From 2011
Roosters will keep Peter in hen house
- THE DAILY TELEGRAPH
- MAY 12, 2011 12:00AM
Keeping his job at the Roosters: Peter O'Sullivan. Picture: Liam Driver
ONE of the key players named and shamed in the sensational Melbourne Storm cap rort report will not be sacked from the Sydney Roosters.
Recruitment manager Peter O'Sullivan last night kept his job, despite the report claiming he played a significant role in the Storm's salary cap breaches.
The NRL's final report into the game's most shameful chapter recommended that former Storm chief executive Brian Waldron and secretary Matt Hanson never work in rugby league again.
Yet because the report made no such recommendation to ban O'Sullivan from the game, the Roosters have no intention of cutting him loose. And the NRL maintains it is powerless to banish him from the game.
NRL chief executive David Gallop yesterday rang Roosters chief executive Steve Noyce to alert him that O'Sullivan would be named in the report, which was conducted by salary cap auditor Ian Schubert.
Gallop said last night: "I have spoken to the Roosters and said they clearly need to look at that section of the report."
But Noyce said he was happy with the findings and O'Sullivan would not be axed. "If you look at the report it talks about sponsors, changing salary cap rules, recommending action be taken against player agents. It doesn't recommend any action be taken against Peter," Noyce said.
"Ian is the salary cap auditor, he's obviously gone to great lengths to protect the interests of the game with the investigation of the Storm, and there is a recommendation - or lack of recommendation - [there] against Peter," Noyce added.
"It's a thorough report, but he hasn't recommended that we should take action.
"It was a period where the club [Melbourne] and the game was under pressure, but hopefully now people move forward and we can learn from the situation at the Storm."
In the report, Schubert wrote: "Peter O'Sullivan has informed me that he has nothing to disclose about the salary cap cheating that went on during his time at the Storm.
"He says he was not involved in it and that everything he did was approved by [chief executive] Brian Waldron."This, regrettably, is not the conclusion that I have reached from the documents I have reviewed."
Schubert cited a blazing row O'Sullivan had with a player agent in which he stated: "If we go into the 2008 [season] 500k over, it will be Brian and me looking for a job and the coach starting the premiership on -20 points."
Schubert claimed O'Sullivan had failed to include in some player contracts the money paid for third-party agreements, and "deliberately concealed" the true amount paid to two players.
It was also reported O'Sullivan was completely aware of a practice from 2005 to 2007 where "unsigned letters of offer that recorded the full remuneration to be paid to players with significant player remuneration omitted from registered NRL contracts".
Schubert's conclusion stated O'Sullivan helped Waldron "set in train the wholesale cheating that took place over the next five years."
O'Sullivan last night refused to comment on the report.
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sp...ter-in-hen-house/story-e6frexnr-1226054314708
