100% correct Luke.

The “story” will be bigger and better if he does it against all odds. Ironically I haven’t been able to find any bookies that will give me any odds on Thorpe winning a medal at the Olympics – cause even they know that’s too risky to offer odds on.

Luke, do me a favor, when Thorpe wins gold in London and some irritating commentator says “no one gave him a chance” scream at the top of your voice “BULL^&*%, we all called it months ago”.

Grow up. Stop comparing people from different eras. Think of something more constructive to write about. If you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with. Appreciate Sachin whilst he’s still playing. These immature comparison debates are disrespectful.

…maximum performance at the Olympics AND maximizing books sales….

If the AFL did somehow put a stop to this Michael, you’d have one less thing to write about…you’d be scratching around for something else irrelevant to write about I guess.

Smart move Freo, hope they thrash Carlton on Friday night and prove that it was the right thing to do.

BigAl’s comment is also spot on. Especially the bit about me being spot on.

Because it won’t be such a shock when he does come out. The way I read it, he was warning the player “don’t come out yet, the AFL world isn’t ready for it”. That changed the minute that article was published because it sparked this entire debate where everyone is saying “being gay is okay”, so when it happens, there will be less joe-public idiots who react poorly too it.

This is simple risk management.

Gareth you have illustrated that you have a low level of understanding of the issues at hand here. Not once have you mentioned the player managers. You really have no idea of how the footy world works.

To think that a player is going to risk his ability to earn big money in a limited time frame just so you can think “that guy has integrity”…pull your head in mate.

You think SOO is a foregone conclusion, club games are boring so would rather spend your time bagging out the Melbourne Storm – seriously mate, take a good hard look in the mirror and ask yourself why you even bother to watch rugby league. I seriously think for your own mental health, you need to do something else with your time.

Disagree with you Justin, I think that Aker has made it easier for someone to ‘come out’ now, he’s broken the ice on the subject and is, as always calling it like it is.

Aker deserves more credit. He is showing leadership to have the courage to be the one to start the conversation and highlight the issues. Anyone thinking about coming out will be gaining more confidence that they will be accepted, but you cannot deny that Aker has a very good understand on how it will impact the team and club from the inside. The AFL may be ‘up to date’, that doesn’t mean that every person in every club or every supporter is up to date with views.

Aker’s brand benefits from being the one to break ice, everyone wins here…

This goes against all the rules (to, as a Hawks supporter, agree with an Essendon supporter – on today of all days!!!) but Redb is right, Shaun, why bother putting a comment like that on a blog like this? You seeking a bit of attention princess…?

Redb, you seem to be getting very sensitive about Storm fans “attacking the AFL”.

Many Storm supporters also support an AFL side. In fact, many Storm players also support an AFL side. I don’t think you should put a lot of weight on the opinions of one-eyed supporters.

What fascinates me is how much the public (including the Melbourne community) loves drama. I’ve been wearing my Storm polo shirts with pride for the last 3 days and it’s extraordinary the number of people who shake your hand and want to know the result or how the game was. I was expecting to get called a cheat when I walked into a pub with it on. Nothing but handshakes from AFL supporters there to watch the Pies v Dons game.

Rugby league seems to thrive on drama. SEN puts those callers through cause it creates drama. Drama is very entertaining and popular. Could rugby league survive without this drama???

Will the fans continue to turn out? They will if you keep throwing fuel on the fire Adrian. So please, keep it up. The more you keep insulting the Melbourne community by suggesting they only back winners, the easier you’re making our recovery.

We’ve been on the front page of the newspaper for the last 5 days; we didn’t get on the front page for winning the premiership!

All this talk about damage to our brand…I say “ha!”, we’re the most recognizable rugby league brand in the world now. Many will argue for the wrong reasons, but the hype, the attention, the drama. Right or wrong, our society loves it. The more you continue to write about it (you said it Adrian, there’s more to come), the more publicity, attention and press we get.

Where to from here? The club is (cliche warning) taking it one day at a time. Yesterday was a massive day for the club. Adrian, your ‘bookend’ comments illustrate the lack of resources journalists have these days when you have to report from your lounge room and cannot actually be inside the stadium.

