Melbourne Storm stripped of premierships

[Trendseeker]

Originally Posted by gtxb67

i realise the players are not that sharp, but gifts, phantom jobs etc. they are as crooked as the guys who organised the cheating
let's hope those crooked players take a pay cut so the team can stay together

IMO, it's up to the club to manage the cap, not the players. I don't think you can blame them unless they took steps to hide payments or didn't declare payments if specifically requested by the auditor.

[The G6ET Spot]

Originally Posted by gtxb67

here they tell us the players are innocent

and then


i realise the players are not that sharp, but gifts, phantom jobs etc. they are as crooked as the guys who organised the cheating


let's hope those crooked players take a pay cut so the team can stay together

There is talk that there are actually two contracts that the players have signed.

Which is understanable as if they had only signed one for the upper amount they were being paid, then this farce would have been found out years ago.

IMO melbourne should be made to shed players NOW to get them under the salary cap and then play on the rest of the season for points.

The situation at the moment is crazy that they are still over the salary cap and will be for the rest of the season,although thye are not eligible to accum ulate points they will still influence the outcome of the competition.

How would the Warriors or any other team beaten by Melbourne this year feel if they were to miss out on the final eight by 1 point. After being beaten by a team that is technically illegal under the rules of the game.

Melbourne say they are going to appeal the decision, well if the do I would say it will open up a whole can of worms for other teams to do the same against losses to them.

[gtxb67]

Originally Posted by The G6ET Spot

How would the Warriors or any other team beaten by Melbourne this year feel if they were to miss out on the final eight by 1 point. After being beaten by a team that is technically illegal under the rules of the game

from what i understand all of the other teams are happy for melbourne to keep playing with the same players and not score points
they do not want their players to be split up because of the recent developments, because it is unfair to the teams that have no room in their salary cap and therefore none of those teams could pick up a storm player
it is worth noting that if a team missed the eight by 1 point, then they probably would have finished ninth anyway, because storm would probably have finished above them. if anything the other teams can only really gain because of storm not scoring. the odds were that storm would have finished well into the eight and maybe even the top four, which will help a team to the double chance or the finals that they otherwise would not have got

[vztrt]

http://www.theage.com.au/rugby-leagu...0426-tnak.html

NRL cheating rife, says ex-Storm chief Waldron
ANDREW RULE AND TOM REILLY
April 27, 2010

FORMER Melbourne Storm chief executive Brian Waldron has hit back at News Ltd and the National Rugby League for their involvement in the club's salary cap rorts, rejecting their depiction of him as the sole architect of the scheme.

Breaking his silence for the first time since the scandal broke last week, Waldron has called for a public inquiry into salary cap cheating, which he says has spread through NRL clubs over several years.

In a statement, Waldron told The Age he would ''tell everything I know'' to any properly constituted, transparent inquiry that required evidence under oath.

He singled out News Ltd for pointed criticism, stating: ''I am … prepared to give the entire background to Rupert Murdoch so that he has a full understanding of how his company has managed a $66 million investment in the Melbourne Storm since its inception.''

In a meeting at a friend's office in central Melbourne, the casually dressed Waldron spoke fluently, forcefully and at length, but strictly off the record, sticking to legal advice not to talk about the salary issue.

He laughed off the ''Where's Wally'' jibes of recent days, saying he had gone about normal activities - watching his son play football in Camberwell, going to his mother's 79th birthday and having dinner with friends. At times like this, he said, ''you stick to the closest 30 people in your life''.

He stressed that he had ''strong legal advice'' not to comment publicly on methods NRL clubs used to evade salary cap rules that limit ''third party'' payments above players' base salaries. The advice is because of the possibility police will investigate the affair.

But Waldron has confided in friends, family and former workmates since the scandal erupted last Thursday, when the NRL announced it had stripped Melbourne Storm of its last two premierships, fined it $500,000 and forced it to return $1.1 million in prizemoney, and banned it from accruing any premiership points this season.

Sources close to Waldron have told The Age he is determined not to let powerful interests use him as a scapegoat for a payment system he says was compromised and corrupted well before he joined Melbourne Storm (from AFL club St Kilda) in 2005.

One well-placed source said yesterday Waldron had named News Ltd executives and NRL chief David Gallop as being aware of widespread salary cap cheating for years.

