$3.17 million over is hardly a Storm in a teacup
Roar Guru By Steve Kaless, 16 Jul 2010 Steve Kaless is a Roar Guru
- Tagged:
- Brian Waldron, David Gallop, John Hartigan, Melbourne Storm, NRL, Rugby League
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So the results are in, and the Storm are an eye watering $3.17 million over the salary cap over the last four seasons, with a prediction that they would be $1.3 million over next season.
It’s a massive 80 percent over what was expected, and it’s also instant vindication for the hardline David Gallop took when handing down the initial punishments.
Gallop received plenty of abuse from the usual quarters, and from those in Melbourne, who have perversely blamed him for the crisis and claimed that his actions were “killing the game.”
Those handing out the abuse will be silent now, and it will be Gallop who’ll be asked to clean up another mess he didn’t ask for.
He has started by reaffirming the code’s commitment to the club.
The independent directors of the Storm have been promptly frogmarched.
Given the scale of the breaches, and their resistance to accept the punishments handed down, it’s probably only right they formed an orderly queue at the exit door.
Of course, their departure does mean that the Storm’s plans to move away from News Ltd have returned to the square marked “1”.
News Ltd’s John Hartigan claimed that the independent directors were sacked as a sign of “good faith” before moving on to talk about the need for concessions for the NRL so that the team isn’t four superstars and a bunch of “pub players”.
I’m not so sure about that.
Up until now, the Storm have been pretty effective at getting the message into the media that there was every chance they’d be able to balance the books and keep Slater, Inglis, Cronk and Smith.
A plan was already being drawn up, with rookies like Gareth Widdop, Justin O’Neill and Matt Duffie joining journeymen like Bryan Norrie (not sure how much he appreciates being called a pub player) in a side with the stars.
Suddenly it seems that it’s not that simple, and that the NRL will need to help out.
After the months of abuse Gallop has copped from south of the Murray, I thought he showed real restraint in agreeing to “work with the club” on their issues.
You can bet your last dollar there will be plenty of resistance from other NRL clubs to the notion that a club who so systematically rorted the cap are now assisted to keep their players.
One of these issues facing Gallop is what knowledge the players had in all this.
That they refused to co-operate with the investigators is a bad look, a very bad look. Although it was some blokes from Deliotte not the AFP.
The Storm scandal has now also arrived in Bondi after Roosters recruitment manager Peter O’Sullivan was named as being knowingly involved in the affair. The Roosters’ reputation of abiding by the cap has never been great, and you wonder whether the club will want to have O’Sullivan involved in future player recruitment despite his reputation.
Imagine the furore if the Roosters had landed Josh Dugan and then a week later we find O’Sullivan in the middle of the Storm fiasco.
Probably, most importantly, everyone seems committed to righting wrongs and “moving forward” – a phrase which is certainly in danger of overuse in today’s society.
However, it’s easy to talk about moving forward. It’s another matter to do so when you’re asking people to give up large sums of money.
Watch this space.
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- Brian Waldron, David Gallop, John Hartigan, Melbourne Storm, NRL, Rugby League
July 16th 2010 @ 9:40am
Jeff said | July 16th 2010 @ 9:40am | Report comment
Hey Steve. Sorry to keep on about this, but David Gallop is in charge of the NRL and as such MUST be held partly responsible for the Mess in this code.,
The last three years he has gone from one cover up to the next without coming up with any long term plan to improve our game (On or Off the field).
He has sold out the TV rights to a Channel that don’t give a toss for the game and allowed them to dictate who sees what and when.
He has not been seen in Melbourne since this whole Fiasco began, He didn’t even Listen to Waldren four years ago when he was openly stating that the salary cap was useless and believed that most clubs were not abiding by it!
He has not put a circular out to other clubs – not to employ the cheats even though he believes that the players knew they were breaking the rules
He has NOT arranged to conduct similar investigations into other ‘suspect’ clubs (Like he said in April).
Etc:etc:etc. Sorry mate, but Mr Gallop is NOT the man for the job. and as for the fans quietening on this, please read other forums.
July 16th 2010 @ 9:48am
Willy said | July 16th 2010 @ 9:48am | Report comment
Jeff – what do you think of the idea that Gallop should have taken this opportunity to declare an amnesty for all clubs on the salary cap?
Ie: Put your cards on the table, show us exactly where you’re cheating, and we won’t punish you.
But if we find out later you’ve been cheating, you’ll be excluded from the NRL for two season (or something similarly harsh).
