Storm action against NRL to be reviewed
By AAP, 20 Jul 2010 AAP is a Roar Pro
- Tagged:
- Melbourne Storm, NRL, Rugby League
A group of supporters are likely to take over Melbourne Storm’s legal action against the NRL if the club’s new directors decide to drop the case.
Melbourne’s new directors will decide by Wednesday whether to continue the action against the NRL over its salary cap penalties.
The Storm’s former directors were all sacked by owner News Ltd when the extent of the club’s salary cap breaches were revealed last week, leaving their case in limbo.
Storm lawyer Leon Zwier told the Victorian Supreme Court on Monday that independent lawyer Howard Obst would conduct a review of the case, which will be completed by Wednesday.
A further mention of the case will be made in court on Thursday when it is expected that it will be announced whether the matter will proceed.
If the club choose to discontinue the case it is likely a group of Storm fans will seek to be given standing in the matter or pursue their own action against the league.
It is understood lawyer Peter Gordon wrote to the NRL on Monday asking the league to recognise the legal standing of Storm fans.
Mr Gordon has also asked the NRL that the group not be required to pay security of costs.
Before they were sacked, the independent directors were seeking a Victorian Supreme Court injunction restraining the NRL from stripping Melbourne of the 2007 and 2009 premierships and preventing it from earning points this season.
A trial was due to begin in the first week of August.
The former independent directors, Peter Maher, Rob Moodie, Petra Fawcett and Gerry Ryan, were sacked last Thursday, after the release of an independent investigation into the club’s salary cap rorting.
The audit, carried out by accounting firm Deloitte and announced by owners News Limited, found the Storm were $3.17 million over the cap since 2006, more than 80 per cent more than originally thought.
It also named 13 players who received payments outside the cap.
Mr Zwier said on Monday if the case proceeded the Storm would be calling Moodie and former Storm chief executive Matt Hanson as witnesses.
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Richard said | July 20th 2010 @ 10:02am | Report comment
I hope the Storm has got a good argument as to why rorting the system, cheating the fans and the NRL, and cheating other clubs in the NRL is justified. If not they are just making matters worse for themselves and for the code.
oikee said | July 20th 2010 @ 3:29pm | Report comment
Matt Hansen has been shown up as a liar and a cheat. The last thing he would ever do is take the stand.
These directors are all responsable of this mess, show me a firm ‘who’ no nothing about what is going on from the top.
They were sacked because of incompitence at the highest level. What more do they need to declare.
Is there any good trees in Melbourne, for a public hanging what these guys have done to this club. Anyhow, i am more interested with sponsership. This to me really sorts out the men from the boys. Being in Melbourne, you could understand sponsers pulling the plug. They wont be thinking of the big picture, they will just be worried about there image down south.
2 sponsers have already pulled the plug, i wont say there names, because i refuse to even mention them, and now it looks like the other 2, probably seen to be involved, are pulling out also, let the men stand up, and these other weak animals go, go ruin someone else’s code you grubby dogs.
Just one final word, Jerry Harvey is a billionaire, he supports rugby league, this country apart from mining and media find it hard tocreate billionaires, let this be a lesson to sponsers, rugby league fans are loyal, we support sponsers who support the game, the rest of you can go “suck a huge egg” weak animals, no balls.