Waldron believed that News Ltd - owner of Melbourne Storm - and the NRL have vested interests in deflecting attention from suggestions they knew about systemic pay cheating, he said.

Waldron has told several people he warned Gallop three years ago that systemic salary rorting was ''a cancer'' that affected every NRL club except Canberra, which was too broke to pay players more than it should.

But, Waldron said later, Gallop had ignored the warning and had never raised the matter with him again.

A source said last night that Waldron had called Gallop in 2007 as a scandal was brewing at the Newcastle Knights after a former club accountant alleged systematic rorts there.

''He [Waldron] made it clear he thought such practices were widespread throughout the game and that if the NRL were serious about tackling this issue, the only way for this to be done was to have a moratorium whereby clubs could put their hands up to past sins and start from a clean slate,'' the source said.

''Without some sort of amnesty it would be impossible even for those clubs that wanted to do the right thing to straighten out their books.

''But Gallop said that such a deal couldn't be an option. He told Brian that if extensive details came out about breaches in the salary cap … it would be too damaging to the sport's reputation, as it could lead to fans questioning results they'd seen on the pitch.''

Gallop last night would not confirm or deny the conversation with Waldron. He told The Age that if the conversation had taken place, he could not recall it.

Waldron's advisers are intrigued by the new role of veteran News Ltd rugby league troubleshooter Frank Stanton.

Stanton is painted in some quarters as ''a clean pair of hands'' assigned to clean up the salary cap mess.

But it is not the first time News has sent Stanton to Victoria: he arrived to settle a $700,000 salary cap breach in 2004 that occurred on the watch of foundation Storm chief executive John Ribot - before Waldron started at the club.

In his statement yesterday, Waldron said: ''There is a great deal I would like to say about my five years at the Melbourne Storm, a club that I have the highest regard for and whose players are the finest and most courageous group of sportsmen I have ever seen run onto the field of play.''

That's the pity of it, he commented later, in a moment of reflection: they are a great team that will now be remembered for the wrong reason.

[vztrt]

http://www.theage.com.au/rugby-leagu...0427-tp7l.html

News Limited returns fire at Waldron
WILL BRODIE
April 27, 2010

Former Melbourne Storm CEO Brian Waldron is "disingenuous" with his call for a public inquiry into NRL rorts, a News Ltd spokesman says.

Greg Baxter, director of News Ltd corporate affairs, was speaking on SEN radio this morning in response to a report in The Age in which Mr Waldron said salary cap rorting has been widespread in the NRL for years.

"I think the real issue with Mr Waldron is that if he's got evidence of salary cap rorts at Melbourne Storm or at any other club he should put it on the table as quickly as possible.

"I mean we've already got two investigations underway in relation to the Storm, we'd love to hear from him if he's got anything he'd like to put his name to. I think the issue here is he needs to put up and put up immediately.

"Everybody in Australia that follows rugby league and sport in general wants to know what went on. If he's got information relevant to that, well let's hear it."

Melbourne Storm was stripped of two premierships last Thursday, and fined heavily,amongst many other sanctions, for cheating the NRL salary cap.

"He really needs to step forward today and go and talk to the Victorian fraud squad that have already been alerted to this matter, or he needs to go talk to some other independent authority where he feels that his evidence can be given without prejudicing his interests…

"We're happy if he names people today, either inside or outside our organisation and they will be investigated."

Waldron was CEO at Melbourne Storm from 2004 until last year, and had been appointed CEO of the new Melbourne Rebels rugby union franchise, before resigning on Friday morning. He broke his silence on the Storm debacle with The Age's Andrew Rule and Tom Reilly this morning, vowing to "tell everything I know" to a properly constituted inquiry.

News Limited owns the Melbourne Storm, and has a 25% stake in the NRL. Mr Baxter said his company was acting firmly over the salary cap embarrassment.

"As a company we don't tolerate this sort of behaviour in any of our subsidiaries at all or among any of our employees past or present obviously.

"Now the question is how did it go undetected for so long? We haven't got to the bottom of that. Clearly its unacceptable. What we do know at the moment is that there was a very well orchestrated deception. It was over a long period of time. It involved collusion among a number of people that were in a position to make sure that what they were doing wasn't detected and couldn't be detected by all of the sorts of normal checks and balances that exist in every legitimate company in Australia through accounting and auditing processes. That's very disturbing."

