Why I believe the Storm players knew nothing
Roar Guru
By Steve Kaless, 28 Apr 2010 Steve Kaless is a Roar Guru
- Tagged:
- Melbourne Storm, NRL, Rugby League, salary cap scandal
So far, the Storm players are saying they knew nothing of the secret payments that were sending their club over the salary cap. And so far, I believe them. I may end up with egg on my face, but I’ll back the players that they were unaware of the cooking that was occurring with the books. My beliefs are based on a number of factors.
First, in my experience, players don’t discuss what they are earning. They may discuss openly the length of contract of they are seeking, but not the finances behind the deal.
Secondly, few deals these days see a player actually earn the same amount for each year of his contract.
To avoid the cap, deals are front loaded or back loaded, so players earn different amounts for different years so the books balance (or give the appearance of balancing). Players are, therefore, hardly going to be doing the maths to see whether the club is over.
Thirdly, the amount of players leaving would have had the players believing that the club was staying under the cap.
Fourthly, it would seem that a large part of the reason for the blow out came from third party deals which were guaranteed by the club rather than just third party deals. With managers likely to have been ensuring players that everything was sweet, I’d argue they were none the wiser.
If anything, the managers of the star players have so far escaped any scrutiny. I wonder for much longer this will be the case.
Back in 2002, I was working for the Bulldogs and I remember having breakfast with second rower Jamie Feeney, who was simply dumbstruck that the club was so far over the cap.
“It’s not like we have a team of internationals”, he told me over a bowl of cornflakes.
I’d imagine it is similar at the Storm. With honest toilers like Bryan Norrie coming in to replace the likes of Dallas Johnson, it is fair to say the players thought the club was staying under the cap.
As I said, I may end up ultimately disappointed, but at this stage I’m backing the players.
Enjoy sports? Enjoy a bargain? All Sports Online has your favourite sporting brands at up to 70% off. Online only, premium quality sporting goods and merchandise at discounted prices. Get a deal now.
Do you have what it takes to become a sports writer? Write for the roar
Rugby League articles
- An open letter to Channel Nine (107)
- Gallop and some of his precious Sydney NRL clubs must go (101)
- The NRL is back baby! (65)
- The NRL’s scariest players (56)
- The NRL needs a vision (52)
- Federal Court has it wrong on sports broadcast copyright (48)
- Bulldogs setting benchmark for Sydney’s NRL clubs (46)
- Rugby league’s new era: where to now? (24)
- Federal Court has it wrong on sports broadcast copyright (49)
- An open letter to Channel Nine (109)
- The NRL’s scariest players (56)
- Is the All Stars match increasing the divide? (25)
- Channel Nine needs NRL-cricket ODI compromise (36)
- The NRL needs a vision (52)
- Explore:
- Melbourne Storm, NRL, Rugby League, salary cap scandal
jus de couchon said | April 28th 2010 @ 7:15am | Report comment
Steve , the players were almost certainly aware. Their Agents wouldnt be doing their jobs otherwise.
oikee said | April 28th 2010 @ 7:25am | Report comment
Finch, Smith, Johnson, Inglis, Slater, Hoffman, White, Quinn, Turner, Folou, King, Cross. All origin players.
Blair, Lima, Sika Manu, all kiwi internationals.
(I forgot Matty Geyer)
Now, lets look at the Broncos, losses over the last few years.
Berrigan, Thorn, Perry gone to super league and rugby.
K.Hunt, to AFL.
Hannett Stag and Ennis, to Bulldogs,, Eastwood to Dogs and then Super league.
Boyd and Emmit to dragons.
Petro to Penrith.
Tate and Kemp to Warriors.
Folou to union next year.
Now, ask yourself if Brisbane have shared the talent around better than the Storm. The Broncos had no choice if they wanted to retain Lockyer. We are now having to buy in some players , Setu and Teo, but are also bringing through quite a few younsters also. Every time i watch the storm, i see a bunch of internationals with a few buy-ins.
Now, are you trying to tell me that they had no clue about any of this, they would have known something, but you cant blame the players for that, they are there to play football, not run the club. Simple as that.
