Thurston would have only been suspended for the Rabbits game. With hindsight I wonder if he would have rather taken the weekend off?

The most amazing fact of it all is that Hayne took a blow to the head and stayed on his feet. Every other time I have seen anything brush across his face he is doing his best Matty Mitchem impression in no time.

Exactly right. The definition of a headbutt is; to deliver a sharp blow by driving the head into an opponent. If Hayne didn’t drive his overinflated head into Slater’s face than I have clearly missed something. You can guarantee if that was any other player delivering the blow they would be suspended, blue or maroon. I get the feeling if Lewis was up for the headbutt and Hayne for the spear tackle, Lewis would still be suspended and precious Jaryd would still be playing. Hayne seems to have a free pass now, first he was handed a grand final despite kneeing an opponent in the face, now he uses his head and is handed an origin jersey.

Stuff giving them an inch, the blues don’t deserve it. Would love to see us thrash them at home and then finally prove this is the greatest origin team ever by getting clean sweep we have been missing despite our domination over the last few years.

If Johnathon Brown signed for the Storm, I don’t think that I could sit through a game of AFL just to see what he can do.

However, It does sound like you are suggesting we begin some kind of infiltration campaign and now that I think about it, maybe it could work.

Firstly, we produce 16 decent wingers that can jump (as a bonus they don’t even need to be able to kick), these operatives are then dispersed one by one to each different AFL club on multi-million dollar deals. Second, the leaguies then infiltrate each club and begin covertly spreading the word about league under the noses of their AFL bosses, all while slowly taking away a large portion of the AFLs cash reserves. Finally, when the AFL has no money left to pay their own players, league comes in and poaches all of the AFL players who have been hearing about this great game from the aforementioned operatives.

The problem with selecting him is the fact he is now a walking talking AFL billboard. As soon as he scored from a kick on the weekend Gus pointed out he should be bouncing the ball in his new code. Then in the press conference the questions were about the AFL.

You can guarantee the same thing will happen if he scores from a bomb in origin and I don’t think the game should be giving that kind of a leg up to the AFL in the middle of RLs biggest showpiece.

I agree Benitez was on his last legs but I am more worried by the situation at Anfield now that he has left. Liverpool need a world class manager to bring back the glory days but what top manager would come into a club in the current state that Liverpool finds it. With the ownership up for grabs (finally) I was actually hoping Benitez would stay, at least until new owners were found. At least with Benitez in place until new owners were found there was something at the club that resembled stability and some kind of direction forward (though only Benitez knows where that was going).

Now with the future of the club both on and off the pitch a complete unknown, I fear players like Gerrard and Torres will look for greener pastures (I don’t buy any of that Torres will leave if Rafa stays rubbish). With Benitez out of the way, will the owners actually stump up the cash for a world class manager or will they take the more likely option of a cheap stop gap that will keep the club running until they can take their cash and run. Players of that quality deserve to be playing at the top level and it is looking increasingly likely that will be away from Anfield.

I agree, there is something badly wrong when 15 of the 16 clubs are consistently making losses. There is always a lot of blaming other people (pokie tax, lack of members) but there never seems to be much done to actually fix the problem other than asking for more handouts. Maybe we should be looking into how the clubs are run so that they actually do have more money to spend on players.

I hope they leave him out and bring somebody in. He knew the consequences for signing and now it is time to take his medicine. Even if we had no back-up and needed to call up Steve Michaels to replace him I would still say good riddance to him.

If he really wanted a new challenge he would have signed for the Sharks on a minimum contract where he only gets paid when the team wins.

I think he wanted to play more last year because he had just gotten back in the team. This year he knows that he is in the team no matter how he plays. If he plays bad everybody will say it is cause he is out wide, if he has a blinder thats a bonus. He is the kind of player that can turn a game if he really wants to but he didn’t look like he cared last night.

I have a feeling a lot of the camera angles last night were simply for the pleasure of the 16 or 17 people that were watching on 3d TVs. It is the only way to explain the use of that shocking camera angle on the ground behind the goalposts for a set of 6. I have heard from football fans that you only get the proper 3d effect on close up shots.

Ben Lowe is a Queenslander

Everybody seems to be blaming the selectors for putting Hayne on the wing but surely the man himself has to take some of the blame for being thoroughly outplayed. Everyone seems to be forgetting that the man he was marking, Darius Boyd, is also a fullback. They are very similar players in that they are both full time full backs who spent the early parts of their careers on the wing or in the centres. It is not like this position is new to Hayne and he easily has more individual talent. There is one difference though and this is the reason Hayne was shown up last night, attitude.

