL contract stipulated.

      They should be included in any further investigation and NEWS should be very careful with these “employees”.

      Reply

    • Julie Coker-Godson says:

      09:28pm | 23/04/10

      @pete m:  I agree with you and I hope the investigators keep on digging to find out exactly how many people were involved and knew of the breach of the salary cap.  In one of the interviews conducted after the fallout yesterday, one player stated that he and his fellow players never talked about money, that it was not the done thing.  I wonder why?

    • Steve Symon says:

      08:27am | 23/04/10

      Despite protests to the contrary, I’d be extremely surprised if at least the elite players and the coach weren’t aware about the cap being rorted.  Given that they would have input in relation to player retention, it would be completely remiss of them not to know of the financial dealings albeit not down to the last dollar.  To believe otherwise is to be completely naïve but it is also equally naïve to believe that Melbourne are the only perpetrators of fraud.  The $1.7m over a 5 year period would seem to me a little on the low side and I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if more was uncovered and not just at Melbourne Storm.  This is big business and everything from merchandising to corporate sponsorship relies on how well the club is travelling on the field.  Whilesoever rules are in place, people will be out there to break them, be it in sport, politics, business (think the batts fiasco), law and order.  I’m sure News Ltd and Fairfax would’ve been thinking well we’ve got at least 5 days worth of headlines emanating from the slaying of Carl Williams only for the Storm to come along and blow him off the front page.  Since it’s all happened down south, maybe Underbelly 5 can encapsulate it all and include the salary cap scandal alongside the murder of the baby-faced assassin which somehow took the insulation batts farce off the front page (not to mention the health reform package)and the heat off a struggling government.

      Reply

    • Daniel says:

      08:39am | 23/04/10

      The NRL really needs to look hard at this kind of thing and investigate all clubs and see what the rest are doing or this kind of thing could possibly keep occurring. David Gallop needs to get some action going instead of just talk.

      Reply

    • Mark says:

      08:43am | 23/04/10

      Those players (or their managers) on the receiving end of the rort would have had a fair indication that something fishy was going on.  When your remuneration comes in two tranches - a big lump going directly into the bank, and a smaller amount coming in a brown paper bag, even the dumbest of FRFs must have wondered.  Mark Geyer adopted the Sgt Schultz defence on the radio this morning and said that all the players cared about was the $ coming into the bank every month.  Maybe so.

      I suggest the forensic accountants look at how the payments were made - maybe the player’s managers were in on the scam by taking a smaller than normal cut of the players base salary, and topping it up with the contents of the brown paper bags

      Reply

    • Adrian says:

      08:59am | 23/04/10

      Why blame the people of Melbourne? Rugby League isn’t popular here, and simply dumping a new NRL club into the city was never going to make it so.

      Reply

    • S.L says:

      09:53am | 23/04/10

      Adrian we NRL fans north of the border agree with your comments. There are areas in NSW that have wanted their own team for over 30 years and the League don’t want to hear about it. They put teams in places that will never attract more players (and get caught out cheating the system) for whatever reason I have no idea.

    • Seano says:

      09:56am | 23/04/10

      The storm play to packed houses. Seems pretty popular. The real test is whether they will continue to turn out. I think the NRL’s only mistake here is not allowing the Storm to collect points for the rest of the season.

    • Tim says:

      10:14am | 23/04/10

      Bit like the Swans and the Western Sydney AFL team.

    • Shano79 says:

      05:30pm | 24/04/10

      Pretty simple answer to that one - tv rights. By only having involvement from nsw and qld, league could never dream to reach the $$$ for tv rights that AFL acheives. The decision to base a team in Melbourne was purely a financial one.

      By destroying the storm and NRL in Victoria the NRL have effectivley killed off their chances of getting good deal in tv rights - 3 million people pretty much cut out just like that.

    • jim says:

      09:23am | 23/04/10

      Comparatively good crowd figures for Storm/State of Origin games in Melbourne aside… perhaps the people of Melbourne would have ‘taken the team to heart’ if the scandals in modern rugby league weren’t the most interesting part of the sport.