AndyRoo said | April 28th 2010 @ 8:40am | Report comment
Oikee, you should talk about the players the Broncos bought because that’s why they are in cap trouble (finally after 20 years).
I can’t remember his name because he hasn’t played much but you paid massive overs for a forward from Penrith/Cronulla which forced you to release most of those players to the Bulldogs. Most of whom have since prooved to be better players.
Broncos then paid overs for Folau which pretty much everyone said was a mistake because you shouldn’t pay overs for wingers in the modern game. 500k plus for one player should only be for guys in key positions.
Spending 1m plus on talent from other teams which is worse (or a minor upgrade) than what you have is going to hurt no matter what club you are. It’s a massive failure in recuitment.
Brett McKay said | April 28th 2010 @ 10:50am | Report comment
Joel Clinton, Andy…
Paul J said | April 28th 2010 @ 7:26am | Report comment
Well written Steve, i agree.
Breeze said | April 28th 2010 @ 7:41am | Report comment
How would you like your egg? It’s not tenable they didn’t know, everyone has been saying the Storm were cheating for years, the players would have known about the claims. You don’t think that not once as they went for a cruising in free powerboats that they didn’t think about what was going on? Not a chance in hell.
AndyRoo said | April 28th 2010 @ 8:34am | Report comment
They are presented with a third party deal offering a boat or a voucher at Harvey Norman. They sign deals to get them. That’s not actually breaching the salary cap and the fact they sign a contract to get them and companies like Harvey norman and Fox Sports are invovled is supposed to indicate to the players their fradualant?
The breach came in that the amount of third party deals were more than allowed (150K), weren’t always lodged with the league and were negotiated and guaranteed by the club.
I’m getting sick of people abusing others when they argue that the players knew. It’s not common sense that the players knew because if they did they wouldn’t have been able to keep this scam quiet for 5 years and they wouldn’t have needed a whistleblower. Players are a walking talking drinking newspaper leak.
Those at the SMH that have actually seen what the players sign say the deals look legit on paper…… good enough to fool a Uni trained reporter but apparently not good enough for 24 year old footballers who are obviously supposed to become forensic accountants in their free time.
Breeze said | April 28th 2010 @ 8:58am | Report comment
Even a 24 year old footballer knows things can be made to look legitimate. It comes down to this, if it’s too good to be true then it probably is. This is why most people were saying something was funny about Storm before this scandal broke. You can’t expect me to believe that in that context not once did the players not wonder what was going on. You can’t expect me to believe that if one player knows they’re getting ‘X’ amount, then other players must be getting less to be under the cap, and if that other player is better or equal to them how do they reconcile that fact? It’s just not plausible they didn’t know.
AndyRoo said | April 28th 2010 @ 9:38am | Report comment
But it’s not too good to be true. They weren’t getting overs in regards to their market rate, in fact most of them were getting less even when you include the now bogus third party deals.
The first 150k of legitimate third party deals are fine under the Salary cap.
You can’t expect me to believe that if one player knows they’re getting ‘X’ amount, then other players must be getting less to be under the cap, and if that other player is better or equal to them how do they reconcile that fact? It’s just not plausible they didn’t know.
Do you know what all your work mates are on? Many people don’t enquire to what their fellow employees are on it’s not the cultural norm in Australia to find out what people are earning. It’s impolite and pretty much your managers job anyway.
It would make more sense for Cameron Smth to know what Danny Buderis was on than what Greg Inglis was on because Buderis salary would have given him an idea of his market worth as a SOO Hooker.
Inglis salary means nothing to him.
Springs said | April 28th 2010 @ 11:50am | Report comment
So if the players knew that the speed boat was over the cap, all the NRL officials, auditors etc didn’t? The auditors are supposed to know what deals Inglis is on but when they look at the boat they don’t think ‘that looks suspicious’??
ilikedahoodoogurusingha said | April 28th 2010 @ 8:46am | Report comment
They may not have known exactly what was going on, but when you are getting offered a $30,000 boat and a $20,000 gift voucher, that should start ringing alarm bells……..for a start you are most likely not paying tax on the gifted amount.
