Melbourne must still be cheating the cap

[Lambretta]

So the first troll sets up a troll free thread.

If payments had no effect, why did they have to pay over the cap in the first place?

It's a great question and a valid one mate.

However, payments over the odds had no effect building the team, rather it was retention of players and fear of future failure which forced them over the salary cap.

Ergo: They didn't spend big to attract other clubs players, but when they coached and developed a player into a top player they wanted to pay extra to retain them. So yes, they "cheated" under the current rules.

Personally though I think the rules are disgracefully unfair in the first place but that's not what is being discussed here.

On topic, I think the Melbourne Storm have shown themselves that they actually didnt NEED to cheat the salary cap. They probably would have been successful without paying all the additional money. They were stupidly driven by fear to do it and it cost the club and its supporters dearly.

I hope they go on and win the comp fairly with the team they have this season.

 

[Lambretta]

None of the above changes the fact that your team was illegally assembled and you are still benefiting form that cheating.

It’s exactly the same in that neither of the 2 clubs was punished appropriately and both benefited in the following years from the cheating. The Bulldogs with a prelim final in 03 and a premiership in 04 and the Storm are looking likely this year.

Both sides should have been completely dismantled.

Er, I think you'll find that Greg Inglis, Brett White, Aiden Tollman & Ryan Hoffman all left the Melbourne Storm. I believe there may have been others, but I cant think of them off the top of my head. Not many other clubs could survive such an exodus.

The Dogs from memory weren't forced to offload any players to bring them back within the cap. They were allowed to retain ALL their players on the same income. The Dogs were treated far more leniently than Melbourne were.

Look at the Storms line up and tell me how many of the following are big money superstars.... Maurice Blair, Adam Woolnough, Matt Duffie, Kevin Proctor, Gareth Widdop, Jesse Bromwich, Ryan Hinchcliffe, Todd Lowrie, Jaiman Lowe.

Your suggestion of dismantling the team completely is born out of ignorance, anger and hatred. Stop and actually engage your brain before you make a statement please.

 

[kia ora storm]

Er, I think you'll find that Greg Inglis, Brett White, Aiden Tollman & Ryan Hoffman all left the Melbourne Storm. I believe there may have been others, but I cant think of them off the top of my head. Not many other clubs could survive such an exodus.

The Dogs from memory weren't forced to offload any players to bring them back within the cap. They were allowed to retain ALL their players on the same income. The Dogs were treated far more leniently than Melbourne were.

Look at the Storms line up and tell me how many of the following are big money superstars.... Maurice Blair, Adam Woolnough, Matt Duffie, Kevin Proctor, Gareth Widdop, Jesse Bromwich, Ryan Hinchcliffe, Todd Lowrie, Jaiman Lowe.

Your suggestion of dismantling the team completely is born out of ignorance, anger and hatred. Stop and actually engage your brain before you make a statement please.

This x2...

 

[POPEYE]

Naivety keeps the power brokers all over the world in business. Even an American president occasionally get's caught out but mostly people in power stay that way because the average Joe will believe what

he wants to believe, not what's staring him in the face. Anyone believing that only Melbourne rewarded their top players under the table is a fool.

The amount doesn't matter as much as the offer being appreciated by the player. Doesn't take much of an extra effort to keep a player where he wants to be if his family's welbeing is catered for.

The main difference in Melbourne's case is that most people want them to fail for all sorts of reasons and if they were serious underchievers overpaying players to remain in an alien environment

no-one would give a toss. Jealousy is a curse.

 

[Westernised Panther]

Melbourne won't win the comp - cheaters never prosper!!

 

[StormChaser]

Can you smell the fear and paranoia? It's a beautiful thing, trololololol

 

[mongoose]

this storm side is still illegal in my view.

the core of the team and the youngsters who have come through would look compeltely different had the side not been illegally assembled.

imo, if this where to happen again the whole team should have contarcts anulled and go to the open market.

any players who fail to find a club elsewhere would then be re-signed first on their original contarcts and then the club could fill the rest of the roster spots.

