Scott 5Melbourne Storm breach the Salary Cap
April 27th 2010 01:43
In the biggest news story to engulf Rugby League since the days of the Super League wars, the Melbourne Storm have been caught going $1.7 Million over the salary cap over the past 5 years. When you look at the facts though, you take out the $700,000 this year and $400,000 the year before and the figures don't look quite so bad.
Last Thursday, this came to light and the NRL acted surprisingly quick and decisive with the following punishments
- $500,000 fine
- Hand back $1.1 Million in prize money which then gets distributed to the other clubs
- Stripping of the 2006-2008 Minor Premierships
- Stripping of the 2007 and 2009 Premierships
- Stripped of all points accumulated so far this season (8 points)
- Unable to accrue any further points for this season
At the moment one man has been blamed for this absolute disgrace and that is former CEO Brian Waldron. After leaving the Storm, Waldron joined the new Super 15 franchise, the Melbourne Rebels and in light of these developments, he's now resigned from that and has become persona non grata in Melbourne. Undoubtedly there is going to be more investigations involved concerning the following
- Who knew about the systemmatic cheating?
- What is the relationship between the players and their managers?
- Would there be fraud charges possible?
Now, I am a Storm fan and I do follow their progress and I was left feeling very ill and stunned by the events of last Thursday. Fans started dropping merchandise and memberships off at their base at Olympic Park in disgust and this sort of behaviour got me more upset and annoyed. They have a right to be angry but it's not the team or the coach that's the issue here, it's a couple of suits who've ruined this enterprise for all. They've potentially undone 12 years of good work in one fell swoop and all of them should be called to account for what they've done.
Now onto the NRL and their reaction to this. Honestly, I am sickened and disgusted by David Gallop and his so-called leadership here. The NRL put a club into Melbourne as a compromise to end the Super League wars and this is their child, a club that helps drive up TV dollars. They can't change history no matter what and it is disgraceful to believe that they can so the stripping of premierships and minor premierships is a tad harsh. It's the decision to disallow the Storm from accruing any points for the remainder of the year that really has us up in arms. What is the point of the team turning up every week if we're playing for nothing? Just for this decison alone, David Gallop has to go immediately.
The NRL have been looking to do the Storm in for years. They haven't liked us being in the competition and they haven't liked us being successful. There's been jealousy and attempts to bring down the Storm with ludicrous judicial rulings not to mention ridiculous fines for stating the truth about unfair hearings etc. The other 15 clubs have been envious of us for years and them backing the NRL on their decision to stop the Storm from accruing any further points this year was motivivated by
a) Self-Interest
b) Jealousy at the Storm's success over the past few years
The one issue that has conveniently been overlooked by Gallop and Co (already dismissed by Gallop) is the Salary Cap. At present the salary cap in the NRL is $4.1 Million. Now, if the Storm have gone well over that cap, then clearly there's some issues with regards to retaining players under the current system. Personally, you can't maintain the best players inder a $4.1 million cap. Why did Karmichael Hunt leave the Broncos for the Gold Coast in the AFL? Simple, more money in the AFL than the NRL. You would've thought Gallop and Co would've learnt from that episode but clearly I was mistaken.
So what do we have here at the moment with a little bit of calm?
We have a club losing $6 million a year down another $1.6 million plus all the memberships that have to be refunded. We have a club that's lost a hell of a lot of sponsors, therefore pushing us down anywhere between $1-2 million. We have a club playing on emotion for now but what happens when that runs out? We have a club playing for nothing and motivation will be down therefore potentially leading to forfeits. We have a fan base angry at suits, both within the club and the NRL and determined to stick it right up both.
Memo to the NRL though
We are the Melbourne Storm and we will fight through this crisis and we will not go down without a fight despite the odds being against us. Should we fold, the NRL reverts to a QLD/NSW league with a NZ team in it. Pretty sure that doesn't make it national. Also, look at the salary cap and make changes to prevent this sort of shite from occuring again, preferably upping the Salary Cap to some $4.5 - $5 million.