      Funnily enough I saw someone post on another AFL article on this site a few days ago bemoaning the lack of league coverage…

      Reply

    • Tim says:

      12:22pm | 23/04/10

      Yeah, that’s because those Mexicans were too busy covering up all the scandals in the AFL.
      “oh you were assaulted by an AFL player? Well here’s $10K to go away.”

    • SLF says:

      09:28am | 23/04/10

      As for the cap, their are easy improvements that can be made:
      Each team should be allowed 2 players they have developed from a junior to be outside the cap.
      For each season a player remains with a club, 10% of their wage should sit outside the cap so that a 10 season player becomes free to the club as this will reward loyalty and breed club culture which the cap is killing.

      Did the players know what is going on? Only if they knew how much each other was being paid. The one smart thing the Storm did was to lose the right number of mid level stars each season and replace them with younger nobodies. For example, Crocker, Johnson, Jeremy Smith etc all leaving at various times will have freed up dollars and were not replaced by players of the same value so that money from the outside would have looked like it was going to the superstars.

      Reply

    • Rev says:

      01:33pm | 23/04/10

      I agree with the ‘veteran’ idea SLF, but to a point - there would have to be a limit on the number of actual players who would fall into this category, otherwise the cap becomes useless.  And perhaps 5% per year.

      Not so keen on the juniors - struggling clubs who can’t drop cash into programs would miss out.  If you want to be picky, Melbourne would have missed out on all the stars who came through the Norths Devils system if Melbourne were forced to be financially viable.

    • Justin says:

      09:46am | 23/04/10

      I don’t think you can put any blame the people of Melbourne, I mean Olympic Park was an absolute joke & it was just a symptom of the differences between league & AFL. If you’re used to Docklands & the MCG, would you slum it at Olympic Park? And the TV coverage in Melbourne, come on! Where are the NRL’s balls when it comes to even enforcing existing broadcasting clauses, let alone negotiating better coverage? They’re lead around by the nose by Channel 9. If you’re an AFL fan in Sydney, you get the best AFL Tv coverage in the country. If you’re an NRL fan in Melbourne, you get very red eyes.

      I fear for the rest of the season as a team playing for nothing is a dangerous thing. If they’re erratic, just wait for the rumors of betting scandals to emerge. You can imagine News Ltd seeing this as their potential parachute, so if it gets worse, they’ll jump.

      Reply

    • Dognuts says:

      09:54am | 23/04/10

      While I am prepared to give players the benefit of the doubt, the same cannot be said for the Mr. 10-20%ers that manage the players. Surely the player managers would have been aware of these back door payments, as these are the guys directly negotiating the salaries of the players. I thinks the time has now come for the NRL to investigate all the player managers associated with Storm players and throw the book at them if they can be linked to this.

      Reply

    • Randal says:

      10:01am | 23/04/10

      The players would have had no idea, their contracts are organised by player managers, for instance Player X is told by his manager that he will get 450K per year, this payment is paid monthly directly to his manager, the manager then extracts his fee and pays the player directly as single source.

      The player would have no idea how or where the money comes from, where it sits in relation to the salary cap, and would not be discussing his earnings with others.

      Ask yourself a question, how many of you know what your work colleagues earn, it is not something that is generally discussed and the players would be no different.

      Reply

    • David B says:

      10:39am | 23/04/10

      Randal, what blinded faith.  If they were running two sets of books this would undoubtedly mean that the wages in the dodgy set of books would not align with the payments being declared to the ATO.  So.. if a player or players have x dollars on their tax returns and that the amount declared is lower than what they are actually receiving how could they not know?  At very least the player or players are guilty of tax evasion.

    • Ant Sharwood says:

      10:40am | 23/04/10

      You’re right Randal. Player managers are definitely among the villains in this piece. Threw this piece together pretty quickly overnight, but should’ve included managers.

    • Randal says:

      11:42am | 23/04/10

      David B, your comments are made without an understanding of the complicated way in which player payments are made with a mix of payments for base salary, marketing agreements, player performance, awards, finals appearances, premiership’s, Club B&F positions etc etc..

      It would not be difficult for a club to create books that show payments to a player to the NRL which include payments classed within the Salary Cap and hiding payments to players under a separate disguise without any need to declare fraudulent figures to the ATO.

