They won the premierships, and no-one can change that any more than they can rewrite history.
Regardless of whatever pronouncements the bureaucrats and administrators want to make after the fact, the history books will all show that Melbourne won the comp in 2007 and 2009.
Did they use performance enhancing substances? No. Did they bribe the officials? No. Did they cheat the rules of the game of rugby league football? No.
They won because they were the best team on the day.
They did not adhere to the commercial rules of the NRL. However those rules have nothing to do with playing football, and everything to do with keeping the player wage bill low for the owners of the league and imposing some kind of contrived equality to the competition.
I couldn't care less about those rules, so I still regard them as the premiership winners.
Regardless of whatever pronouncements the bureaucrats and administrators want to make after the fact, the history books will all show that Melbourne won the comp in 2007 and 2009.
Did they use performance enhancing substances? No. Did they bribe the officials? No. Did they cheat the rules of the game of rugby league football? No.
They won because they were the best team on the day.
They did not adhere to the commercial rules of the NRL. However those rules have nothing to do with playing football, and everything to do with keeping the player wage bill low for the owners of the league and imposing some kind of contrived equality to the competition.
I couldn't care less about those rules, so I still regard them as the premiership winners.