Overall, I'm behind the Storm and ready to stick it up the suits for what they've done
Last Thursday, this came to light and the NRL acted surprisingly quick and decisive with the following punishments
- $500,000 fine
- Hand back $1.1 Million in prize money which then gets distributed to the other clubs
- Stripping of the 2006-2008 Minor Premierships
- Stripped of all points accumulated so far this season (8 points)
- Unable to accrue any further points for this season
At the moment one man has been blamed for this absolute disgrace and that is former CEO Brian Waldron. After leaving the Storm, Waldron joined the new Super 15 franchise, the Melbourne Rebels and in light of these developments, he's now resigned from that and has become persona non grata in Melbourne. Undoubtedly there is going to be more investigations involved concerning the following
- Who knew about the systemmatic cheating?
- What is the relationship between the players and their managers?
- Would there be fraud charges possible?
Now, I am a Storm fan and I do follow their progress and I was left feeling very ill and stunned by the events of last Thursday. Fans started dropping merchandise and memberships off at their base at Olympic Park in disgust and this sort of behaviour got me more upset and annoyed. They have a right to be angry but it's not the team or the coach that's the issue here, it's a couple of suits who've ruined this enterprise for all. They've potentially undone 12 years of good work in one fell swoop and all of them should be called to account for what they've done.
Now onto the NRL and their reaction to this. Honestly, I am sickened and disgusted by David Gallop and his so-called leadership here. The NRL put a club into Melbourne as a compromise to end the Super League wars and this is their child, a club that helps drive up TV dollars. They can't change history no matter what and it is disgraceful to believe that they can so the stripping of premierships and minor premierships is a tad harsh. It's the decision to disallow the Storm from accruing any points for the remainder of the year that really has us up in arms. What is the point of the team turning up every week if we're playing for nothing? Just for this decison alone, David Gallop has to go immediately.
The NRL have been looking to do the Storm in for years. They haven't liked us being in the competition and they haven't liked us being successful. There's been jealousy and attempts to bring down the Storm with ludicrous judicial rulings not to mention ridiculous fines for stating the truth about unfair hearings etc. The other 15 clubs have been envious of us for years and them backing the NRL on their decision to stop the Storm from accruing any further points this year was motivivated by
a) Self-Interest
b) Jealousy at the Storm's success over the past few years
The one issue that has conveniently been overlooked by Gallop and Co (already dismissed by Gallop) is the Salary Cap. At present the salary cap in the NRL is $4.1 Million. Now, if the Storm have gone well over that cap, then clearly there's some issues with regards to retaining players under the current system. Personally, you can't maintain the best players inder a $4.1 million cap. Why did Karmichael Hunt leave the Broncos for the Gold Coast in the AFL? Simple, more money in the AFL than the NRL. You would've thought Gallop and Co would've learnt from that episode but clearly I was mistaken.
So what do we have here at the moment with a little bit of calm?
We have a club losing $6 million a year down another $1.6 million plus all the memberships that have to be refunded. We have a club that's lost a hell of a lot of sponsors, therefore pushing us down anywhere between $1-2 million. We have a club playing on emotion for now but what happens when that runs out? We have a club playing for nothing and motivation will be down therefore potentially leading to forfeits. We have a fan base angry at suits, both within the club and the NRL and determined to stick it right up both.
Memo to the NRL though
We are the Melbourne Storm and we will fight through this crisis and we will not go down without a fight despite the odds being against us. Should we fold, the NRL reverts to a QLD/NSW league with a NZ team in it. Pretty sure that doesn't make it national. Also, look at the salary cap and make changes to prevent this sort of shite from occuring again, preferably upping the Salary Cap to some $4.5 - $5 million.
Overall, I'm behind the Storm and ready to stick it up the suits for what they've done
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