Demetriou: ‘AFL would strip premierships too’
By Roger Vaughan, 22 Apr 2010
- Tagged:
- Melbourne Storm, Melbourne Storm Salary cap, NRL, Rugby League
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AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou has backed the NRL for its action against the Melbourne Storm and says his organisation also would strip clubs of premierships for “very serious” salary cap cheating.
Demetriou had only just heard about NRL premiers the Storm being stripped of two titles when he fronted the media on Thursday afternoon.
“Obviously this is a very serious matter – I don’t have enough of the detail,” Demetriou said.
“As someone who works in a code, I congratulate the NRL for the position they have taken, they must have obviously done some extensive work in the area to come up with these findings.
“All supporters want to know is that the code is being run with the highest integrity and issues that relate to salary cap rorting are issues that all codes take very, very seriously.”
In late 2002, the AFL fined Carlton nearly $1 million and stripped the club of top draft picks for cap breaches.
The draft penalties in particularly were a savage blow for the Blues, who struggled for several years.
“The fact they (NRL) have come out very strongly is something we would applaud, you’ve seen how we’ve done that in recent years with Carlton and Melbourne,” Demetriou said.
“It sends a strong message to everyone, to all people involved in the industry, that serious matters of this nature will not be tolerated.
“Our rules do provide that we wouldn’t hesitate in stripping clubs of points or for that matter, if it was very serious, of stripping a club of a premiership.
“All the clubs are aware that those punishments and those sanctions are available to us.”
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The Crowd Says (8) | Page 1 of Comments
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- Explore:
- Melbourne Storm, Melbourne Storm Salary cap, NRL, Rugby League
April 22nd 2010 @ 7:08pm
Dogs Of War said | April 22nd 2010 @ 7:08pm | Report comment
Wrong section. Throw into the AFL tab.
April 22nd 2010 @ 8:15pm
Del Kenealy said | April 22nd 2010 @ 8:15pm | Report comment
Just want to send a message to the Storm players – we still love you = I am a true blue Broncos fan, but appreciate talent when I see it. How the hell can the media blame the players, and the salary cap stinkd anyway – just ask Gus
April 22nd 2010 @ 8:24pm
Karlos said | April 22nd 2010 @ 8:24pm | Report comment
Was Waldron head of Carlton then?
April 22nd 2010 @ 10:58pm
Chop said | April 22nd 2010 @ 10:58pm | Report comment
No Wally Waldron was in charge of St Kilda IIRC
April 22nd 2010 @ 9:14pm
ac said | April 22nd 2010 @ 9:14pm | Report comment
I think this is true that the AFL probably would not have done what the NRL has done.
April 22nd 2010 @ 10:51pm
Redb said | April 22nd 2010 @ 10:51pm | Report comment
Yes because Carlton really recovered well after salary cap breaches 8 years ago
Wooden spoons a just reward.
Took News Ltd a long time to come clean.
April 23rd 2010 @ 1:07am
Karlos said | April 23rd 2010 @ 1:07am | Report comment
I understand from the AFL footy show that 3 St Kilda grubs were at the centre of The Storm rorts. It might point to sytematic rorting of football clubs being accepted in that town with a belief that no-one would bother looking very hard.
April 23rd 2010 @ 1:34am
Karlos said | April 23rd 2010 @ 1:34am | Report comment
Even Patrick is starting to see the light.
Sad for sport, great for rugby league
Patrick Smith From: The Australian April 23, 2010 12:00AM IF you have anything to do with the NRL you should feel very proud today. Whether you support Manly, whether you are a fan or sponsor of the Bulldogs, even if you are a mildly keen Victorian who keeps an eye on Melbourne Storm’s fortunes.
The NRL has shown leadership of the highest order, prepared to take a savage punch to land a necessary knockout. There has been no compromise to save the brand, no spin to soften the blow, no cover-up to hide the damage.
Everything the NRL has done to Melbourne Storm is just and appropriate. Yes, rip the premierships off the club, fine it heavily, force it to repay ill-gotten gains, make it play the season out unable to gain a point – every game a stark reminder of its corrupt past.
David Gallop and his team have rebuilt rugby league, a game ripped apart by the Super League wars and regular abhorrent off-field behaviour of players who had no respect for their fellow citizens, never mind the game itself.
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Gallop has used every setback – and they have been severe and regular – to refine and strengthen the code.
He could have walked away, for a man can only take so much. But he has never wavered, his belief in the sport tested but never severed. His courage and integrity were at first the glue that somehow kept the competition from imploding and yesterday they drove one the most important moments in Australia’s sporting history.
He will be further tested, of course, as it is imperative that rugby league maintains its presence in Melbourne.
The Storm had won a market share. We only now know that it came with 12 pieces of silver.
News Ltd boss John Hartigan was both a hurt and angry man last night. His sense of fair play violated.
He supports the actions of the NRL because he knows how much trust has been breached by the cheats at Storm. But he should be proud that the NRL has had a depth of courage no other sport has shown.
As contradictory as it seems, Melbourne’s treachery will prove to be the NRL’s finest hour. The AFL turned its back for too long while West Coast players ran amok, Cricket Australia hid the Shane Warne and Mark Waugh bookmaker link and rugby union tried to bury Ben Tune’s positive drug test. The NRL has done none of this. When every football code is hell-bent on taking over the world, Gallop has put the future of the Melbourne outpost at stake for the sake of principle.
The rats that Hartigan mentioned at yesterday’s media conference appear to have been led by Brian Waldron, the club’s former chief executive. Waldron once lectured his players as to how they must respect the game. It might prove to be one of sport’s great one-liners. If Waldron is still employed by rugby union franchise Melbourne Rebels come today it must only be because he could not be contacted. And that might be entirely likely given how his reputation as an honest sport administrator has been shredded.
The frauds at Melbourne, who kept two books, one for appraisal by the NRL salary cap investigators and another for the amusement and benefit of the corrupt, might not have blood on their hands but they do have tears of loyal supporters. They wept last night that they had been cheated, their loyalty misplaced, their premierships nothing but secretly funded corruption.
Worse, they will realise that former officials at the club cheated not for the success of the club but their own self-aggrandisement. That they could swagger about town as masterminds of the outpost with the mostest. Do not think that the NRL will not go looking for second sets of books detailing illegal payments at other clubs. Having tasted the blood of the corrupt they will be thirsty for more.
You can argue this was the blackest day in rugby league history. Perhaps even in Australian sport. A better perspective, however, is this: it is an insidious and irksome day for a handful of grubby officials at Melbourne Storm but it is a day of triumph for Gallop and his team. They have shown sport in Australia that there can be no compromise to the sense of fair play. No matter the consequence.