July 16th 2010 @ 12:08pm
Dan said | July 16th 2010 @ 12:08pm | Report comment
AFL did this in 94 after essendon got busted being over the cap and winning the flag the year before…
a few years later melbourne got busted and had draft sanctions etc placed on them because they didn’t come clean in the amnesty…
but of course the NRL wont do this, because the AFL have done it… never mind that its a good idea and that AFL have gone from strength to strength after that
July 16th 2010 @ 4:36pm
Jeff said | July 16th 2010 @ 4:36pm | Report comment
Yup. defiitely
July 16th 2010 @ 10:03am
AB said | July 16th 2010 @ 10:03am | Report comment
There is a simple measurable way to stop this happening again.
Each club is responsible for their own negotiations with the players but the contract is with the NRL on behalf of the club. Any breach will see player, manager and club heavily fined or suspended
The basic concept being, Players are graded from 0-7 with and each club granted x amount of points for their squad
5 being an International for Aust, NZ and GB
4 State of Origin 3 + games as everyone in NSW seems to get one these days
3- First grade player from other club
Down to
1 – Local jnr, developed within development area, 10 year player with club
0 -one marquee player, exempt
Each player’s value is the points he is worth when he comes to the club, this would mean loyalty from both club and player is worthwhile, which the fans would love.
This can also be used in conjunction with a salary cap but too messy for here
July 16th 2010 @ 10:06am
Willy said | July 16th 2010 @ 10:06am | Report comment
I don’t agree wih any points system, sorry AB.
The free market is, and remains, the best way to determine the value of a player.
The points system has so many holes it’s unworkable.
Simple Eg: an Australian representative prop will never be worth as much as a Test half-back or five eighth…
July 16th 2010 @ 9:49am
oikee said | July 16th 2010 @ 9:49am | Report comment
The players knew about the amounts on offer. Had to know. If you look at what they are saying now, take less money to stay at the club. Haha, they wont know what hit them shortly, with new management and not being able to get away with shonky deals, watch the rabbits run, run rabbits run rabbits, run run run.
Inglis is being lined up to replace Folau at the Broncos, old man Locky gets the Pension compo shortly, so a deal will be done.
The other 3 might stay, but they will have to take cuts and will have to find some beef for there pack.
I dont think Cronk will go anywhere, half backs are like gold at the moment.
July 16th 2010 @ 9:51am
Daren said | July 16th 2010 @ 9:51am | Report comment
I think the players knowingly being involved is a stretch, their agents, surely, but not the player. Remember these are professional athletes we are talking about, they are payed based on their physical performance in a game played since they were children. I’m sure they all trust their agents and sign whatever their agents place in front of them. SO I think people harping on about how much the players knew is ridiculous.
As for the News Ltd. “White Wash Report” by their accounting firm, it couldn’t be clearer that the sole aim of this was to exonerate the media mogul of any knowledge of wrong doing in the Storm salary cap scandal. It is likely that the players were advised by their agents not to cooperate for reasons such as the fact that this was a biased and not independent audit but one with the sole aim of covering News Ltd’s A** and of course in the interest of protecting the agents. I think most would welcome an ATO investigation to finally clear the air once and for all after months of smoke screening by News and bluster and bullsh** from the NRL. Call me cynical, but I find it impossible to believe that the Storm are the only NRL team rorting the NRL salary cap. From 2006-2011 averages $750,000 per year, surely other clubs in the league have plenty to be worried about. This one sided audit was a joke. If News was interested in doing anything for the league other than exonerating itself, there would have been a league wide audit and Gallop would have held off on handing out any punishments until their own independent investigation was completed. By jumping the gun he alienated the Melbourne market and solidified the feeling of the NRL being little more than a regional Sydney/Brisbane sport. No one south of the Murray believes that a Sydney team in the same circumstance would have been punished as severely and as quickly as the Melbourne club
There are a few blaring questions, like elephants standing right in the middle of the room, that no one seems to be asking just yet:
Why didn’t the NRL auditor pick any of this up since 2006? His incompetency makes David Gallops comments about Storm players at least being irresponsible because bells should have been ringing, seem even more hypocritical. Players are payed to play, not to audit their own or their teams accounts. Supposedly that is why the NRL employs its own in house auditor.
Why did News Ltd., as 50% owner of the NRL, institute a league wide audit of all teams and all of their accounts during the same time period.
How can News Ltd. expect to have ANY credibility now as a news organization if they were completely unaware of a scandal of this magnitude in their own house?! Surely this proves either that they were aware of the scandal and therefore complicit in covering it up or completely clueless and useless as a legitimate news agency.
.
July 16th 2010 @ 11:11am
soapit said | July 16th 2010 @ 11:11am | Report comment
if the players are truly dumb enough to sign anything without reading it then they deserve what they get.
every other adult in australia knows that if you dont read the fine print before you sign then its tough luck if you get caught out. this is how the real world works. i know they’re probably not used to how things work in the real world but they’ll be slap bang in the middle of when the ATO gets hold of them.
July 16th 2010 @ 11:34am
hot dead chook said | July 16th 2010 @ 11:34am | Report comment
Only two players signed double contracts – majority was managers signing or otherwise.
