Storm players knew about club's Salary Cap rort

it reminds me a bit of the story that time about the medical records of AFL players having tested positive twice to illicit drug tests just happening to be found in a gutter.................per-leeeze........we didn't just come down in the latest shower, me thinx this 'filing cabinet' in another room is a tad too convenient, and implies a smells of being another 'gutter'.......

Funnier is the idea that waldron was the only executive at the Storm who new about it - yet he left the offending documents ruining his career in a filing cabinet? hahaha

Well if Billy is telling the truth, then there goes the theory that they all signed two contracts and should have realised, too.

seems like you know the industry well billo, sorry if some of us dont. naive? seems like it. incredibly naive? well some of us have jobs that don't allow us time to learn about ins and outs of other industries contracting procedures. i have learned something though.

gotta wonder. Although Bec Wilson seems to be the only one still throwing mud - - - AWAY from News Ltd........strange that??

But stephen surely barely educated footballers are a better judical system???

Isn't it funny how this is pretty much all old news now? Brian Waldron was absolutely castagated by the News Ltd owned media but where has all that bitterness towards him gone? I suspect that they've now had the time to have a good hard look in their own backyard, saw how embroiled their organisation is in the whole affair and have put an editorial silence on the issue.

So player opinion polls substitute for inquiries with due process now do they? If there is no truth to these claims they could be defamatory of the Storm and its players.

Well Bill Slater said he only signed ONE contract. So there goes that theory...

There's some incredible naivete on show here. Players frequently sign more than one contract with a club in most sports, which deal with different aspects of a deal. Image rights, pensions, salary, non-football activities, and so on, may all be outlined in distinct contracts. To say that players, by signing more than one contract, must have known that they were breaching the salary cap rules is ridiculous.

i can accept that a player might not realise his contract and extra payments were putting his club over the cap but you can cry too much if you've signed two contracts for differing amounts or if they were ever advised not to tell anyone about the free boat etc. somehow the storm have managed to turn this around to make it seem like its the nrl's fault and using the players natural greed (who doesnt like getting more money for the same work) to try and link the restriction of payment to the games elite and the loss of stars as some twisted explanation of why they're not really guilty of cheating so give them their titles back. separate the issues and deal with them. separately

Spot on Gareth

Hmm - I reckon the tax office might take an interest in these cash payments...

A couple of things really frustrate me here. First of all, that the portrayal of these players as innocent victims means that something as obvious as "Storm players knew about club's Salary Cap rort" rates as newsworthy. Secondly that only 62% put their hands up. As I said when this whole thing broke, the players *have* to know. Otherwise the auditors would just ask the players how much they earn, look at the contracts and stat decs from the club and compare the two. That's before you even get to the reports that as many as 11 players have letters of offer with one figure, and signed contracts with another. I think that once the NRL has completed it's investigation, some heads need to roll. It shouldn't matter if it's the best fullback in the game, the best centre in the game, the best hooker in the game, etc - if they're complicit in this, they need to be deregistered and shamed, in the same way a drug cheat or a player accepting payments from a bookie would be. It'd be a real shame to lose that talent, but it'd send a very clear message to anyone else with similar ideas, and do a lot for the image of the sport.

You bet they did and I alluded to this weeks ago when this was first disclosed. The players are as accountable as the rest of the organisation. We punters also need to take more responsibility for this culture of win at all costs simply because we as consumers have a symbiotic relationship with the whole unethical business. Cheers

I just wish that RLW had asked those same players that have accused the Storm players of knowing what was going on, exactly how much of the cap their own club is using, plus the total of all third party agreements. I wonder how many would be able to give a figure (other than "all of it") that was close to what their club is actually spending? This would give us a much better indication of how much the players would or would not know in regards to any salary cap rorting within a club.

Of course the players knew. How can you not know that you're getting something extra on the side? I hate how the players are acting like innocent victims, and the public treating them like heroes, when they are just as much to blame. Melbourne supporters should be just as filthy with them, and stop blaming David Gallop.

It really doesn't matter whether the Storm players knew or not. Running the salary cap within their club wasn't their responsibility. Just like scoring tries wasn't the responsibility of Brian Waldron.