How was the side illegally assembled? Cronk, Smith, Slater and Inglis were all in the Melbourne system well before they went over the salary cap... as were many other players. They all started on minimum salary remember.

Some of you people say "assembled" as if these players were purchased for millions of dollars from some illegal assembly line.

 

[taxidriver]

How was the side illegally assembled? Cronk, Smith, Slater and Inglis were all in the Melbourne system well before they went over the salary cap... as were many other players. They all started on minimum salary remember.

Some of you people say "assembled" as if these players were purchased for millions of dollars from some illegal assembly line.

Are you serious?

You want me to rehash the whole scandal again?

So what if they started on minimum salary, they were assembled and maintained through systematic and ingrained dishonesty. Fact.

 

[POPEYE]

Are you serious?

You want me to rehash the whole scandal again?

So what if they started on minimum salary, they were assembled and maintained through systematic and ingrained dishonesty. Fact.

Hard to argue with that being partly their reason for greatness. The rest can be put down to everything else the Storm do better.

It is galling that they are consistently the best team on the field but had the wooden spoon in the area of administration. Being so comprehensively caught out is embarrassing in the world of league deception.

 

[POPEYE]

Melbourne won't win the comp - cheaters never prosper!!

By 'comp' you mean the final series lottery reserved for one team on the day in Setember I suppose. Doesn't matter that the Storm will probably finish near the top in the 'real' 26 round comp or that they have secured a

seriously high profile sponsor and their following is increasing in leaps and bounds. Nor that agents have their promising junior clients lining up for trials and more and more people are sympathising with their unusual circumstances.

Because they are prospering does that stand to reason that 'cheating' must be the wrong label

 

[bottle]

more and more people are sympathising with their unusual circumstances.

Proof? I assume by 'unusual circumstances' you mean blatant cheating?
I don't know what circles you mix in but there is no sympathy for the Cheats amongst the league fans I know. Sympathy for their (reasonable) fans maybe, and the players not involved in the rorts, but zilch for the club and the players who benefitted from the largess.

 

[POPEYE]

Proof? I assume by 'unusual circumstances' you mean blatant cheating?
I don't know what circles you mix in but there is no sympathy for the Cheats amongst the league fans I know. Sympathy for their (reasonable) fans maybe, and the players not involved in the rorts, but zilch for the club and the players who benefitted from the largess.

You're assumption is wrong, but that was to be expected. The 'unusual circumstances' are that of sending a team behind enemy lines and expecting them to establish a perimeter. Expecting them not to use every

avenue to stay alive against the wishes of a lot of league rednecks who would have been happy to see them fade into obsolescence. The Storm have probably been 'rewarding' the players since day one '99.

It is virtually impossible now to do any harm to the Storm because everyone concerned with them knows their true value both to the game and their supporters. By hook or crook, but not by poaching, have they upped the ante

 

[Hutty1986]

You're assumption is wrong, but that was to be expected. The 'unusual circumstances' are that of sending a team behind enemy lines and expecting them to establish a perimeter. Expecting them not to use every

avenue to stay alive against the wishes of a lot of league rednecks who would have been happy to see them fade into obsolescence. The Storm have probably been 'rewarding' the players since day one '99.

It is virtually impossible now to do any harm to the Storm because everyone concerned with them knows their true value both to the game and their supporters. By hook or crook, but not by poaching, have they upped the ante

Boo f**king hoo, they're in AFL heartland. How the hell does that justify blatantly cheating?

