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The recent press conference held by News Limited was an enthralling 45 minutes. News Chairman, John Hartigan, revealed the Storm were almost 80 per cent over what was initially predicted by the NRL audit.
The Storm were found to be $500,000 over the cap in 2007, and $1m over in 2009; their two most recent premiership seasons.
There is no doubt the football players involved in these victories were superior to their respective opponents. They did not manipulate any rules, play unfairly or cheat on game day to my knowledge.
My point still remains that the combinations of players they fielded were illegal and being stripped of these titles was deserved.
Thirteen players – essentially a run-on team – have been named as being recipients of the cheating since 2006. Many have since left the club but seven still remain.
Players named:
Will Chambers
Michael Crocker
Cooper Cronk
Matt Geyer
Ryan Hoffman
Greg Inglis
Dallas Johnson
Antonio Kaufusi
Anthony Quinn
Billy Slater
Cameron Smith
Steve Turner
Brett White.
The fact that not one of the current players co-operated with the audit indicates to me an acknowledgment of guilt; it is guilt by association and it stinks.
Players were concerned their private contract arrangements would be made public, which would be an uncomfortable situation in any business organisation so I can understand their hesitation. But if you have nothing to hide, what do you have to lose?
Prove your innocence with full disclosure.
If you were asked to sign two contracts, had your house renovated for free, were given a $5,000 Harvey Norman gift voucher or had a speedboat appear mysteriously in your garage, I refuse to believe that you were unaware that something dodgy was going on.
It’s my understanding that if you find a bag of money on the street and don’t disclose it to the police; you could be found guilty of theft by finding. Whether they knew it or not, the payments, boats, petrol money and gift vouchers are at the centre of the scandal, and the recipients should be held accountable.
I can’t see how an independent auditor can prove a player ‘had no knowledge’ of the cheating. I guess they have no physical proof, no emails or paper trail to follow?
Even Hartigan admitted they (Deloittes) are not forensic psychologists and knowledge is hard to prove. I’m sure when the Victorian police and the tax office become involved, these flimsy details will be revealed.
Bring it on.
We should demand nothing short of full disclosure.
How can an audit commissioned by the owner of the fraudulent company be fully transparent when the players themselves, and their managers were not compulsorily interviewed? I just don’t get it!
The current Storm players must be separated. I read today in the paper that the NRL failed to ensure this happened following the last salary cap scandal involving the Bulldogs in 2002.
The Bulldogs on this occasion were stripped of all their points to that date, I believe it was 36 odd points, but the team was not disassembled and they went on to win the competition in 2004. It could be argued that this was still an illegally assembled team even if in 2004 they met the salary cap requirements.
This just cannot happen again with the Melbourne Storm. Every other single club in the NRL has been denied the opportunity to pursue and sign these players in a fair, open market.
As I said earlier in the week, before the release of today’s report, the Storm’s so called big four – Inglis, Slater, Cronk and Smith, should be the players who are forced to separate from the Storm and from each other next year and beyond. These are the players who were the main beneficiaries of the scam.
I believe they should be forced to find new clubs for whatever amount of money those clubs can find under the cap.
The problem for Melbourne is they have to cover any difference between their current salary and what the other club can offer. Say the Roosters want to pursue Cameron Smith. They need to pay the full price of his current salary at Melbourne (per season) or the Storm have to cover the difference and count that cost in their cap next year.
There would be few clubs in the financial position to be in the market for such a player of his value, so the Storm are likely to continue paying the price for this cheating even after their players are gone.
The big four cannot take reductions in their salaries because they have effectively been taken out of the open market with huge, illegal contracts. This can’t then be covered up by allowing them to take pay cuts the next year – to paraphrase David Gallop.
The Storm will now have to go through the inevitable rebuilding stage which happens to every successful club – this is the natural cycle of competition and the player market. This is the basis on which the salary cap is supposed to work and it is the exact system the Storm were manipulating.
The NRL needs to find a fair way to ensure the big four are being paid fairly and that they can play football in a team playing for competition points next year, but this cannot be together playing for the brand Melbourne Storm. I’m not really sure what the answer to this is, but the NRL needs to act now and make some tough decisions.
If nothing else, the dismantling of the Melbourne Storm could uncover a group of young players biding their time to make the grade in QLD Cup, and they will grab any opportunity they are given. Most of them will play on the minimum salary and will have to earn their keep to deserve contract extensions.
That is what the Storm management and board should focus on: actual player development, the discovery of the next Billy Slater or Cooper Cronk.
However, mud sticks, and the Storm are going to be remembered as a cheating club for many years to come.
I’ve heard Jack Gibson, one of the most successful coaches in the game’s history, used to say success starts in the front office. The success will come when the on field commitment, drive and fair play of the players is matched by the business side of the club.
The players were performing well without being brilliant in the years preceding the scamming which began in 2006. That year the players began pushing the boundaries on the field with grapple tackles etc, which I’ve mentioned in previous posts. At the same time those in the inner sanctum of the club began preparing an elaborate system of cheating.
On field performances became grubby and the goings on within the club even dirtier. Sadly, there were a few ‘rats in the ranks’ who were prepared to put the reputation of the entire club on the line for the cash and the glory. These people, management and players need to be held accountable.
The club has flushed out the rats in management and now it remains to be seen just how innocent the players were in the cheating.
This whole situation still makes me angry; it hits a nerve with me personally for the loss the Storm in the 2007 grand final. Never knowing what may have been should the opposition have been playing fairly for that season.
The game has been robbed of a level playing field for almost four seasons. I am bewildered that there is an NRL team in Melbourne to start with. Ask any ex-North Sydney Bears supporter who is even still supporting the game if they deserve to be there.
I will, however, have no problem in years to come if the Storm bounce back from this scandal and have successful seasons in the future, but I hope they have to rebuild from scratch and see what kind of struggles most clubs have to go through each year, losing loyal and deserving players to other clubs and English Super League each year because of salary cap issues.
Develop some talent, recruit well within your means – from the bottom up – but most importantly, to play in the spirit of the game and good sportsmanship.
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