So your employer comes along to you tomorrow and offers to pay you half your salary in cash to cut down on their PAYE bill.

You're going to go running to HMRC to tell them all about it straight away are you?

Well yes and no!

There are a couple of things, did some players know they were getting paid extra via a third party route? This would seem likely as it appears from the news so far that this second set of books was alongside a set of top-up signed contracts! Hard to defend that you did not know that this might break the operation rules of the NRL when you signed a second contract, unless of course the CEO is very, very clever! So if knowingly taking payments they are probably in breach of the organisational rules and therefore the NRL probably have the power to suspended or stop players from playing RL in future.

In respect of tax or a crime been committed, it is quite possible that players were not breaking any law and if they paid the correct tax on the extra money they were paid, then in that respect they could be in the clear... but again, is this case?

I suspect that there is much more to come out of this story yet and I suspect that players will be suspended and banned if the NRL can indeed prove that they knowingly broke the rules of the sport. I also suspect that maybe the NRL will let the tax and criminal authorities do there investigation first, so as to get the total picture before deciding on it's actions and of course more evidence will be made available from these investigations.

any individuals involved should be heavily punished and that includes players or coaches guilty of tax evasion with some maybe jailed
a lot of players will have agents that handle all their cash issues and its doubtful most knew exactly how much they got paid but the managment of the club must have known

if the coaching staff were found to be involved in the organisation of these underground payments then they should be facing long bans

I'm stunned by this I really am. I feel for the Melbourne fans and players the most as it's not of their doing. I also feel sorry for the NRL clubs who have been victim to this. As for the world club challenge i feel a bit aggreaved but hey ho at least we will hopefully recieve the 50k...

The NRL took a similar stance against the Dogs aswell mate after they were found to of gained success through cheating the system.
I'm not saying that the SL clubs should of been hit as hard as the Strom have over the 5yr period but they should of at the very least been stripped of any trophies gained and in Wigans case they should of had their + results after the Fileden signing wiped off the record afterall Cas were relegated and the pies survived through cheating.
The one SC breach i do think that was ridiculous was penalising Saints for Graham and Roby earning international caps which in effect punished the club for producing homegrown players and again showed the powers that be as daft at the very least imo.

SO can we conclude that as there is a squad in place at Melbourne now that is 'over the cap' that the same squad is entitled to continue playing in 2010.
The NRL press statement is saying the breach projection for 2010 is 700K.
Presumabley as this squad was mainly created in 2009 contracts then its surely in need to of re auditing the 2010 funding to ensure they dont interfere result wise with the 2010 playoff teams aspirations.
Then i would be keen to know what number of players will be let go to balance the books.
Which would have clean sheets to get a visa for Ls6 if we were to hypothesise?

They have dealt with this by telling Melbourne will not accumulate any points in the league this season. They are now on zero points and will remain so, so irrespective of the games won or lost they will remain on zero points and stand and finish bottom of the ladder. I assume this means if the remaining opposition teams left to play them, beat them, they get winning or draw points but if they lose they don't get any points as would normally happen. This solves the mess of teams that have played them already, and indeed won or lost and points allocated in the table accordingly!

I think at this moment in time that is the best the NRL can do and even though the players might be getting paid they can't win anything so they don't have a great deal to play for in some ways. This gives the NRL and the club (if it survives in it's current form) till the end the season to get things in order with players, payments contracts etc!

At least the NRL have had the balls to really penalise them financially (£950k), unlike our own RFL. It does seem harsh on the 'innocent' players who now have to play all season effectively with zero motivation.

Also surely their chief executive must resign over this, a simple apology is hardly going to cut it. Has he gone/going?

Funny how many people within that club claim not to have known what was going on. He wont go because he claims he didnt know.... The problem is how many other clubs are breaking the cap, maybe not to the extreme as Melbourne. Im sure there are a few in the UK aswell, regardless of this 'live cap' system we have.