THE NRL has stripped Melbourne Storm of two premierships, as well as any competition points this season, in the toughest punishment for a salary cap breach in NRL history. www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/leag ... utostart=1 they knew the rules, there own fault

THE NRL has stripped Melbourne Storm of two premierships, as well as any competition points this season, in the toughest punishment for a salary cap breach in NRL history. www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/leag ... utostart=1 they knew the rules, there own fault

Bloody hell thats massive do they not get striped of the the world club chalange too?

dont know if it said anything about that on the video

More importantly, will we now be given the result over them from our game? Could add it to our licence application!

I have a lot of time for the Melbourne Storm. However they deserve it as cheats should be punished heavily for me-whether drugs or salary cap cheating etc. They knew the rules. And they cheated more than a once. Sadly its the Fans and the players that are affected most. Well done the NRL for showing some balls-certainly better than the people running the game Internationally and in the UK.

Just been reading this.. Bit of a shocker but thats what the salary cap is there for!! my team the Dogs sufferred from our own undoings a few years back so other teams should too. Feel a bit sorry for Manly and Parra but they can't just be given the titles..

It is not massively surprising though when you look at that storm team from 2007-2009 is it any wonder they were over the cap? Slater, folau, inglis, smith, johnson, king, quinn, hoffman, geyer, cronk, cross, newton, turner, white, crocker, blair, macdougall.... everyone of those will be a fortune in the past few years.... They have shed a load of players since then but still have the 3 best players in the world playing in the same team which will cost a fortune too...

I think if the salary cap was policed more tightly here there would be a team or two stripped of SL premierships, challenge cups and Championship titles too...

Well, not any more according to the RFL and their "live" cap system. How on earth did Melbourne think they would get away with a "two book" system? $200k or so would be easy to hide but $1.7m ??

You do have to question their 2007 team with all those big name stars in it. There are (and have been) teams over here that look questionable given their squad. The difference over here is that you have stars willing to play for peanuts/nothing like Kris Radlinski did.

Havent there been allegations in Super League of players being paid "off shore" to get round the sallary cap and to be more tax efficent

Listening to the radio on the way into work this morning and this could just be the tip of the iceberg. There have been claims by high profile people that there are other NRL and AFL clubs who also have things to hide. TV news also states that the ex Storm CEO will be stood down from his new role in RU this morning and that there will also be an investigation into the AFL club he used to head up. www.smh.com.au/rugby-union/union ... -tg62.html Sounds like there will be lots of twitchy bums in offices around the country today.

Listening to the radio on the way into work this morning and this could just be the tip of the iceberg. There have been claims by high profile people that there are other NRL and AFL clubs who also have things to hide. TV news also states that the ex Storm CEO will be stood down from his new role in RU this morning and that there will also be an investigation into the AFL club he used to head up. www.smh.com.au/rugby-union/union ... -tg62.html Sounds like there will be lots of twitchy bums in offices around the country today.

So guys it was $1.7 mill over 5 years with 700,000 of that being in 2010.

So that equates to $250k over per year for the previous 4 years which is about 6% of the salary cap which equates to one average-good NRL player i.e. Quinn. IMO we could have still won the titles in 2007 & 2009 without rorting the system, but we'll never know.

I don't believe we're being stripped of the WCC.

Fair enough we cheated and deserve to be punished, but this may see the end of RL in Melbourne. We have no points this year and even if we win games we don't accrue any points. We have nothing to play for this year. Basically it puts RL in Victoria of the brink of extinction, which I hope none of you true RL fans would wish for.

UC the majority of the players you mention were either recruited as unknowns or juniors.

Michael Crocker was probably the biggest name signing in the storm history and he came because he was unwanted by any other club due to his history.

We have the best coach in the RL world. Under the Storm coaching staff many of those players have been converted from no-names who couldn't get a run out with teams to rep players.

Matt King - bin man who couldn't get a game at Cronulla to Australian Rep
Slater, Smith, Johnson - unwanted by Brisbane - not good enough as youngsters
White - couldn't get a game at St George - NSW and Australian Rep
Newton, Finch - unwanted by their clubs half way through , signed by Storm for minimum pay as there contracts were paid by the Newcastle and Parramatta respectively.

I could go on, but hopefully you get the idea. It wasn't like we had the Australian team playing for us. We just took loads of average players and helped them reach their potential.

We have look at all the players Storm have lost since 2005

Geyer
Webster
King
Folau
Chambers
Hill
Orford
Kafusi
Friend
Cross
Newton
Crocker
Johnson

A pretty decent team I think you'd agree.

Anyway just don't kick a team (our understanding is that the coach and players had no knowledge the cap was being rorted) or it's fans when it's down.

It happens too much in this great sport of ours.

I became used to as a fax fan, but now Storm as well. It's too much.

Its always the fans and the players that suffer! That barsteward Waldron should be fined and made to pay the Storm some money back. Also Time in Prison and a ban for him ever to be involved in running any Sports Club should be brought in. No doubt there are others who knew who should also be sacked and made to pay a fine to the Storm.
I believe the Penalty had to be Harsh as it was so blatant. The Doggies suffered a similar penalty a couple of years ago. However I think not allowing Melbourne Storm to pick up any points is a step to far. And as you say could easily destroy the Club and the game in Victoria. The Sports of Rugby Union and AFL would never have done this and sometimes our sport shoots itself in the foot and causes more damage than needed.

To be honest I think Melbourne will ride this and come out the other side, although not unscathed. I notice sponsors are deserting in droves, which if they had any b@lls they would sit back and think about before reacting. Sure nobody wants negative publicity, but if they just sat tight for now then made a big deal about being part of a new, fresh and honest storm I am sure they would be better thought of.

Waldron seems to be behind much of this according to the press and he deserves what he gets. Only worry is what will happen to some of the innocents. I heard Ray Warren saying this morning that it is most likely the fringe and lower paid players who will suffer rather than the superstars. With that in mind, I hope Gareth Widdop is okay in the fallout. Sure he could find another club, but I reckon he still needs to continue his apprenticeship at the Storm before he moves on.

What of their future? many will turn their back on the club for the rest of this season at least, with there being nothing to play for, compunding the financial implications massively.

Melbourne is already an AFL city by some stretch, this could increase it by a few inches at least

There's no room under other clubs salary caps to take on the superstars, so the only route would be SL or RU. Even then I think there would be limited take up. This will really show which players wear the badge with pride and are willing to tough it out. We already know Cooper Cronk does, so lets see which other ones come out fighting. The ones who dont then good riddance.