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Melbourne Storm fans gather outside AAMI Park to show their support at a training session on Saturday, April 24, 2010. AAP Image/David Crosling
Provided the club’s salary cap rorting was solely the work of rogue executives, and provided Cameron Smith’s insistence players will take a pay cut to stay together is true, and provided News Limited “remains committed to the Storm in Melbourne,” as they’ve stated, the Melbourne Storm can bounce back from this crisis.
Remember the most excessive of the Storm’s punishments – the stripping of premierships – affects what happened in the past.
The second most excessive – the stripping of all points from the 2010 season – affects what is happening in the present.
The future, relatively speaking, is in the Storm’s hands.
The message from both the coach and players yesterday, and the strong support shown by supporters at the club’s AAMI Park training session, reiterate this.
Now sure, they’ll come out of the salary cap crisis with a damaged brand and less a few sponsors. There’ll be people out there who will forever regard them as cheats, or who will no longer trust the club.
But just imagine this scenario. Imagine if the players and coaches do emerge as the innocent victims of all this, and the players do end up taking a pay cut and staying together, and News Limited do continue their commitment and absorb the financial impact of the crisis.
Then imagine the Storm making a run for next year’s premiership.
Practically all of Victoria will be pulling for them. They’ll be pulling for the players, adversely affected by a scandal they knew nothing about. They’ll be pulling for their club, thrown into turmoil by the work of a select few.
If they could win it, it would be possibly the greatest redemption story in Australian sport. How could you not pull for that?
Now of course, October 2011 is probably too far away to start thinking in such a manner. And it’s worth mentioning there were strong whispers of AFL clubs looking at Billy Slater as a Karmichael Hunt-style recruit on Melbourne radio yesterday.
But this is the challenge for the Storm. This is what can be accomplished if they stick together and fight back. And if yesterday was any indicator, that’s what those sticking by the club – especially the playing group and the coach – want more than anything.
Smith said in the Herald Sun the playing group would take “huge hits” to stay together.
“There is no way we are going to ask a player or several players to leave so we can be within the salary cap,” he said. “We are a team, not a group of individuals that turn up on a weekend and play football. We’re together in everything we do and if we have to be under the salary cap we will do it together.”
Then there was Craig Bellamy’s impassioned statement in front of the press, with his players standing united behind him.
“We ain’t going anywhere. We are not going to surrender. We will stand up for ourselves, we will fight our way back from here,” he said.
Over 2000 fans attended the event for supporters, a sign that many Storm supporters aren’t blaming the club as a whole for the crisis, but rather their anger was directed at former CEO Brian Waldron.
Of course, for the Storm to emerge a stronger club, the words coming from the players, coach and ownership will need to be more than just words. The presently accepted version of events will have to be correct, too.
But if these things occur, there may yet be a silver lining on this dark, dark storm cloud.
After all, this town loves a good redemption story. Look at Geelong last year, bouncing back from losing the unlosable grand final in 2008. Look at the Ben Cousins hype at the start of last year, or the Barry Hall bandwagon so far this year.
Next year, the Melbourne Storm get their shot at redemption. Like Geelong, Cousins and Hall, they’ll be embarrassed. They’ll have a point to prove.
They’ll also be out to win a premiership that will remain in the record books.
Don’t underestimate how much of a motivator those things will be. It could be the making – not breaking – of rugby league in Melbourne.