Storm salary cap scandal thread

[lzd]

First things first. I'm an Eels fan, and I don't want the 2009 premiership. It would be a hollow feeling to say the least to inherit a default premiership. I do believe the clubs who ran second in 2006, 2007 and 2008 should be awarded minor premierships though.

I really feel for the Storm players and supporters. This has got to hurt them.

Agree with the sentiments of those on here who say the penalty is going to do massive damage to the Storm and league. In a way though its a problem we keep facing time and time again. Todd Carney anyone? Yeah its a smaller scale, but his poor behaviour had to be punished and it is to the detriment of Canberra, just like the punishment of the Storm will be at the detriment of rugby league.

If Brian Waldron is the architect, as has been suggested, surely this constitutes major fraud on his part. We are told time and again that football is a business these days. Any company executive rorting the books to the extent he purportedly has would be looking at court appearances and serious jail time. Surely he should be too.

But I digress... the real point of this post is those who are slinging mud on here, bagging the Storm, labelling them scum, cheats, get them out of our game. To these people I say this - you should seriously cross your fingers as tight as possible that there is not a disgruntled former employee at your respective club who know's a little too much and is ready to air their dirty laundry. The storm got away with this as long as they did because it was well covered up. Only a disgruntled employee with inside knowledge was able to blow the lid on it. The bulldogs saga was a similar story, in that it went undetected for a long time and quite possibly could have forever. Surely you are all not so naive/stupid/stubborn to presume that your club has its nose 100% clean? There are an awful lot of people on here throwing some very big stones who are quite possibly living in glass houses. And I suspect a lot of ceos thankful in a cold sweat now that they know the nrl will punish retroactively as well as currently.

 

[851]

excellent. should have happened to the Dogs

I second that,will make for one hell of a fire sale though,which teams are in a position to spend though,and which teams are now suddenly nervous about the "Schu gang".

 

[Chook Norris]

Salary cap auditor Ian Schubert, until now widely underestimated, has emerged as the great unsung hero.

This line from Kent leaves me scratching my head... "hero"? Five years undetected and now he's labelled a "hero"?

 

[RABK]

Agreed Chuck.

I wonder if Schubert was head of internal fraud at CBA if we'd see Bank Employees walking out the doors with millions in their false accounts and Schubert been touted a hero if he discovered their paper trail 5 years later whilst the CBA tries to track down the fraudsters in Thailand and China.

And am i been right in concluding that this brilliant breach/fraud was sitting in a file in a storm office just down the hall from their records office which Ian would audit.

NRL assistant: "So Ian, we've finished here... should we check those other couple of offices for any documents?"

Ian: "No, i just use that office down the end of the hallway when i need to fart or call my wife"

 

[El Diablo]

This line from Kent leaves me scratching my head... "hero"? Five years undetected and now he's labelled a "hero"?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lc6zCpiGoUA

 

[sting]

Suspend all the players who are proven to have been given extra payments for the year, or better yet kick them out all together and ban them from the nrl. Deduct their points for the year and give 2 points to the teams they beat already. Let them start on 0 with an average team and see how they go for the year. At least they will try. If they miraculously win the comp then I guess they really earned it.
And of course strip them of any achievements in the last 4 years.

 

[Tom Shines]

This is still hard to comprehend... this will have ramifications for years.

League died a little today.

 

[maccattack]

All this talk about it being the death of the Storm... If it should be the death of anything it should be the death of the salary cap. Do we really want to sink the Storm so the Sharks can survive? We might as well hand the country over to the AFL, ARU and soccer.

If there is money available to players. Give it to them.



Re: Parra and Manly getting the premierships handed to them. Not before a thorough audit is done on those clubs - on EVERY club for that matter. Oh but that wont happen will it?

 

[attila_the_gorilla]

All this talk about it being the death of the Storm... If it should be the death of anything it should be the death of the salary cap. Do we really want to sink the Storm so the Sharks can survive? We might as well hand the country over to the AFL, ARU and soccer.