 

[bottle]

So you're saying that 'more and more people' are now sympathising with them because they are based in Melbourne than was ever the case before, is that right? Sorry if I missed it, was never any good at the cryptic crosswords either. And if I'm reading between the lines correctly (again correct me if I'm wrong) it was ok for them to cheat, indeed it was to be expected, because it was a tough ask down there.
Anyone who supports the N in NRL understands that Melbourne is a must, as indeed are probably Perth and Adelaide over time. Do we accept that it's ok for these sides, if introduced, to cheat as well? Is this 'for the good of the game' or some other noble reason?
The game is good enough of its own accord to garner support over time, and the benefits to the game of increased exposure and TV deal money should be the desired outcomes. To turn a blind eye to outright rorting is too high a price to pay, unfair to other teams and supporters and not accepted by the majority of league followers.
No one who understands the cap rorting situation is accusing the Storm of poaching anyone. Rather it was that they denied other teams to the opportunity to poach players they 'developed' under a level playing field scenario. Every other club has to deal with this and compete on this basis. It has to work this way if you support a Salary Cap system. Anyone is free to support or not support such as a system as they see fit, but that's the system ALL clubs are expected to operate under at present.

 

[Plutonium]

Er, I think you'll find that Greg Inglis, Brett White, Aiden Tollman & Ryan Hoffman all left the Melbourne Storm. I believe there may have been others, but I cant think of them off the top of my head. Not many other clubs could survive such an exodus.

The Dogs from memory weren't forced to offload any players to bring them back within the cap. They were allowed to retain ALL their players on the same income. The Dogs were treated far more leniently than Melbourne were.

Look at the Storms line up and tell me how many of the following are big money superstars.... Maurice Blair, Adam Woolnough, Matt Duffie, Kevin Proctor, Gareth Widdop, Jesse Bromwich, Ryan Hinchcliffe, Todd Lowrie, Jaiman Lowe.

Your suggestion of dismantling the team completely is born out of ignorance, anger and hatred. Stop and actually engage your brain before you make a statement please.

So add Brett Finch to your list and they lost 5 decent players? Well boo hoo.

I couldn’t care less how many of their current players are not big name players. They may well be big name players and they were ILLEGALLY assembled. I am not sure why you find that concept so hard to grasp. In addition to that they kept 3 of their “big 4” who happen to comprise 3 of the top 10 players in the league.

I don’t hate the storm but why shouldn’t I be angry? Whilst my team toiled (as well as every other) over those 5 years experiencing highs and dreadful lows (whilst abiding to the salary cap), we had the Storm blatantly cheating and qualifying for 4 grand finals in a row.

So what message is the NRL sending?

Apparently it’s ok to cheat. You may lose your premierships (although the fans will say they deserved it and still recognise them), you may even lose points for that year but don’t worry because you can still use that illegally assembled team to win a premiership within 2 years.

 

[POPEYE]

Boo f**king hoo, they're in AFL heartland. How the hell does that justify blatantly cheating?

Not saying what they did was right, only justified. You can cry all you like but the fact remains that anybody that matters to the Storm is satisfied that they did no more than what a lot of clubs have been doing.

Being allowed to benefit from what you create instead of poach justifies the means

 

[Hutty1986]

Not saying what they did was right, only justified. You can cry all you like but the fact remains that anybody that matters to the Storm is satisfied that they did no more than what a lot of clubs have been doing.

Being allowed to benefit from what you create instead of poach justifies the means

Cocaine's a hell of a drug

 

[Bulldog Force]

I mean how else could they be coming 1st on the ladder?

It's almost as if the amount players are paid has absolutely no effect on how they perform on the field, and that Melbourne's dominance from 06-09 was a result of a team with a superior culture and greater dedication to their jobs than the rest of the teams in the comp.

So now on behalf of the Melbourne Storm i'll be accepting apologies from those of you who wrongfully discredited Melbourne's achievements of 06-09 due to their "cheating".

Oh and please note that this is a "troll free" thread so please try to keep the discourse in this thread civil.

Assumption is the mother of all f**k ups!

 

[bottle]

Cocaine's a hell of a drug

More likely to be Tacrine than Coke

 

[This Year?]

Can you smell the fear and paranoia? It's a beautiful thing, trololololol