Had you been there, your opinion may have been different. At the beginning of the coverage, as Fox panned across Etihad’s expansive stands, the faces in the crowd seemed particularly downcast, undoubtedly still reeling from the lost 2010 season and premierships….”, well actually Adrian, the Under 20’s (who won the premiership last year, just got beaten by the Warriors, it wasn’t a great performance. They were reeling from that loss, nice try though.

Fast forward to the end…mate, the players weren’t downcast they were in awe of the support they were getting from the fans. The noise and emotion was like nothing we’ve experienced before at a rugby league game. You are way off the mark here mate. You must have had a lemon in your mouth at the time of writing this piece of your article.

It’s going to be tough for the team to lift each week, but therein lies the challenge, the skepticism which many people seem to thrive on. So keep it coming, we love it.

As far as the salary cap goes, don’t be surprised if the Storm squad remains unchanged in 2011. They want revenge, and all they need to do to get it is stick together, work hard and accept a reduction in pay. There are many, many things more important in life than money and everyone at the stadium last night experienced it. It’s hard to experience it from your lounge room with a remote control in your hand.

We have our next game at the new stadium (AAMI Park) which is going to be massive. It is going to be deafening. Apparently no seat is more than 22 meters away from the field. The Melbourne Storm supporters have a big role to play for the rest of the year, to create the same fortress environment at AAMI Park that we had at Olympic Park (The Graveyard). I’m sure the marketing department will be working overtime to come up with our new nickname.

We have 8 eight games left this year versus the Broncos (2006 grand final replay), Bulldogs (Smith vs Ennis), Roosters (title contenders this year, plus someone at the Roosters has already been dragged into this scandal this week so the revenge card might be played), then Cowboys (Thurston vs Cronk), Panthers (2nd on the ladder right now), then Raiders (Bellamy’s old club), Rabbitohs (Russell might come to town), Sharks (okay, can’t spin anything here) and Knights (the game that his holiness Adrian Musolino will judge our future on).

It’s a new stadium, so many visitors to town as well as many residents will be keen to “check it out” at least once. Lots to be optimistic about, just don’t hang out with Adrian too much.

One last point, wouldn’t a true ANZAC clash be a combined team of Australia and NZ versus Turkey?

Nicholas R.W. Henning – Australian Author,

“However Rob, that doesn’t mean the end of the club, as much as that would please me.”

Why would it give you pleasure to see our club (Melbourne Storm) fail, go bankrupt, become history?

I’m sure they know how much they earn, but that doesn’t mean they know what everyone else is earning. Contracts are private matters. Do you know how contracts work?

Sorry about this Adrian, but it’s the second time that I’m going to tell you to pull your head in, in one week.

You really need to learn to hold your tongue until you have more information. You’re flapping on about stuff you have no idea about. Bean counters can get very creative with the way they word contracts and structure salary packages; to spread that much money over, I read 11 players salaries, over 5 years – not hard.

You guys are talking like the players are walking around the change rooms with a calculator going “so how much do you earn, and what about you, and is that a living away from home allowance, oh, okay it is, that has special rules – hang on a minute, we might be in breach of the cap here…”.

The player managers deal with this stuff, not the coaches, not the players; they get told get out there and play footy.

If the players were on performance enhancing drugs, then sure, they cheated, but it appears that this was all done in the back office. It’s really interesting to see how some people are reacting to this…

I think that it (getting a bigger ego) is a form of protection. You’ve got to pump up your own tyres because they’re forever getting let down or kicked in by others.

Adrian pull your head in. You’re actually making the situation worse.

Referees and umpires are going to have egos and they’ll only get bigger the more abuse you hurl at them. It’s the only way anyone can survive – otherwise they quit and who is going to be there to do the job for us.

Take a step back and recognize that they have a very, very, very tough job. The pace of the game is increasing every year. Players and coaches are always testing the rules.

Think you can do a better job mate? Then get out there and do it yourself. Once you have it should come as a very humbling experience because it is so hard. It’s so much easier to sit there on your arse, eat chips, drink beer and criticize.

But the fact is, the more we lean over the fence and abuse these guys, the worse you’re making the situation. The sooner we start giving these guys a break, the sooner their egos will drop and the sooner they will improve. All you have to do is pull your head in.