If there is money available to players. Give it to them.

Thank you.

 

[Ridders]

All this talk about it being the death of the Storm... If it should be the death of anything it should be the death of the salary cap. Do we really want to sink the Storm so the Sharks can survive? We might as well hand the country over to the AFL, ARU and soccer.

If there is money available to players. Give it to them.



Re: Parra and Manly getting the premierships handed to them. Not before a thorough audit is done on those clubs - on EVERY club for that matter. Oh but that wont happen will it?

Problem with your logic is that the Storm's big spending can't have been sustainable, evidenced by the fact that the Storm continue to post significant losses year after year. If News weren't there to pick up the bill, I heavily doubt the Storm could have afforded to spend as much, on players, as they did.

 

[Hanscholo]

I am beyond devastated. Angry that Administration and Players would cheat but angrier that the NRL could not think longer and harder about how to severely punish the Club without possibly killing it.

It is one thing to lose all your points at the end of a year when you have turned up but why should we turn out now that every game means nothing in regards to the premiership.

Why should you, the fan of another club show when we have virtually nothing to play for?

The AFL recognised the need for a better Salary Cap system and it has paid off, the NRL has a lawyer as its head and boundaries wise it has helped but this will hurt every club.

Anyone who has known this must be fired. Administrators, players... everyone. I would rather lose
every game trying to win with a second grade team then playing for nothing.

There must be some way to punish Waldron as well. I would wish this on no team or fan.

I actually think it might be better we forfeit this year altogether in the NRL. Play only NSWRL and Under 20's.

Welcome to the NRL. I knew it would take a while but eventually Melbourne will learn what its like to fight every second of the day for your existence, to run 20 year old kids onto the field to have their careers ruined, to have 36 year olds holding together their backline.

complaining about the penalty does you no good at all. Nothing to play for? No prospects this year? Welcome to the reality of NRL football.

 

[Hanscholo]

I have been through a range of emotions today, from shock, to villification of many claims people including myself have made that this was going on, to downright anger at what this selfish, totaly irresponsible act has done to a resurgent game just starting to enter a golden period.

Part of me wants to say, you know what...just f**k melbourne off all togher, from day one they were a drain on other clubs in both talent and money, and now, to have this come out...what a kick in the guts for clubs that have struggled under the rules for ten years while these f**kers have had year on year of success. Another part of me that can emapthise with the supporters, and possibly the players if they werent complicit says we need to put a broom through the place and carry on. As Geyer put so aptly tonight on the matty johns show...i really dont care about melbourne, i love my club and i love the game and it wont effect NSW and QLD at all im sure.

I guess we will move forward, as always.

Still, the niggling doubt doesnt rest easy with me, i have seen the very same pattern of player retention and purchases from at least three other clubs over the past few years. I believe we are still among cheats, I believe that this goes far further than any of us could imagine. Ive seen pretty much every other club either lose top players, jnrs or project players - yet these three just sail on just like the storm did. I guess the long term that will come from this is that any club that shows that style of retention from now on will be heavily examined and probably tarnished by rumour and inuendo. The sad thing is, it will probably come out in 18 months time and further set the game back just as it recovers from this. f**k me there are a lot of dickheads in this game.

 

[maccattack]

Well if the Storm - and all the other clubs that are "rorting" the system dont pay the players what they are worth we will lose them.

If no club spend over the salary cap we watch Greg Inglis go to AFL, Thurston go to union, etc. The Origin sides would be made up of 2nd raters.

Auditing of clubs should be limited to checking that they have the money they are spending. If a local business wants to pay player x a zillion dollars to stay then let them. So long as the money is legit and its not a bank loan or credit note, who cares.

The current system is akin to putting a pile of bricks on a garden bed and expecting daisies. Take the bricks off and water the garden for f sake.

You cant grow the game by trying to supress it.