      As such a player would receive what he believes is due to him from the players manager, make his declaration of total earnings, without any issue of tax evasion. The NRL would be unaware of this activity and at this stage, whilst undoubtedly the ATO will investigate, there has been no suggestion or confirmation of players not declaring total incomes.

      I will stand corrected, but will need to see evidence of this occurring before hanging the players out to dry as part of this conspiracy and to make assumptions of player impropriety without actual evidence is very unfair to the players of the Storm and a taint at this stage they do not deserve.

    • David B says:

      12:49pm | 23/04/10

      Randal, fair call.  Perhaps they deserve the benefit of the doubt .  But I certainly wouldnt be betting my house on the players having no knowledge.  Will be interesting to see what comes out of the delloittes investigation.

    • David B says:

      10:26am | 23/04/10

      The whole NRL comp is a shambles and pales in comparison to the AFL.  Time you Rugby league bone heads woke up.  With these latest revelations the gap between the two codes will only widen further.

      Reply

    • Pylades says:

      10:38am | 23/04/10

      @ “The people of Melbourne” comment

      Channel 9 needs to take some of the blame here.  Holds the rights to the games and refused to show them at a remotely watchable time.

      Reply

    • Nic Karandonis says:

      10:53am | 23/04/10

      I agree with Randal and as a former NRL accredited agent, I can say with some authority that the agents themselves are as much to blame as the administrators.  They know exactly what their clients are earning because you can bet London to a brick, they’re not going to miss when it comes to clipping the ticket.  The NRL must take stern action against the agents whose clients are said to have received these under the table fiscal benefits and revoke their accreditation immediately!  They are the perpetrators of this fiasco.  Its no good simply apportioning the blame at the administrators collective feet.

      Reply

    • Wayne from Wantirna says:

      11:45am | 23/04/10

      Hang on a second Mr Sharwood, as an AFL supporter, don’t blame me, even partially, for not being supportive, financially, of the Melbourne Storm, I didn’t want them here to start with.

      Reply

    • Ant Sharwood says:

      12:17pm | 23/04/10

      Wayne. Blaming the people of Melbourne was a bit of a cheeky thing to do, I agree, but there is an element of truth to my point. For years, even before they started (illicitly) winning premierships, the Storm have been one of the most entertaining teams in any Australian sport. Almost never have they been a team that just aims to win. They have always been as innovative and exciting on the field as they have been duplicitous and sneaky in the accounts department. Yet only a tiny, tiny fraction of Melburnians have ever warmed to them. Most, like yourself, would never have bothered to go to a game.

      So compare this to the Sydney Swans. Most Sydney people don’t care about them either. But Sydney folk get what made the 2005 premiership team so special. They understand what Paul Roos did and respect him for it, even if they barely understand the rules of the strange southern game.

      The fact that Melburnians will tell you 100 times an hour that they are Australia’s greatest sports fans, yet have totally failed to grasp the first thing about their own champion rugby league team (at least before its bubble burst yesterday), or the sport it plays, has always been a massive indictment on the sporting credentials of Melburnians. You can’t be the world’s biggest sports nuts just on a diet of AFL, the Oz Open tennis and the boxing day test. You have to embrace a little of the foreign too. And as I argue in today’s piece, if that had happened, the Storm might have never needed to resort to cheating.

    • Rev says:

      01:41pm | 23/04/10

      Ant Sharwood…are you for real?  Melbourne brought in tactics slowing down the game, making it uglier.  How you can classify the grapple as ‘innovative’ is beyond me.  The only entertainment the Storm brought to the code was via guys like Inglis and Slater, and they’d be doing the same thing at any other club.

    • Randal says:

      04:42pm | 23/04/10

      Ant, I feel that you are being very harsh on the people of Melbourne here, and the numbers for the Storm’s attendances in a non NRL town with very little free to air coverage of the sport are comparable to NRL crowd’s in the Northern States i.e. Storm’s Avg attendance 13,539 Vs the League average of a touch over 16,000. It is also a superior average to the Sharks and the Roosters as well as perennial poor crowd puller Canberra.