How many errors do players make a game? What about strategic errors by coaches? Add those up and compare them to the refs and we’ll see how bad a job they’re really doing. They’re human, accept it.

Again, agree 100%; down here in Melbourne the lead story on the front page is of the Herald Sun (yes, yes, I know, it’s trash) is the “player with a chequered history,who moved interstate to another club and and has been treated like a champion,and is now “famous” for unwanted photography apparently”; I was hoping that the Melbourne Storm being World Club Champs might at least get a run on the back page of the paper, but no, have to settle for one page inside the back page. Se la vie.

Well said MyGeneration, here, here.

Well done boys, yet again you’ve done us proud again!

Great summary sportsfanslife.com, very enjoyable.

Like you I’m very keen to see the progress of the Raiders and Rabbitohs this year; the competition is getting better and better each year because almost all teams are competitive these days. Events like state of origin, world cups and all star games are opportunities for trade secrets to be swapped which starts to even out the comp – great to see.

With one eye open, I still think that the Storm will be hard to beat this year. I would like to hear your opinion SFL who you think has the best “spine” in the competition…besides Melbourne. By spine I mean the # 1 guernsey, (Slater), #6 (Finch), #7 (Cronk) and #9 (Smith)….add to that Inglis…wow!

Top 4 on the ladder isn’t that relevant as 2009 showed, but I reckon one of the Dragons, Storm and Bulldogs will be holding up the trophy in early October. Be great to see a mid-year review from you too.

I went to the 20/20 on Friday, it was a blast; everyone was in a good mood, party atmosphere, far less drunken idiots looking for attention and the game moved quickly.

I also went to the ODI yesterday; it was slow, dull and boring; we left after 10 overs of the WI innings; I’ve never walked out on a game before, but I had better things to do…like ironing my shirts for work this week. I was in a state of shock as we walked out of the MCG but I couldn’t see any point to being there…as go_the_wannabe’s said (and perhaps all that needs to be said) RIP ODI’s.

p.s I love test cricket and have the patience for it, but ODI’s…nup.

They might as well paint themselves in yellow paint and have temporary tattoos for sponsors. Surely merchandise sales must have gone down with the introduction of these spandex suits….although I guess you could ride it cycling…

Latest tv figures for rah rah isn’t good…

Statistics released recently by TV survey company Repucom:

“While the battle for top spots was between NRL and AFL clubs, the Rugby Union crew would be sadly disappointed with their following in Australia. The Super 14 Union sides were unable to rank higher than the newly formed A-League competition and despite ever-increasing coverage and international flavour, the Rah Rah’s are unable to cement themselves as serious contenders in the Australian sporting landscape.”

In some interesting rankings; the following are the Top 10 sporting teams across all Australian codes rated by TV viewers:

1. Brisbane Broncos

2. Parramatta Eels

3. Collingwood Magpies

4. Geelong Cats

5. St George Illawarra Dragons

6. St Kilda

7. Canterbury Bankstown Bulldogs

8. Melbourne Storm

9. Carlton Blues

10. Western Bulldogs

Whats even more interesting about the statistics, is that the Melbourne Storm NRL franchise continue to rate highly despite being broadcast at early hours of the morning into the Victorian market.

The Storm in their short career have achieved not only Premiership success several times, but are highly followed across the country.

Broncos, Eels outrate AFL teams on TV

Fair call Bay35P, will put the grapes away…not paranoid about the Rebels joining the Melbourne community in 2011, more paranoid about us filling the new stadium this year; if that doesn’t happen…

And good luck to you kronic, you have lots of passion but perhaps your energy would be better spent starting a real cheer squad, one that creates banners like the Graveyard mob for the Storm. Banners are a part of Melbourne culture, so keep it going; or you could take the easy option and just create a Facebook group and sit behind your keyboard feeling invincible. Which do you choose soldier?

The same argument can be used for the Spring Racing Carnival, Valentines Day and Xmas.

It’s ingrained in our culture – good luck trying to change that. I think the lesson for the ‘lesser codes that bemoan’ is, create an event people want to be involved with and the media will latch on to it (not the other way around).