Geoff said | April 28th 2010 @ 9:12am | Report comment
I pretty sure that the junior player probably didnt know. But the senior players did and so did the coach, when they get together and have a meeting at the start of the year the coaches and the senior player and work out where they are short or what players could improve thier game.
It goes a little like this.
Waldron – Ok guys 2010 is just around the corner are thier any players who we want to target to recruit this year.
Bellamy- We are missing a little direction in the centres we need a more expirenced player to help us.
Smith – Finchy, Cooper Cronk, Slates and I where thinking Darren Lockyer ?
Bellamy – Yes he would be a good choice
Waldron – I dont think so lads he would be to expensive and break the salary cap.
Bellamy – If we got Lockyer we would def. win a premiership
Smith – I agree but I will talk to the lads and see what other names we could bring up.
Waldron – I tell you what lads I can talk to the accountant and come up with an alternative arrangement that might suit.
It got to go some thing like this you cannot tell me that Bellamy and Smith were not aware,
they know who they want and what they cost,
infact most senior player swill know who is on what from other clubs as well, they all have the same agents and the agent and judge will be pushing for a better deal.
Ingliss wanted $300K a year via the agent but he only got $250 plus $50 in a brown paper bag. What would the first question you ask if you got offered that deal? Pehaps why the brown paper bag? Of course they knew. naive to think other wise.
AndyRoo said | April 28th 2010 @ 9:45am | Report comment
This is where I think people are stretching too much. Their was no brown paper bag, they signed what they thought were legitimate third party deals and then got paid for it.
Bellamy as first grade coach should have known what every player was on and how much room was under the cap. But the coach doesn’t negotiate the players contracts with them, more than likely the club has limits on what they would pay for a winger and such. So their is the chance he is working of Waldrons values ie. “we got Inglis for 400k”.
I really don’t think Cameron Smith is asked who they should recuit and how much they should pay him, at most he would be consulted like “we are looking at Willie Mason, what do you think of him?”.
The only name recruits I recall them bringing in were Finch and Newwton, cast offs from other clubs mid season
Mushi said | April 28th 2010 @ 10:27am | Report comment
Geoff you are a management genius. Instead of employing one guy with great footballing abilities and another guy with great ability to teach football and design strategies to you know play football and coach respectively you’d have them value and negotiate contracts with other players.
Also the players leaked to be on the false books didn’t all have the same agent, so I don’t know where you get your material from perhaps you’ve gotten a sous chef to provide your fact checks?
Geoff said | April 28th 2010 @ 11:32am | Report comment
I dare say that Bellamy and Smith didnt negotiate contracts but they knew that players took unders or sweets.
I also bet the agent never talk to each other agent either not that they have to too much, they were bloody well aware who took unders or sweet pending which agency you are dealing with. When they couldnt get the right contract price or they reach a stall in negotiations out come the sweets jar. It in the best interest of the players, clubs and player managers. They know exactly how much a player gets on the table with in 5% and how much they will get under. SFX and Titan alone pick up 40% of the market.
SFX –
Darren Lockyer, Steve Price, Billy Slater, Brett Stewart ,Justin Hodges ,Danny Buderus, Darius Boyd, Anthony Quinn, Chris Lawrence, Ben Creagh and Anthony Watmough
Titan Management
Israel Folau
Lagi Setu
Gerard Beale
Dale Copley
Denan Kemp
Matt Gillett
Andrew Ryan
Dene Halatau
Josh Morris
Steve Turner
Chris Armit
Blake Green
Heka Nanai
Junior Tia Kilifi
Trevor Thurling
Joel Thompson
Adam Mogg
Paul Gallen
Ben Pomeroy
Tim Smith
Matthew Wright
John Mannah
Broderick Wright
Dean Collis
Taulima Tautai
Joshua Cordoba
Anthony Laffranchi
Tony Williams
Vic Mauro
Shane Rodney
Trent Hodkinson
Aiden Tolman
Willie Isa
Cameron Smith
Ryan Hoffman
Zeb Taia
Scott Dureau
Mark Taufua
Steve Southern
John Williams
Willie Tonga
Antonio Kaufusi
Will Tupou
Feleti Mateo
Krisnan Inu
Matthew Keating
Kris Keating
Brendan Oake
Tim Mannah
Jonathan Wright
Fuifui Moimoi
Frank Pritchard
Michael Jennings
Joseph Paulo
Masada Iosefa
Adrian Purtell
Nigel Plum
Chris Sandow
Garret Crossman
Brett Morris
Dan Hunt
Ricky Thorby
Matthew Prior
Junior Paulo
Anthony Minichiello
James Aubusson
Mitchell Aubusson
Ben Jones
Sonny Tuigamala
Todd Carney
Jason Cayless
Geoff said | April 28th 2010 @ 10:23am | Report comment
Brown paper bag, boat, car, house, call it what you want but it salary plus contract.
