Melbourne must still be cheating the cap

[DJShaksta]

Legitimately built of years of cheating

 

[Raider_69]

Siege mentality once again in full effect...if people are going to whinge this year if Storm win the comp then so be it but I will defend the club to the hilt...it will be a legitimate premiership.

as well you should, they are a wonderful team and worthy of every proud supporter they have.

 

[afinalsin666]

You're speeding fine analogy is as laughable as all your others. The only way for that scenario to resemble what happened to the Melbourne Storm would be for someone to be caught speeding a few k's over the limit and then given a 5 years in gaol while everyone else gets off with a fine.

No guy, the way that would work is someone going 125 in a 100 zone, then the Melbourne Storm coming flying along in a Bugatti Veyron doing 400.

Add the premierships to that and it would be like getting out of said Veyron and murdering a child.

The analogy is not aimed at the punishment, only the crime.

The cheating was bad, but the worst thing was our success.

 

[POPEYE]

Oh look, Popeye comes back with a cliche.
Interesting you mentioned a tool. There's a synergy there.

Bet you've got a house full of second prizes

 

[Hutty1986]

LOL@Butters. The legitimate Melbourne fans must cringe every time you post.

I've been away a few days, I'm surprised Pops hasn't been picked up by the nuthouse yet.

 

[Frailty]

We can just be thankful that merkins like Butters are not representative of the Melbourne Storm fan base - who are for the most part one of the better support groups I have come in contact with.

And Butters... Calling you are Victorian is not an insult - it is an accurate description.

You have only shown your argument to be paper thin with no understanding of justice. You earlier claimed all clubs were cheating with exception of Cronulla... If you stand by that comment than Melbourne got an advantage over Cronulla - thus cheating.

I agree that the NRL should do a full audit - but does that excuse Melbourne's blatant cheating? No. They broke rules they should be punished and given how they cheated and the consequences of that cheating - the punishment was fair.

If you can not see the difference between the Bulldogs and Storm incidents - then you are completely and utterly blind. It is no ones fault but your own!

Do yourself a favour, stop bitching about the false premierships and last year and get on supporting your team - which hasn't been gutted. You still have Cronk, Slater, and Smith for f**k sake.

I want Melbourne to do well because I want to see the game to grow and continue to expand - but that doesn't give them a free licence to break the rules of the competition... This isn't the AFL expansion.

 

[azza29]

You'd think by the comments on this thread that Storm were the only sporting club to ever have breached a salary cap. Yes it was a serious breach and it attracted a serious penalty. But there's hardly a club that's not had at least a minor infringement in the last ten years: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salary_cap#Breaches_3

 

[Frailty]

You'd think by the comments on this thread that Storm were the only sporting club to ever have breached a salary cap. Yes it was a serious breach and it attracted a serious penalty. But there's hardly a club that's not had at least a minor infringement in the last ten years: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salary_cap#Breaches_3

The storm were the only ones to systematically conceal it's breaches with the intent of cheating which allowed them to claim prize money from the 2006-2008 minor premierships, premierships in 2007 and 2009, and the world club challenge.

The comments here are directed towards Butters who believes that the Storm should have been punished and that they didn't get an advantage at all.

 

[Brutus]

So who are the "rats in the ranks" now Mr Hartigan?

Plenty of "rats" in News' ranks it seems.

 

[GongPanther]

Mods please ban the trolls in here. This is meant to be a troll free thread.

Thanks in advance

God...was anyone else in here this Green?

 

[LESStar58]

Or perhaps you would like it explained in another way - the current legal system takes the mental capacity or intent into consideration. Considering the actions and intent of the Storm cheating the cap was much more serious than the Bulldogs it could not be punished in the same way. Not to mention the Bulldogs had not been winning premierships whilst cheating.

I agree to an extent. If the Bulldogs had won that premiership in 2002 then there is every chance they would have been stripped of it in the end anyway.

We can all thank the Bulldogs for drawing "the line in the sand" that Gallop laid down of anything in excess of 200K would result in sanctions.

 

[Cloudsurfer]

The storm were the only ones to systematically conceal it's breaches with the intent of cheating which allowed them to claim prize money from the 2006-2008 minor premierships, premierships in 2007 and 2009, and the world club challenge.

The comments here are directed towards Butters who believes that the Storm should have been punished and that they didn't get an advantage at all.

No, they're the only ones that have been caught...
The people responsible at Storm for all of that were 'amateurs' (for want of a better word) at concealing what they did. I'm always amazed at the number of people that believe everyone else is lily-white & there is no-one else out there doing a better job at concealing their rorting. You have to have been born yesterday to believe that. Come on!

 

[Cloudsurfer]

As for the punishment...well, it has to be a precedent (and retrospective to boot!) so there will be some worried executives / agents / etc out there. did the punishment fit the crime? Yes, probably - its a moot point now. Will the likes of this happen again? Probably not for a long time (league can't afford it to happen any time soon). But is it happening as we speak & will it be addressed openly...hell no!

 

[nrlnrl]

Apparently it was only through an accident that the second set of books was discovered ( a comment by an office assistant )

As for other clubs, there have been all sorts of stories about methods of beating the cap - golf games between players & officials for $10K plus, poker machine takings to players, bags of money given to players, cars, boats etc for wives / girlfriends.

Is it worse if a team does it when they win the comp ? That might seem obvious, but a team that hasn't won a title can benefit in years to come & this makes it tough to control or take action retrospectively.

 

[Jason Maher]

If you repeat something often enough, you'll remove all doubt that you're a complete and utter dickhead for anyone who might have been wavering in their opinion...

 

[moik]

Only team to ever win 2 grand finals while being a trillion bucks over the salary cap.

 

[moik]

pfft

 

[Jason Maher]

We are the best team in the comp, and we were last year too, so I'm not sure to what you're referring.

As for best team ever, the Easts team of the 30s, Souths of the early 50s, St. George 56-66, Souths of the late 60s, Easts 74-75, Parra 81-86, Canberra 89-94, Brisbane 92-00, would all crap on the current Melbourne team from a very great height.

 

[Butters]

We are the best team in the comp, and we were last year too, so I'm not sure to what you're referring.

As for best team ever, the Easts team of the 30s, Souths of the early 50s, St. George 56-66, Souths of the late 60s, Easts 74-75, Parra 81-86, Canberra 89-94, Brisbane 92-00, would all crap on the current Melbourne team from a very great height.

Did any of them hold Canberra to nil at home? Yeah that's what i thought...

 

[Jason Maher]

There is no possible comeback to such an insight...