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Since the news broke of Cronulla players accepting the ASADA bans, many Queensland supporters have saying that this year’s State of Origin series should be void.
New South Wales fielded a side that included a player who was, now that this ban has been retroactively put in place, ineligible to play.
Consider Dave Smith came out tomorrow and said that NSW are to be stripped of their series win.
It doesn’t change the fact that New South Wales lifted the State of Origin shield. It doesn’t change the fact that NSW won two out of the three games.
This is much the same as the Melbourne Storm situation. Regardless of who was cheating, who knew, what differences them not cheating would have made, the Melbourne Storm still won the premiership. I remember them winning.
They bashed Manly senseless in 2007, admittedly before copping it even worse the next year, and held off a fast-finishing Parramatta Eels side in 2009.
It happened. No amount of retroactive punishments, justified or otherwise, changes the fact the Storm won the premiership in those years.
Some of you will say, “Yeah, but it isn’t the other NSW players fault that Paul Gallen was cheating.” And you are right. But do you think every Melbourne player was getting paid outside of the cap? How is it fair to justify stripping these players of a premiership but not fair to strip all the clean players of the NSW side of a series win?
You will say, “Yeah but Paul Gallen was just doing what he was told by his club. He didn’t know any better. It is the club doctors fault!” Which is also true, putting aside for a moment the rules of strict liability the NRL operates under. But I must have forgotten the part where Cameron Smith was required to be extremely knowledgeable of finances. In the same way the doctors are at fault in the Cronulla Sharks case, the player agents and people involved in salary cap management are to blame for the Storm cap scandal.
Could Smith’s agent have said, “Cameron, you have to come into the office to sign a new contract. No problems or anything, we’ve just renegotiated some terms.”
Why is Cameron Smith required to be more aware of financial situations than Gallen is of medical ones? He isn’t. Due to the rules of strict liability, the exact opposite. Paul Gallen is fully responsible for any substance he takes. His ignorance isn’t an excuse. Cameron Smith’s could be.
NSW’s 2014 State of Origin win will have an asterisk next to it, even if those south of the border refuse to acknowledge it. The side won the series with a player who was a banned drug cheat playing for them.
In the same way the Melbourne Storm’s premierships would still have an asterisk next to them, even if the Melbourne Storm fans pretend it doesn’t. They won the premiership fielding players who were being paid outside of the salary cap.
It is like Ari Gold from the television show Entourage said, “There is no asterisks in life, only scoreboards.”
It is time the NRL stops trying to pretend otherwise and reinstates the 2007 and 2009 Premierships.
One last thing though, while NSW should most definitely keep their series win, Paul Gallen should be stripped of the Wally Lewis medal. It should be given to a different player, especially seeing as he didn’t deserve to win it in the first place.
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