Soapit how many times have you signed a contract without reading all the fineprint? How about your current employment contract? I know I didnt read mine.
July 16th 2010 @ 1:13pm
soapit said | July 16th 2010 @ 1:13pm | Report comment
i certainly did read my employment contract. imo its probably one of the two most important contracts you’ll sign (with ur mortgage) and you should be aware of whats in it (at least when you sign – can’t remember the details now).
can’t say i have carefully read everything i’ve ever signed but i’m certainly not going to whinge if i was too lazy too read something i signed and it comes back to bite me. no excuses, it would be my own fault and i would never do it with something as important as my source of emplyment.
i know people these days have trouble admitting that anything is their own fault but if you’re asked sign something to say you’ve read, understood and agree to the conditions its up to you to make sure you actually have (read) and do (understand and agree) before you sign. you can try blaming someone else but its your name, your responsibility. they didn’t do it? their fault. too bad fellas.
and yes it definitely sounds like it was the minority of players that signed double contracts and i believe it was this minority that Daren was referring to in the last 2 sentences of his first paragraph (which i responded to)
July 16th 2010 @ 1:34pm
AndyRoo said | July 16th 2010 @ 1:34pm | Report comment
Well most people don’t actually read their entire mortgage either.
July 16th 2010 @ 7:37pm
soapit said | July 16th 2010 @ 7:37pm | Report comment
but they’ll scan through and check enough of it to satisfy themselves that its all hunky dory. if by scanning too quickly they miss something important that they shoulda picked up they cant go crying to the bank.
its a pretty simple concept guys. kinda surprised that some adults dont realise the implications of signing a document.
that’ll do me for now on this topic.
July 16th 2010 @ 4:58pm
ilikedahoodoogurusingha said | July 16th 2010 @ 4:58pm | Report comment
Makes no difference if you read it or not, if you signed it you are responsible……check your next tax return, you sign , it makes no difference if you or your accountant made an error or tried to cheat…you are responsible. I am fairly certain that the managers will have been smart enough to leave themselves an escape route and leave the player holding the baby.
July 16th 2010 @ 1:00pm
Mick Gold Coast QLD said | July 16th 2010 @ 1:00pm | Report comment
Spend some time, Daren, at the very top end of a corporation and you’ll discover the truth of Hartigan’s comment (or his offsider’s) yesterday about it being difficult to pick up dodgy accounting if some of the most senior people are at it. Shareholders are even less likely to discover it.
How anyone can blame Gallop and the NRL or ARL (I don’t know which these days) salary caps and such, is beyond me. Gallop makes a pretty good fist of running a show in which the competing clubs are, by definition, protagonists at every level.
And “elephants standing right in the middle of the room”? Only – only – the players. I do not understand the sympathy expressed for the poor victim players. The very reason why there is a 100% overspend on the salary limit is … wait for it … to make the player salaries bigger. If they, as contractors, were not alert to the fact there were two or three contracts (not just one) the plane ride was free, the spending voucher cost nothing and the car just materialised, to maintain and fill itself, then Santa Clause does indeed exist.
They are adults, not babies, and they are surrounded by families, accountants, lawyers and agents advising them on every detail. I can rattle off dozens of names of former and current players who have the wit to be business and professional successes. Fortunately Ian Schubert is one of them.
July 16th 2010 @ 10:05am
oikee said | July 16th 2010 @ 10:05am | Report comment
Weather they knew or not, the game is up, there will be no more talk about “i will only play for Melbourne, i love this club”
I would love the club also if they were paying me double what i thought i should be earning, come on mate.
.
Like i said, Inglis to Broncos, they are the only team capable of paying him top dollar. Plus his girlfriend has already packed his bags.
July 16th 2010 @ 10:06am
kovana said | July 16th 2010 @ 10:06am | Report comment
Question. Why doesnt the NRL get rid of the Salary cap?
I dont if its been said before. But from what i can here and all the contracts for TV rights. NRL is making MILLIONS..
Can anyone please answer this small question… Does the AFL have a salary cap too?
July 16th 2010 @ 11:08am
soapit said | July 16th 2010 @ 11:08am | Report comment
1. to maintain an even comp so we dont end up with an english premier league situation where only 4 teams ever win the comp.
2. to stop teams spending beyond their means to gamble on star players giving them a premiership and then failing for whatever reason and then having to be bailed out.
July 16th 2010 @ 10:17am
Joseph said | July 16th 2010 @ 10:17am | Report comment
What this sorry mess has shown is that the NRL’s policing of the cap is terrible. If Schubert missed the mark by 83% with the storm, how much has he missed by with other clubs?
It’s also set a horrible precedent in that the NRL did not conduct the investigation – News Limited did. Why was the NRL not responsible for investigating? They may have been able to make the players talk!