Hayne seems to dislike the fact he has been selected on the wing, while Boyd is just happy to have been selected. Hayne only seems to be trying when he is shifted to fullback or when he comes in looking for the ball. A wingers job is to stay on the wing and finish off the back line moves, exactly what Boyd did for his try and then when he set up Inglis’ try. He didn’t come inside looking to make a big play, he did his job and stayed in position to finish off the play. Maybe if Hayne was willing to sacrifice some camera time and do his job for the team he would be a better winger, instead he wants to be running the show.

GO QUEENSLAND, 3-0 would be nice this year.

This year’s Giro has been fantastic, I hope Porte can hold on but I would have been a lot more confident if Cadel was in the maglia rosa. Good to see another Aussie performing on the big stage though and with numerous stage wins by Aussies and Rogers leading California, this has been a great month for Aussie cycling.

I agree 100% Kim, good to see that some people are still thinking this through before throwing stones at everyone. It is growing increasingly frustrating for all supporters of the game, including Storm fans, that both the Storm and NRL won’t name names. Unfortunately though, we all just have to be patient and wait until the investigations are complete before we can all start throwing stones at those responsible, I think the Storm fans will all be at the front of the queue considering what they have done to our club. After all this is going to end up in the courts so you can’t really blame the Storm or NRL for keeping quiet rather than running their mouths.

I only used Learoyd-Lahrs as an example as he is a big guy. You can easily sub his name with Tongue, Logan, Harrison, I was just making the point, why should they rick injury tackling the opposition.

I too had thoughts of binning all my Storm gear on the night the story broke but trust me, it is not easy to just turn your back on your club. I hope it does not happen to your clubs but I can guarantee, you won’t throw in your membership. Having said that, I don’t hold any grudges to those who turned in their membership (last count I heard was 2).

Me personally, I blame the pencil pushers who run the numbers at the club, they clearly don’t care for the club or the game. Anybody in the club who knew, be they in accounts, the board or a player, needs to be kicked out of the game and good riddance to them. But for people to accuse players like Cam Smith of knowing what was happening without any evidence other than, “how could they not know”, needs to remember, as you said, innocent until proven guilty. Everybody seems to be happy to pin this on the players, in particular Smith and GI but I think we all need to step back and wait for the investigation to reveal what people actually knew.

First off, I am a Storm fan so I do have a biased view of this but Alison, I don’t understand how you can be so angry with the Storm’s supporters for supporting their team, “the crowd is filled with banners in the crowd supporting the players and calling on fans to unite”. If the Eels were found to be rorting the cap tomorrow would you immediately stop supporting them? From reading your post I don’t think you would. Your pride in the team takes a hit and you hope that eventually your team will weather the Storm (no pun intended) and eventually go on to bigger and better things. For Storm fans this was particularly pertinent in the immediate aftermath when the majority of the competition wanted us kicked out and thrown under an old rug to be forgotten as quickly as an evicted big brother housemate. I do believe the players are innocent (do you know all your workmates salaries) and any found to have known should be kicked out of the comp, but that is an argument for another time. The fans simply wanted to show the players they are not alone, exactly what a teams supporters should be doing. A true supporter is there in the good times and sticks by the team in the bad times.

Then you have a go at the players, “The Storm players hug and celebrate every point like it’s the grand final”, “I watched a team who didn’t care about anything but themselves and about winning”. What else are they playing for at the moment? Even if they win they get nothing so they are playing for themselves, their teammates and their supporters. It is not an ideal situation but what can the players do about it, nothing. They are out their playing for each other and for the fans that stick behind them. “What adversity?”, the players have just been told that what they have worked for over the past four years has been taken away. They also know that the mates they have played with for years (some since they were teenagers) will now be forced to leave. They may even have to leave the club themselves, moving cities or even to a different country because of what others did, this affects not only the players but their families.

Besides, why should they play each week and risk breaking a bone or doing a knee by trying to tackle the man mountain that is Learoyd-Lahrs when he takes a run? What is stopping them from showing up to Canberra Stadium last week and standing on the halfway line for 80 minutes taking kick-off after kick-off and watching Dugan run straight through and rack up 100 points alone? This would ensure all the Storm players who will have to leave are 100% fit for the inevitable contract negotiations at the end of the year when they are shopped around. At the moment they are out there putting their bodies on the line for the entertainment of everybody who pays to go and watch them play (including you). Besides, wouldn’t it be better going home after the game having beaten those cheating Stormers when they actually try? In fact, I wonder if you would have even written this article if the Raiders had won?