God forbid we lose the Storm. What a tragedy that would be.

 

[I Bleed Maroon]

Let me state the obvious quite emphatically:

As long as David Gallop gets his way, the Salary cap is not going anywhere.

 

[40/20]

Firstly fans of the Riders the Bulldogs shutty
the storm need to rebuild but i am sick of them and all other clubs being dragged down by my club because we cant afford it sh*t the cap has to change.
also parra and manly fans can shut the f**k up you are not premiers because of this
and speaking of unfair advantage and uneven comp dragqueens 99 anyone they had double the cap

 

[The Brain]

The cap will continue to be a mess.
The only way I see it to fair up is
Clubs merge which spreads more money around.
You have to think about it as The Leagues says they may bring Central coast in -They are thinking about Western oZ and Adelaide etc ...which will leave smaller NRL profits to be shared by the clubs .

The less clubs the more money they get and that may provide an even playing field.

What I would do?
Its a hard call but I would temporarily abolish the cap let the clubs show who has the money to be in the game and in about 3 years you will find a few going broke merge them reduce the number to 12 .(i Guess) then reintroduce the cap or at least a transfer system as well to give it a chance for a level playing field.

Ill say this once if you are running a club that has sponsorship dollars - TV exposure- Pay TV exposure -Newspapers - Magazines -Fans and you cant make a buck out of it then there is some thing seriously wrong with your management.

Merging and all that shiite is dead set a pain for any fan as we are really traditional types but things have changed over the years business- etc .

Its a tough call
Melbourne got caught and the rest didnt .

By the way is this still Ribot's vision?
lets see.
Ribot -Superleague
Ribot - Brisbane
Ribot- Melbourne

Man that bloke is the biggest blight on this game.
seems where ever he goes -you get the picture

The game was so Healthy before they came along
Bring back Arko and Quale

 

[Brutus]

FINALLY!!!!! Finally ED!!! NRL might just be on the front page of the Herald Sun!!!!!
:lol:

It's been on the front page several times before dude.

 

[Brutus]

There you go you sick freak.

:lol::lol::lol:

 

[$$Poor Boy Blues$$]

This whole thing is appalling.

but the game will soldier on. maybe not in melbourne but only time will tell. They will need to distance themselves from this (storm from old admin)

an ex afl ceo thats irony, as is the storm being a news owned company

you can't write this sh*t into a tv soap. amazing.

I was also shocked and angry as well.



I do agree completely with phil Goulds comments on the footy show

I am against them being stripped of future points if and once they go back under the cap.

There is no way I would go to watch that team of cheats.

Bulldogs was one thing, but this was 5 years worth of cheating and 2 prems.

Nothing that hasnt been said already here, but maybe the storm management/players can print it out and tack it to their asses.
Cheaters lose it all someday.

And this is the year for a new admin.

With stories like the following, the road to recovery may be ok for the storm :

http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-union/u...-waldron-to-clear-his-desk-20100422-tg62.html


rebels ask waldron to leave, afl reopens salary cap investigations at st kilda.

I think once the players are separated from management, it will be easier to reconnect any fall out from the public.

I personally think that today many people are morally corrupt (and you would have seen 15k people handing back jerseys last night instead of 1 or 2) and they mostly want to see people play footy, not angel clubs - even if no one likes a cheater. They wont watch cheats as much. depends on the flick passes, etc the problem is they are in alien terrirory, making such measuremets hard to predict

 

[$$Poor Boy Blues$$]

So all their dominance was really bullsh*t. I guess no one can be so consistently successful for so long and keep a core group of stars

Many, including myself were very suss

I figured it was a fluke. I never once considered seriously for more than a few minutes at a time they were cheating. I never thought anyone would do it after the doggies. Even when I heard it I found it hard to stop denying it in the first moments. Sounded impossible.

This has dissapointed me greatly beacause this year could have been a good year for RL down there with the new stadium.