      The average also equates quite comparably with Manly and Penrith, and these figures are based against a record season for the NRL and considering the sub standard facilities at Olympic Park are quite strong and no doubt before this incident would have increased at the bubble.

      There is also a Roy Morgan poll that lists the Storm as the second most supported team in the NRL, behind the Bronco’s, with 826,000 supporters.

      So to suggest they were not embraced by the people of Melbourne for mine is drawing a long bow.

      If you want to look at the reason behind why some in the administration at the Storm made these decisions, I would strongly suggest a feeling at the club that they did not have the support of the NRL, as the Swans did have from the AFL, and could share some very interesting tales of actions taken by the NRL administration designed at holding the club back - but will refrain on this open forum.

      This lack of support, in my view, created a “Us against them” mentality and certain individuals in the club decided to then take matters into their own hands to get things onto a more even playing field - unfortunately from there it spiraled out of control into the train wreck of yesterday.

      A tragedy for the club, their players and supporters and one that in many ways lays at the feet of the NRL’s wither on the vine mentality towards remote franchised clubs and northern centric thinking.

      I would suggest that the sooner the NRL elects to becomes a professional organisation and forms a commission to run the game separate from the vested interests the better for the national growth of the NRL.

    • jim says:

      12:21pm | 23/04/10

      Storm cheated got it’s fair whack no problem however please god don’t tell me other clubs aren’t cheating Broncos with there almost entire origin for Qld & some for NSW not over salary please.

      Reply

    • David says:

      12:57pm | 23/04/10

      I’d suggest you look at the Broncos playing roster again - if they get 3 players into state of Origin this year they will be doing well - in previous years they have players that have grown up through the ranks - go onto to SOG - but once they got there - other clubs chased them and the Broncos could not afford them. Have a look at the current backline - how many of them had you heard of before the start of this year? 2 or 3 - give them a few years and they will be knocking on SOG doors - Take Matt Gillet as a classic example - almost a complete unknown 6 weeks ago and now being touted for SOG

      The Broncos grow quality - not cheat it

      jim - please!

    • Tim says:

      01:14pm | 23/04/10

      David,
      you could say the same thing about the Canberra Raiders. The amount of talent from the area playing for other teams is amazing.
      In regards to the Broncos, i don’t think they would be over the cap now as they have had to let go a lot of quality players in the last few years but i have no doubt that there was some serious rorting going on in previous years.
      Other clubs i think the NRL should be looking very closely at are:
      Roosters
      Manly
      Titans
      Roosters
      Bulldogs
      Roosters

      Just my thoughts.

    • steve says:

      12:46pm | 23/04/10

      a real supporter wont dump the mebourne storm.we should atleast be able to earn points duing the season if we r give afew weeks to let players go and get us under the salary hat erm cap:P

      Reply

    • Seano says:

      03:33pm | 23/04/10

      Salary sombero…I agree they should be able to earn points this season but should loose all the points they’ve got and 6-10 more…I still reckon they’d be a chance to run down Cronulla.

    • Julie Coker-Godson says:

      09:51pm | 23/04/10

      @Steve:  No they should not be able to earn points this season.  The reason I say this is because of the extent of and intent to deceive that was undertaken:  2 sets of books, a separate room for the secret books, five years duration, $1.7m advantage improperly obtained.  Not only that but, as David Gallop said, the example of what happened to the Bulldogs in 2002 had to be taken into consideration given it was a very strong warning to all clubs what would happen if they took the risk to cheat.  No, I’m sorry Steve but I cannot agree with you on this point.

    • George says:

      12:55pm | 23/04/10

      If there were two sets of books, then the players surely got paid in cash without it being on their group certificate. Would that not raise some eyebrows from these professional people - player managers, accountants etc. I know a lot of them are young and probably not interested in their taxes, but to think that all these payments were happening without them realising they were dodgy is the stuff of fariytales.

      Reply

    • John says:

      01:38pm | 23/04/10

      The AFL are currently endorsing a Salary Cap breach - Chris Judd employed by Visy receives about 10 times the salary of an Environmental Officer and these arrangements are approved by the AFL (see Mark Robinson media article, dated 12 July 2009).  This is just one of many “extra” payments given to key AFL (and probably NRL) players.  The AFL Salary Cap (and possibly the NRL Salary Cap) is flawed and the NRL penalty on Melbourne Storm is absurd in the extreme.

