so basically the players will be playing for nothing only their pay packet no points the fans will have no incentive to pay money to turn up as they can't win. and lets face it would the oppopsition fans pay to go to a game you were 100% assured the points for? so early in the season this could be VERY costly for melbourne

sadly it's the shame of the game that's making it such big news.

The day we can command so much media with a positive story will be the day I celebrate!

no, opposing teams will still have to win to get the points. Very stupid decision by the NRL, means this whole sorry saga is going to drag on week after week.

They should have wiped off any points so far, made them get under the salary cap from now and let them continue with the season, if they wanted to add more punishment they could have made them start next season on minus points.

All the NRL has done has made sure the Storm's move into a brilliant stadium will be an abysmal failure, at least for this year.

Good! making the punishment so harsh will stop other teams trying it

Yep, that should be the idea.

The KEY word being SHOULD!!!

Something tells me that a few clubs maybe burning the midnight oil checking their own books at the moment, not only in Aus!!!

Don't know why, but I have a feeling the locals are going to get behind them regardless, they'll see this as a NSW conspiracy to kill them off thus making it an us vs them thing.

I've seen it already happening at Bigfooty, people who have hanged garbage on the Storm for years talking about them and saying how unfair it all is blah blah blah.

If I wasn't thinking right, I might tend to think this came out now to errm, give a bit of a kick a vic passion involved to pump up the rivalry

Plus I think if the new Union side comes in now and trys to poach a few of their stars, it could really backfire as they'd see it as another sport trying to pick over the bones of their carcase when at their lowest ebb, like kicking a guy when he's down.

It would be a bad move I think for the Rebels to even consider going after any of their stars players now for at least a season.

Plus where dealing with Murdoch here, god knows what they'd do to their own to get a bit of sympathy going and we all know they have the power to change a lot of peoples opinion

what shame are you on about?

the nrl leaders emerge from this looking very strong

no other sport would have the guts to do this

sorry, but your AFL bias is showing here

gallop has done an excellent job handling a difficult situation

rather than people hating the storm for cheating, people feel sorry for them because of the harsh penalty

and the massive media weve got has swamped every other sport

www.watoday.com.au/rugby-league/ ... -tj5k.html news ltd will continue backing them for 5 years, shelving plans to sell them now and this news story has made it on Bloomberg!

www.watoday.com.au/rugby-league/ ... -tj5k.html news ltd will continue backing them for 5 years, shelving plans to sell them now and this news story has made it on Bloomberg!

www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/leag ... -tjid.html Observers say that News cannot afford to let the Storm fail because its real interest in the code is in the value of broadcasting matches, through its half-owned Fox Sports channel, and through the advertising it can sell. Without a credible presence in Victoria, the value of NRL falls away because national advertisers want their products seen in all major population centres.

www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/leag ... -tjid.html Observers say that News cannot afford to let the Storm fail because its real interest in the code is in the value of broadcasting matches, through its half-owned Fox Sports channel, and through the advertising it can sell. Without a credible presence in Victoria, the value of NRL falls away because national advertisers want their products seen in all major population centres.