So Ram,
Point A) Yep nothing anyone can do about that now.
Point C) Yep we all know we need to pay our players more to stave off the vulchers from rah rah and indeed the Awful. Gods willing the IC and our next rights deal will help the NRL clubs in doing so.
But as David Gallop said, this is not a time to debate the cap. We all know it must rise, and I know that the NRL and many clubs are waiting until we are rid of News running our game and taking the profits from it.
But Point B) That is the one that really screws with me.
Now I do not doubt that the Melbourne Storm faithful will have their faith tested with this. I also believe that the teams beaten by the Melbourne Storm with have every right to feel cheated, BUT.
The 2004 premiership still sticks in my craw. The Bulldogs, systematicly defrauded and cheated the cap, to keep their side together or attract new players to replace those retiring, and then when they were caught they all took a pay cut to play together and in the end won a premiership.
In reality the fruits of their fraud were still eventually rewarded with their 8th premiership.
Now any solution that Gus or the Jaycar guy have come up with, miss this point.
If the players take a paycut, then they still are playing with an illeagly formed team.
Lets use Parramatta as an example for this, based on next yearr, We cheat the cap, sign everyone going on Megabucks, get caught early in the year, Indeed confess about round 7. Reduce the salarys of the players, because they want to stay together, play for points and win a premiership because we are playing with 6 million dollars worth of talent in the free market.
Personally, that premiership would be quite bitter in my mouth, and everyone else in the league would be in their right to feel cheated.
This side, the Melbourne Storm need to be disassembled. But until that can be done, completely we must persist.
Those Storm players have contracts, they must be either paid for, or out. If we rip the Storm apart now, 5 players or more are sitting on the side lines for the next 18 weeks.
Now the next plan that everyone will go to, is ban the entire side, and let every team that plays then have the bye. Indeed if you have a Melbourne Bye, you don't get two points for the bye because some teams play them twice, but you don't risk your players, and not costs involved for your except a possible earning loss.
Of course when we speak about sallary caps we speak about the TV rights deal and that is very important as the TV rights deal means that the NRL MUST provide 8 games a week for most rounds.
With a team having a Melbourne bye, there are only 7 games a week and the code would loss a portion of its TV revenue. So all clubs would be once again affected by this finacially, in a two fold manner.
So what is the option.
Gus's Option of let them all take Sallery cuts and then start from Zero, doesn't work because the side is still built illegally.
The Option of cutting players free so that the Storm can start from Zero, doesn't work because they will cut a heap of Mid range players, not their stars, not the ones that were paid over the odds, and those mid range blokes won't have any club to go to and will be forced to sit on the sidelines, waiting for a contract. Hell that solution will most probably further perpetuate the the "Player Drain" to England, or French Rugby.
The current option, keeps the players paid, keeps the Storm putting on a show. Keeps the 8 games, and ensure that the Storm won't reach the Semi's because of their cheating ways, and personally that is far more pallitable than any other option that Gus or anyone else has come up with. The Storm will still be playing. Indeed when John Hartigan was asked by the Players, what are they playing for, he said "Pride". The Storm has a chance to put on a show, all over the league world with what they have been given, a show that can attract punters to the game in Melbourne, indeed can attract punters to stadium through out the country, but they need to look at the posatives and not the negatives, which in my opinion, people like Gus have been.