      Reply

    • Cryptic says:

      12:09am | 24/04/10

      AFL clubs and sponsors had better cotton on to the fact that they wil be caught if they also rort the system with third party payments.

    • Ray says:

      01:52pm | 23/04/10

      Latest word is that as Number one Storm female supporter, Julia Gillard recommended the Storm’s Accountant. Same accountant that does the books for the Labour Party and the Country. Both have a second set of books. Wait for these stories to break

      Reply

    • Ben says:

      02:06pm | 23/04/10

      If the NRL want to even up the playing field, why do they pay so much money to the premiership winning team?

      Reply

    • Paul says:

      02:34pm | 23/04/10

      The players have to have known, if not them their agents - if both need to be accredited to the NRL surely they can both be sanctioned. 

      And PS
      There is already a Melbourne storm game to play.

      http://www.storm.admissiondigital.com/

      Reply

    • Psyberus says:

      03:28pm | 23/04/10

      There is more than meets the eye here, I agree, but you missed a few areas:

      1. How many employees sit around and all announce their wages and then add it all up?  Every player would have to reveal their wages and then add it all to determine they were being overpaid. It just doesn’t happen at any workplace, one’s pay is personal information. I’m not sure why people are suggesting its the norm for players to do this?

      2. Why, in a supposed professional investigation of the club, were NRL officials and those involved letting their mates know what was about to happen, to allow so many large bets to be placed on the premiership favourites to suddenly win the wooden spoon. This is unprofessional at the least, and potentially corrupt.

      3. News Ltd and their involvement - the NRL, the Melbourne Storm, and the sponsors that paid extra, are all owned by News Ltd. Yet no one knew that something was amiss?  Something smells there…

      4. The penalty in comparison to non-Melbourne clubs caught breaching the salary cap. 15 out of 16 teams have been caught this decade (key word “caught”), with 12 of these multiple times. Melbourne’s breach on a yearly basis is only $340,000 per year, whilst New Zealand’s was $1 million per year, and the Bulldogs over $500,000 per year. Their penalties were a lot smaller fine, and 4 points (for the largest cheat NZ) and 37 points for the Bulldogs.  Despite higher breaches, they got slaps on the wrist, as do all the other clubs caught cheating. There is NO consistency or logic behind their penalties, no guidelines, its just done on whim and personal opinions at the time. There has been strong evidence to suggest an anti-Melbourne bias in the past few years, and this has all but confirmed the subjective and emotional attitude towards Melbourne.

      5. The fallout - The NRL knowingly imposed the harshest penalties on the Storm, well above what worse salary breaches have incurred, and made a bigger deal and circus about it than previous breaches. Their penalties and expected reactions are well known - reduction in fan base and memberships, loss of sponsors, reduction in support in Melbourne, and likely folding of the club.  These penalties, trumped up beyond any previous consistency, have been imposed knowing that these reactions.  As a result, the NRL are indirectly yet deliberately inflicting further penalties and knowlingly destroying NRL support in Melbourne forever.  Sydney/Melbourne rivalry should not affect their professional or job, yet it has.

      6. 15 out 16 clubs caught breaching the salary cap, multiple times, year in year out.  A culture amongst all clubs that it is rife, and expected, and the accepted norm, the only trick is to not get caught. The salary cap is far too low, mainly because media and broadcast rights are pretty much given away for free to their parent company, meaning there is less funds to distribute to players.

      7. Competency of the NRL auditors. 5 years worth, yet they only decide to investigate after a whistleblower dobs in Melbourne, and they are handed a “secret book”.  Given the pressure of all clubs to breach the cap, and all do, shouldn’t the auditors be more qualified and working harder on this. It was only $340,000 per year, but because there were such poor checks and balances by the NRL, it was allowed to go on for many years and increase.

      All of these facts suggest that Melbourne Storm were deceitful, mismanaged, and fraudalent, yet they fit right into the NRL.