July 16th 2010 @ 10:25am
Justin said | July 16th 2010 @ 10:25am | Report comment
The conflicts of interest here are of epic proportions and quite frankly laughable.
However Steve can you please explain to us why the independent directors should be frog marched out the door when from the accounts I have read it was two News people on the board who signed off on the financials before each board meeting? The didnt pick up anything unusual yet you want other innocent directors hung drawn and quartered?
July 16th 2010 @ 10:46am
oikee said | July 16th 2010 @ 10:46am | Report comment
The news directors are hardly going to sack themselves. They will get a slap on the wrist and go on to run a big comapny one day, with the books well and truely in order.
As far as i am concerned, we weeded out 5 shonkies, from the top of the tree. Thats what they do with drug lords, the man on the street is not the main target. If you get the “bigman” you have acheived something.
Now we caught these muppets, lets hang drawn and quarter them.
Send a message to the next set of muppets who wish to bring the game into disrepute. 
July 16th 2010 @ 10:35am
Jeff said | July 16th 2010 @ 10:35am | Report comment
Yep Kovana AFL does have a salary cap, but it is much more ‘bendable’ than the NRL version. with players being allowed ‘incentives’ from other promotions, I have heard rumours that G Ablett Junior is on a salary that no club could afford.
However AFL also has GOOD administrators and this is my original comment. If David Gallop was a Politician, his portfolio would be gone by now. Unfortunately for us mugs that donate our money weekly to the NRL, this ‘Bumbler’ is allowed to carry on year after year,
I am lead to believe that he also has a conflict of interest by being ‘placed’ by News Ltd I will not swear to that one though, maybe Steve can throw a little light on it.
July 16th 2010 @ 10:51am
kovana said | July 16th 2010 @ 10:51am | Report comment
Thanks for that.
July 16th 2010 @ 12:55pm
David of Canberra said | July 16th 2010 @ 12:55pm | Report comment
At the heart of this disaster is rugby league’s biggest cultural identifier – players are mercenaries who go or stay where the money is best – Mark Gasnier didn’t go to France purely to learn French and enjoy a Parisian lifestyle and nor did he return to Australia simply because a member of his family was unwell – he came back because he must have received offers to play rugby union here and when the negotiations got to the money amount, he wasn’t satisified with what the ARU could pay and then turned to league because he knew that he could always secure the money he wanted.
Likewise Karmichael Hunt and Israel Folau aren’t joining the AFL for only the challenge – the money on offer was more than they had been offered by both rugby codes.
So you can’t expect mug punters like me to accept that the Storm players who received the big money didn’t know they were in breach of the salary cap. They are not that stupid and, as professional sportsmen, would not accept anything less than what they think they should get. Cameron Smith does not strike me as someone who would be as stupid as to leave all the details to his manager.
The players’ managers, many of whom are former players, are also as equally as culpable as the Storm execs. This is the time for David Gallop to clean up the player managers.
I really hope the ATO are going to investigate this issue. The fact that the players refused to cooperate with Deloitte speaks volumes about their state of mind and knowledge about breaching the salary cap. If they thought refusing to cooperate would see them off the hook, then they will be a huge world of pain once the ATO uses its powers to compell them to cooperate.
If they are smart, then they will roll over now and seek mercy from the ATO.
July 16th 2010 @ 1:10pm
Mick Gold Coast QLD said | July 16th 2010 @ 1:10pm | Report comment
The ATO will have been vitally interested right from the jump, David.
This stuff is mana from heaven for it – enforcing compliance from high profile people, and making it known, is a very effective, no cost tool in encouraging voluntary compliance from the common herd.
There’d be individual audits under way right now of the poor, victim, innocent, ill-educated, evilly manipulated players (who just want to play footy for their fans and to whom the money is never, ever, ever important).
July 16th 2010 @ 2:02pm
Akazie said | July 16th 2010 @ 2:02pm | Report comment
David, you are right and you are wrong, for every one of the mercenaries you mention, there would be 30 who take pay cuts to stay at their club with their mates.
Not all are mercenaries, but the ones that are make the news.
July 16th 2010 @ 1:10pm
Republican said | July 16th 2010 @ 1:10pm | Report comment
David Of Canberra
Yep, but this is so of all elite sport today. The almighty dollar is the bottom line to what are first and foremost businesses.
The virtues that once espoused sport at the elite tier of any code i.e loyalty, tribalism and community, are manufactured to give the prosaic punter the illusion that they still exist, when they simply don’t. If these are what you are seeking in your support of any elite footy code in this country, then you are delusional, however you will certainly experience great theatre, skill and see the very best respective codes have to offer. it is a moot point as to whether or not this will satisfy any one punters criteria in their ‘love of the game’.
I prefer to support my code of choice at the lower tiers these days. The more amateur the status the more real the experience in this respect.
Cheers