I think it's 2009 looking at the op.

Oh aye didnt see the Link.

theyve lost folau for next year so theyll have the money from then

plus letting some older players go too

they should all have the same treatment the storm went thru,to teach them a lesson.

Storm's was a little different though wasn't it. I don't really know what has happened with these clubs but I imagine it's quite easy for an oversight to nudge you over the cap. Melbourne however had two seperate accounts which is blatently cheating.

Cheating is cheating,wether it be million over the cap or 100k...

Doing 35 in a 30 zone is speeding but won'etcet you the same punishment as doing 70

doing 35 in a 30 zone is ok, until you go another 5 more....

To prove cheating, you have to be able to prove it was deliberate.

The Storm case clearly was, are these?

so a few k over the salary cap is ok as long as it's not a few more.

If it was OK, they wouldn't have been fined.

Amazed this hasn't been pointed out before...or maybe I haven't seen it, but surely, if you own a business, you know exactly how much your wage bill is?
Even if you take into account, win bonus payments, try/kick bonus payments etc, you have a budget at the start of the year and your accounts department, together with HR know exactly who is getting paid what on a weekly/fortnightly/monthly basis....therefore, it should prove impossible to be over the cap. Furthermore, it should be impossible to be accidently over the cap......ie, a player received too much money in a particular wage run, this needs to be adjusted the following week....it really isn't brain surgery.
FWIW, any club, no matter who they are, who spends 1 cent or 1 penny more than they are allowed to under the rules of the competition should be punnished in the same way as the storm. Theft is theft, crown jewels or stick of rock...if you nick it, you are a thief and if you breach the cap, you are a cheat. The minor punnishments handed out to these cheats may well open up the Storm can of worms again, given that they could argue they were over punnished for the same offences. Just because they were winners, they were made an example of, yet these other transgressors have been pretty much let off.

If the game wants to be taken seriously, then it needs to stop worrying about defectors and concentrate on getting a higher cap and enforcing it........ie, 1 cent over payment = the same fine as 1 million over it. I can't think of any other business where there are accidental overpayments that aren't immediately spotted and reconciled.

Like any business, the clubs must surely forecast and budget for these "payments".

At the start of the year, I have 30 staff I control the budget for. I have a finite amount of money I am allowed spend on these staff members, with the sales guys commission potential capped. As an alternative to uncapped commission, I am allowed increase basic salaries for the FOLLOWING Year if I have star performers, but I can't spend 1 cent over my budget. If I have star performers, I will also have people who can't cut the mustard.....and therefore, they go, freeing up the money for these annual pay increases.
So, if an NRL club thinks that international caps, bonuses etc will impact on their budget, they should adjust them accordingly. Instead of overspending, they may well end up with asurplus which they can use to reward their stars, rather than overpaying them.
I still say that no other Business operates in such a way that they can overspend on wages........and to those that say if you restrict the earning potential of stars they will jump codes...so what? People change jobs for better money all the time....I know I have, but that is a discussion about the size of the cap, not breaching it.

Spot on , I was directly involved with sorting out the NL 1 salary cap at Leigh when it was introduced in 2004 , it is relatively simple , you assume that whatever bonuses that are in any players contract will be paid to the maximum amount and restrict your spending accordingley , if you do have anything left over [ assuming you actually have the cash ] you are then free to dish it as you see fit , there are no excuses