      Reply

    • V says:

      07:44pm | 23/04/10

      @Psyberus

      Completely agree, and also what about this marquee hiring explanation. Also smells fishy, - why would you spend $20 000 per home game to rent a marquee that you could have probably purchased outright for the same amount of money or less?
      Remember this is a club that loses $4mil/year or so, surely someone would have looked at the books and thought gee we’re spending alot on marquee hire.

      Reply

    • JanS says:

      12:38pm | 24/04/10

      I can’t believe it has taken David Gallop and cronies 5 years to become aware of this.  Who has had his head in the sand.  Would you really like your CEO to be so naive.  Perhaps he [they] should take some of the blame for not being on the ball, so to speak.

      Reply

    • Gill says:

      12:57pm | 24/04/10

      It’s bad form to criticize people for not buying a product. If they aren’t buying then the problem is with the product, not the people. The fact is that Rugby League is boring and slow compared to Australian Football, which is why the NRL is in terminal decline.

      Reply

    • Luke says:

      06:31pm | 24/04/10

      It is so typically Australian to promote a system like the salary cap, which is designed to bring the standard down to the lowest common denominator, instead of raising the bar. 

      I am sick of all this ‘fair whack’ crap.  When you take everything into consideration, the penalty is way too harsh and makes a joke of having an NRL team in Melbourne, as good as they are. It is clear that most of the NRL administraion and certainly the NSW supporters do not want ‘their’ game to extend beyond QLD. 

      Just wait until New Zealand start winning. 

      I won’t support a competition whose administration hands out sanctions that penalise the fans and players instead of those who have transgressed.  We shouldn’t overlook the fact that it is the fans who provide the money to pay everyone,  including the administration. 

      There have been many lucid explanations already as to why the players may not be aware of the breaches,  particularly if they were told it was all above board, as is reported.  We are not talking a lot of money here either, relatively speaking. From what I read, it was less than the Bulldogs breach!

      Why is it too, that we froth at the mouth, excitedly suggesting that there is tax evasion in all of this?  When did we start thinking it was good to dob people in to the tax department, particularly when it is out of spite?  It is the players responsibility to declare their income accurately and has nothing to do with how they are paid and whether there is more that one source of income.  I am sure they get the best advice form their own accountants and lodge their returns accordingly.  Two sets of books does not imply undeclared income. 

      It never ceases to amaze and disappoint me as to how holier than thou we can get.  I wonder how many people, pointing their finger here have taken cash and not declared it?

      Most agree that all the clubs do it, which mitigates any advantage Storm may have had.  It is time to be fair about this and not act tough, thumping your chest when you know it doesn’t matter, because it is only Melbourne.  Maybe in this case though, it matters more than you think.

      Whichever way you look at it, the Melbourne Storm showed what great football was and won two out of four grand finals played (which means they lost two).  How they did that and how much advantage they had is another argument altogether.  It is illogical to take the premierships away. 

      The players from both sides played the games without protest and all teams would have rated themselves a chance.

      Maybe the biggest advantage Storm had was being located away from the rest of the NRL.

      Reply

    • Barry says:

      09:00pm | 24/04/10

      Is this article part of News.Ltd’s orchestrated campaign to drag themselves out of the dirt and deflect blame? Please give blame where it’s due and cop it on the chin.

      Reply

    • Grumpy Middle Aged Man says:

      09:46am | 25/04/10

      I’ve got to say that while I understand why we have a salary cap I think it stinks.  It is there so that the poorer clubs can survive, it is there so that the rich clubs don’t win all of the trophies because they’ve got the best players.  You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to understand that, but I have to say that if someone from outside of your organisation decided what your organisation could pay and set a salary cap you might just feel ripped off, and you may see yourself looking for the big dollars overseas, it happened in the UK before we had a salary cap and it is happening here too.  Why not just let the teams do what they want, pay what they want but tell them that if they pay too much and they go broke the NRL or the AFL or which ever league they’re in will not bale them out.  If they want to pay megabucks to players then let them do it, but make the player payments public, so if a player is being paid a kings ransom and they’re not doing a good job the fans will know too.

      Reply
 
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