I agree 100% but unfortunately with the current admin, common sense is not exactly in abundance.

So you think the players sit down and work out how much everybody else is on and then see if they are under the cap? This is not the players fault, they were given a contract that they believed was legitimate, it is their job to play football, they are not accountants.

I agree entirely we should have to lose some players at the end of the year to get back under but there is no point booting them out right now. If you do that they will be lost to the NRL and to do that and that is punishing the entire game, not just the Storm.

Sullivan was poached by the Roosters a couple of years ago and what have they produced. He was just one part of the team that produced all these great players. The Roosters thought it was just a matter of getting him and they would find another Inglis but it doesn’t work that way. You have to have a good structure and the right coaches as well.

Mate, I hope this never happens to your club. Since Thursday every report is about how the club I love will be dead, possibly before the year is out. All of this caused by certain unnamed board members who we trusted. Now you make the claim that our fans approve of this cheating. We do not approve of the cheating. I believe you will find 99% of our fans are ashamed at what our club has done and the stigma that is now forever attached to the team. There is nothing wrong with the fans showing they support the team and the players. The fans, the players (as long as they didn’t know about the rorting) and the rep of the club are the innocent victims of the actions of some individuals. Maybe some Sydney fans won’t understand this but when your team is down and needs you true fans don’t just jump off the bandwagon.

Do you propose we don’t play any more games for the rest of the year? We don’t have any right to earn points for the rest of the year (I feel this is fair enough, the squad was formed illegally) but they cannot just shut down. If that happens there are contracts with stadiums, vendors, merchandisers, and so on that wil not be fulfilled. They legitimate people within the club all still need to be payed, it is not a good solution playing for nothing but it is better than not playing at all.

Also, how do you propose the Storm get under the cap this year? Only 1 or 2 teams have any room under the cap, the rest of the players will have to go to union or England. The players didn’t know there was a problem why should they have to leave the country, or the game?

Honestly, I am very worried. I am up in Brisbane so we have the history of the game up here that would keep the team going strong but Melbourne only has a short history behind it.

It will galvanise a lot of fans behind the team, we were already hated by a lot of other clubs but now we are public enemy number one to everybody. On the flip side, this will also put a lot of fans off. There is nothing worse than cheating and it has certainly left a sour taste in the mouth to find out it is your team that has been doing it and for so long. I think the majority of supporters at the club will stand by them but it is going to be so much more difficult to attract new fans to the club.

The fans in Melbourne have already proved to be a resilient and loyal bunch. They may say we have poor crowds, we lose money but we have a loyal fan base that turns up to every game no matter the result. They consistently pull 12,000 to an out of date stadium and things were looking up off the field. With the new stadium opening it would have helped but with this years games meaning nothing it will be hard to get a lot of new fans to the games. I don’t think this will kill us off but it will set us back at least 5-10 years.

I have finally found a silver lining to this:
1) By spending under the cap from now on we will now be losing 700k less a season.
2) We are finally getting some air time in Melbourne, we have been complaining for years that the media freezes the Storm out
3) Next season can only be better than this season

It is not just Manly and Parra fans though. The year we beat Manly we beat the Broncos with the miracle try in the last minute of the Prelim final, who is to say they could not have won the GF if they played Manly. Same with last year, if we didn’t knock Manly out they could have beaten the Eels. If the Storm were not in the final someone else would be there and the finals would have looked totally different from week 1 to the grand final. It is an easy solution to hand the title to the team that lost the GF but it is not as simple as that.

They are avoiding the potential problem of the Storm making it into the eight and then winning the grand final. If we did manage to do it I know I wouldn’t be proud of the team at all. It also eliminates the inevitable, and justified, howls from the other teams who the Storm knock out if they did continue.

There is no perfect solution to this. If we are allowed to continue and win nobody will call it legit, and rightly so. Do the teams we play get the two points every week? We don’t play everyone twice so that cannot work. Same problem if the Storm don’t play any more games. What about if Benji Marshall gets injured playing the Storm later this year effectively ruining the Tigers season in a game that means nothing.

I just hopethat everybody that is accountable for this is found and punished.