butchmcdick
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Fools to the north, dunderheads to the south
It is a sharp jab to the likes of Phil Gould up north and passionate but thick-headed Victorians down south that the villain in this Melbourne Storm scandal is not the NRL boss David Gallop. Nor is it salary cap scrooge Ian Schubert.
The only people who are to be criticised over Storm's five-year sting that corrupted the NRL competition are those Storm officials who deliberately acted outside the salary cap rules. No doubt the two investigations that start today into the Storm's business practices will identify who did what. They are the ones who deserve our scorn. What these investigations will not find is that Gallop or Schubert played any part in duping the competition and paying players over the salary cap.
So Gould and his like and the loyal but brain-dead Victorians should look elsewhere as they weep about the state of the NRL.
That is not to say Gould has not delighted us with his logic. After Gallop's administration - with the full support of Storm owners News Ltd (publisher of The Australian) and the other 15 clubs - took all of Melbourne's points this season and ruled that it could not accrue any for the rest of the season, took away two premierships and three minor titles, after they fined the club $500,000 and demanded the return of $1.1 million in prizemoney, Gould demanded that the NRL find a "can-do" management style. That is breathtaking, Phil.
The response in Victoria to the Storm's corruption and consequent punishment has been a telling illustration that rugby league has cut a niche into the state's sporting psyche much deeper and broader than most believed. Sunday night's game drew a tram short of 24,000 people and no doubt helped drive the players' trouncing of the Warriors. It would be most reassuring to Gallop and News Ltd, owner of Storm, and something to rejoice had it come in different circumstances. Nonetheless, the story has driven the AFL off the front and back pages for a run of four days. Not even soccer's World Cup in June is likely to do that.
Over the weekend of Anzac Day AFL matches, the most prominent issue on the pre-match radio shows was not Sydney, Collingwood, Brisbane or Geelong, but the Storm.
The morning after the story broke last Thursday, SEN, Melbourne's 24-hour sports station found the dominant theme was the Storm. On the morning show from nine o'clock through to noon, the dominant topic was the Storm. So much so that the first hour - historically devoted to the AFL round of matches coming up - did not take one AFL call but was overrun with Storm supporters. In that hour the station received more than 500 text messages, all addressing not the AFL but the Storm's crushing penalties.
A
gain yesterday, the overriding topic on talkback was the Storm. Even on a public holiday morning and after an AFL round in which previously unbeaten sides Brisbane and St Kilda suffered their first losses, everybody wanted to talk about the Storm.
The central issues in Victoria and for the Goulds of the world up north are, one, that the NRL is resisting any push for the Storm to take a range of salary cuts to fit under the cap; two, no matter what it does it cannot earn any points for the rest of the season, and finally that the Storm developed these players and therefore are entitled to keep them. It is the thinking of simple minds.
The reason the salary cap is in place is to maintain as even a competition as possible and stop one or two wealthy clubs buying the best players in the land year after year. Without the cap, the poorer clubs would become chronically weak and sooner rather than later curl up and die.
The only method that allowed the Storm to collect such a talented team was to deliberately work outside and around the salary cap rules. So the present Storm squad has been collected illegally. Even if the players took pay cuts and squeezed in under the salary cap, every other club would be disadvantaged because they had no opportunity to recruit a similar strength team.
Under such circumstances it is only fair the Storm cannot accrue points for this season. Only when the team is broken up by strict application of the salary cap should it be allowed to compete for points.
And that won't happen until next year at the earliest.
The NRL erred in 2002 when it allowed the Bulldogs, big-time salary cap rorters, to remain together by taking pay cuts.
A team that was marshalled outside game's rules proceeded to just miss the grand final in 2003 and won the premiership in 2004. Rorting the cap was rewarded. The NRL has learnt from such a lenient approach.
It is irrelevant that the Storm turned some of its players into elite league athletes. What is germane is what happened once they became stars. It is what the Storm did to retain them that is central to this argument. And we know that was to cheat the competition.
It is hypocritical to argue that the Storm has nothing to play for. Coach Craig Bellamy and his players have been adamant that a determination to retain their integrity and dignity will be force enough. Sunday night's win might be the first chapter in one of the great sport stories. A group of players who refused to bow.
When the Bulldogs were stripped of 37 points in 2002 people hardly drenched talkback radio with the unfairness of it all. No, Gould has got this wrong because he lacks a proper understanding of the purpose of the salary cap, tangled up with what appears an irrational dislike of the NRL and its boss. As for the Victorians, well, they might love their Storm more than they understand right from wrong.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/new...ads-to-the-south/story-e6frg7t6-1225858535450
Not a bad article from an AFL scribe.
