https://www.theaustralian.com.au/sp...r/news-story/5519ad9a519aeb5479538a0c103897e9
Scott Penn called the tune expecting a waltz and ended asunder
This all started with a rumour and a phone call. In the middle of last year, as Strike Force Nuralda was concluding its investigation into rumours of match fixing involving Manly games, chair Scott Penn approached the NRL and asked it to investigate the club’s salary cap.
The NRL was on high alert anyway. While police hadn’t shared any information — NSW Crime Command is surrounded by strict privacy provisions — it was aware of the very same rumours, many of which had been fuelled by suggestions that the match-fixing investigation had uncovered evidence of potential salary cap irregularities.
Penn no doubt expected the NRL to waltz in, take a look around and give the Sea Eagles the green light. Naive? Apparently so. Instead, the integrity unit began a forensic investigation that involved more than 800,000 emails and text messages, and yesterday culminated in Manly being torn asunder.
Fines totalling $750,000, salary cap penalties amounting to $660,000 over this season and next. Question marks over deals involving 13 players across five seasons, five of those deals quite significant.
Coach Trent Barrett issued with a warning. Club legend Bob Fulton, one of only eight of the game’s Immortals, basically told he was no longer welcome to hold an official position in the game, at least until he fronted the integrity unit and explained his involvement in this sorry saga.
The Sea Eagles are exploring their options and an appeal could be on the radar. For the time being, they are in damage control. It’s an area they know only too well. Manly have been a haven for controversy in recent years.
It is hard to believe things could get as damaging as when Strike Force Nuralda was in full swing, but it goes close. Fingers are being pointed in myriad directions as the search begins to find which players were paid what.
Penn continues to protest the club’s innocence. Given the amount of evidence the NRL says it has against the club, one can wonder how rose-coloured Penn’s glasses are. It is an ugly game which will test the nerve of not just the players, but also Barrett. The coach last night provided an insight into the challenges brought about by the cap investigation, not just over the past eight months but also moving forward.
Barrett, speaking on
NRL360 on Fox League, fears it will affect the club’s ability to keep some of their best young players, but also to manage their cap moving forward. That said, Barrett isn’t running away and he isn’t the only one up for a fight.
Penn is digging in his heels and preparing for an appeal, insisting the issue is one of interpretation rather than a deliberate and systematic attempt to rort the system.
As for Fulton, he was ready to launch a jihad on the NRL. The legendary Sea Eagles player and coach refuted suggestions from NRL chief executive Todd Greenberg that he failed to make himself available for interview.
He insisted he had text messages to prove it. Fulton said he was initially contacted by the NRL integrity unit when he was about to leave for a holiday in Hawaii, having already stepped down from his role at the club.
He says he told investigator Karyn Murphy he was happy to meet the integrity unit face-to-face when he returned. He said they also wanted a face-to-face meeting.
He then said he was contacted while he was in Hawaii by the NRL integrity unit asking whether they could conduct the interview via Skype. Fulton didn’t know what Skype was but had it explained to him. Fulton insisted he wanted to sit down and see the whites of their eyes. He said they agreed and let it go.
Three days later, he said he was contacted again as he was going out to dinner. He said they told him they needed to speed things up because Greenberg wanted to bring the investigation to a close. This all unfolded in early December. Not long after, the NRL issued its preliminary findings against the club. Fulton’s testimony was clearly not necessary.
Fulton said the next time he heard from the NRL was when Greenberg called him yesterday to inform him that he was holding a press conference to announce the sanctions against Manly.
Fulton sat back and watched as Greenberg told the press conference that the Manly legend had resisted attempts to be interviewed. Fulton was furious and is exploring his options.
Manly have been battered from pillar to post over the past two years, the allegations stretching from match fixing to cap cheating. It has made them resilient, but also tested their patience. Once again, they are in the dock. Long despised, they have given their critics more ammunition.
Yesterday morning, Penn and chief executive Lyall Gorman attended the NRL where they were told by Greenberg and chief operating officer Nick Weeks that their club had been found culpable of abusing the salary cap.
Penn may think twice before picking up the phone again.
This. So much this.