Greg we cant give you 300K but we can give you 250K plus a 50K boat from another party, ok
You would still ask why? wouldnt you?
Smith is ceratinly asked who they recruit or at least confided in, the best people to know about a players form is another player. Bellamy pick the run on side every week and would run it through Smith and another senior players before announcing it. It would certainly be discussed who they sign as well.
That why I believe that Bellamy and senior player know about it as well.
AndyRoo said | April 28th 2010 @ 10:39am | Report comment
One deal for playing from the storm one or more deal from other parties for promotional activities. Their are hundreds legit 3rd party deals around that come from “boosters”.
If I was offered $250k from the strom for playing and then a few days later, Harvey Norman want to purchase your image rights to put on their posters and you may need to make some in store appearances and they will pay you with a 30k instore voucher.
Why would I question that. I’m not running the club, everone else gets sponsership deals and we just won a priemership. I sign a contract for it and the club give me a signed copy. Why would I supect their not registering it?
It just doesn’t make sense to let the players know because they would be the weak link when it comes to secrecy.
Stormin Red said | April 28th 2010 @ 11:38am | Report comment
You simply wouldn’t risk letting the players know. Players often fall out with the coaches and despite the cheating the Storm were still losing players. You would not risk a player leaving for another club after falling out with the coach or a team mate and then letting everyone else know what was happening back at the Storm. The people who did this were not silly (though this is debatable), only a few insiders would have known what was going on to make sure it stayed quiet. Even then, it appears one of these insiders blew the whistle on the whole cover up.
Stormin Red said | April 28th 2010 @ 11:00am | Report comment
I sincerely hope the players did not know what was happening. I am happy to support the players at the moment in the belief that they did not know what was going on but if anybody did I hope they are banned from the game.
To suggest that Inglis knew the boat was outside the cap is ludicrous. Why would the player accept a boat knowing that it was outside the cap? Not all footballers are the smartest tools in the shed but I am pretty sure that if he knew he was not supposed to be getting the boat, he wouldn’t have accepted it. If a player knows he is getting money (or a boat) outside of the cap it would be in the form of, literally, a brown paper bag under the table so that it can be kept hidden away out of sight and off the books. It wouldn’t be a boat parked in your garage for all to see.
Having said that, the voucher is more of a concern because it fits in the paper bag and would be much easier to hide off the books.
Brett McKay said | April 28th 2010 @ 11:00am | Report comment
Steve, I posed the question about the players knowledge in my article last Friday, wondering if any might have engaged in some ballpark maths, but on the whole, I tend to agree with you that they probably wouldn’t know.
The Managers, on the other hand, I would argue, would have to have more than “an inkling”, becuase it’s them who would be asking for the third party deals to be guaranteed the way the were. Should any enquiry eventuate, it should also include the managers dealings – even if to prove their innocence – because there would be several who look after multiple players at the Storm, and therefore would know just what portion of $4.1M their “stable” commands.
You’re right about one thing though, the managers do escape a lot of scrutiny, most of the time actually, when at the end of the day managers have a lot to answer for a lot of salary-related issues in the game..
jus de couchon said | April 28th 2010 @ 11:11am | Report comment
Thru their managers the players were complicit.