- <LI class="byline first ">Patrick Smith <LI class="source ">From: The Australian <LI class="date-and-time ">April 27, 2010 12:00AM
It is a sharp jab to the likes of Phil Gould up north and passionate but thick-headed Victorians down south that the villain in this Melbourne Storm scandal is not the NRL boss David Gallop. Nor is it salary cap scrooge Ian Schubert.
The only people who are to be criticised over Storm's five-year sting that corrupted the NRL competition are those Storm officials who deliberately acted outside the salary cap rules. No doubt the two investigations that start today into the Storm's business practices will identify who did what. They are the ones who deserve our scorn. What these investigations will not find is that Gallop or Schubert played any part in duping the competition and paying players over the salary cap.
So Gould and his like and the loyal but brain-dead Victorians should look elsewhere as they weep about the state of the NRL.
That is not to say Gould has not delighted us with his logic. After Gallop's administration - with the full support of Storm owners News Ltd (publisher of The Australian) and the other 15 clubs - took all of Melbourne's points this season and ruled that it could not accrue any for the rest of the season, took away two premierships and three minor titles, after they fined the club $500,000 and demanded the return of $1.1 million in prizemoney, Gould demanded that the NRL find a "can-do" management style. That is breathtaking, Phil.
The response in Victoria to the Storm's corruption and consequent punishment has been a telling illustration that rugby league has cut a niche into the state's sporting psyche much deeper and broader than most believed. Sunday night's game drew a tram short of 24,000 people and no doubt helped drive the players' trouncing of the Warriors. It would be most reassuring to Gallop and News Ltd, owner of Storm, and something to rejoice had it come in different circumstances. Nonetheless, the story has driven the AFL off the front and back pages for a run of four days. Not even soccer's World Cup in June is likely to do that.
Over the weekend of Anzac Day AFL matches, the most prominent issue on the pre-match radio shows was not Sydney, Collingwood, Brisbane or Geelong, but the Storm.
The morning after the story broke last Thursday, SEN, Melbourne's 24-hour sports station found the dominant theme was the Storm. On the morning show from nine o'clock through to noon, the dominant topic was the Storm. So much so that the first hour - historically devoted to the AFL round of matches coming up - did not take one AFL call but was overrun with Storm supporters. In that hour the station received more than 500 text messages, all addressing not the AFL but the Storm's crushing penalties.
A
gain yesterday, the overriding topic on talkback was the Storm. Even on a public holiday morning and after an AFL round in which previously unbeaten sides Brisbane and St Kilda suffered their first losses, everybody wanted to talk about the Storm.
The central issues in Victoria and for the Goulds of the world up north are, one, that the NRL is resisting any push for the Storm to take a range of salary cuts to fit under the cap; two, no matter what it does it cannot earn any points for the rest of the season, and finally that the Storm developed these players and therefore are entitled to keep them. It is the thinking of simple minds.
The reason the salary cap is in place is to maintain as even a competition as possible and stop one or two wealthy clubs buying the best players in the land year after year. Without the cap, the poorer clubs would become chronically weak and sooner rather than later curl up and die.
The only method that allowed the Storm to collect such a talented team was to deliberately work outside and around the salary cap rules. So the present Storm squad has been collected illegally. Even if the players took pay cuts and squeezed in under the salary cap, every other club would be disadvantaged because they had no opportunity to recruit a similar strength team.
Under such circumstances it is only fair the Storm cannot accrue points for this season. Only when the team is broken up by strict application of the salary cap should it be allowed to compete for points.
And that won't happen until next year at the earliest.
The NRL erred in 2002 when it allowed the Bulldogs, big-time salary cap rorters, to remain together by taking pay cuts.
A team that was marshalled outside game's rules proceeded to just miss the grand final in 2003 and won the premiership in 2004. Rorting the cap was rewarded. The NRL has learnt from such a lenient approach.
It is irrelevant that the Storm turned some of its players into elite league athletes. What is germane is what happened once they became stars. It is what the Storm did to retain them that is central to this argument. And we know that was to cheat the competition.
It is hypocritical to argue that the Storm has nothing to play for. Coach Craig Bellamy and his players have been adamant that a determination to retain their integrity and dignity will be force enough. Sunday night's win might be the first chapter in one of the great sport stories. A group of players who refused to bow.
When the Bulldogs were stripped of 37 points in 2002 people hardly drenched talkback radio with the unfairness of it all. No, Gould has got this wrong because he lacks a proper understanding of the purpose of the salary cap, tangled up with what appears an irrational dislike of the NRL and its boss. As for the Victorians, well, they might love their Storm more than they understand right from wrong.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/new...ads-to-the-south/story-e6frg7t6-1225858535450
Not a bad article from an AFL scribe.