Mr Baxter said News Limited was conducting its own investigation of the matter via accounting firm Deloitte, and was supporting the NRL's inquiry.

Responding to Mr Waldron's claim that other NRL clubs had been guilty of salary cap cheating, Mr Baxter admitted "there could be more, and it could be very damaging, but the fact is, we have to find it, and we have to prosecute those responsible, and then we have to rebuild.

"And it it's a bigger problem than what we're aware of at the moment …if it's a bigger problem at the Storm, we stand ready to accept any additional penalties that may be handed out by the NRL and we stand ready to in fact put in place our own penalties on top of that if we think it's appropriate."

Mr Baxter also conceded the potential for News Limited to be involved in conflicts of interest, given its many roles in rugby league, as club owner, competition part-owner, and media organisation reporting the saga.

"There's no question that there's the potential for a range of conflicts that are very significant in this instance. We will support any process that allows us and others to get to the bottom of what's being going on in the most transparent way."

He said News Limited had unanimously supported the NRL's decision to punish Melbourne.

"In this instance it was important for the management of the NRL to take a decision and then inform the board, including News Limited of what it intended to do. So we weren't consulted about that decision, we were told what that decision would be and we've publicly accepted it.

"These penalties are undoubletdly extremely harsh, they're unprecedented, but from what we know, they're warranted."

Mr Waldron is clearly the focus of much of News Limited's ire.

"He's clearly been involved in the problems since he joined the club, in around 2004. That remarkably escaped any kind of serious serious scrutiny by the Fairfax press this morning. I think that's what most Melbourne fans are interested in – how the hell did this guy get involved in this sort of thing that's ended up robbing the club of two premierships?" Mr Baxter said.

In today's Age article Mr Waldron indicated he warned NRL chief David Gallop three years ago that systemic salary rorting was a "cancer", but Mr Baxter said that all clubs knew that amnestys for cheating were "off the table" following the punishments handed out to the Bulldogs club in 2002, when the Sydney team was stripped of all of its premiership points for salary cap breaches.

Mr Baxter said that he wanted the "full extent" of NRL cheating to become public.

"(We want to) clear those people that have had nothing to do with it who want to help us rebuild the club, and punish those who did."

Source: watoday.com.au

[vztrt]

http://www.theage.com.au/rugby-leagu...0427-tp8u.html

Hartigan calls Waldron chief rat of rort
April 27, 2010

News Ltd chief executive John Hartigan has called disgraced former Melbourne Storm CEO Brian Waldron the "chief rat" of the NRL club's salary cap rorting.

Hartigan was in Melbourne on Tuesday to address the Storm players and staff in the wake of the scandal which has rocked the News Limited-owned club and the competition as a whole.

"We'll go forward, we've got an inquiry in place which we have a lot of trust in," said Hartigan.

"We'll root out the bad eggs and we'll go from there."

Waldron - who quit the Storm several months ago to join new Super Rugby franchise the Melbourne Rebels before being forced to resign - broke his silence on the salary cap scandal late on Monday.

Waldron claimed he told NRL boss David Gallop several years ago that there needed to be an amnesty period to allow the many clubs he believed were abusing the salary cap to come forward without fear of punishment.

Waldron also said he was prepared to tell News Corp chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch the exact nature of the company's $66 million investment in the Storm dating back to its entry into the NRL in 1998.

"I suggest he goes to the police and tells them because I'd be very interested," responded Hartigan.

"I want the truth to come out and that's the furthest from the truth.

"One thing needs to be purely understood here - we've got an inquiry in place and presumably it'll come out.

"Everyone is suggesting 'why didn't we pick it up through the books of the Storm?'

"I think you've got to understand that the majority of these payments came through third party guarantees.

"Now these guarantees were something between player-managers and side letters which were held at the home of one of the officials.

"I'm all for exacting audits, but truly it's very difficult to find that out when they're being held on the side at a person's house."

Acting CEO Matt Hanson was one of two senior Storm officials dumped by the club's owners last week following revelations that Melbourne had exceeded the salary cap by a total of $1.7 million over several years.

But Hartigan stood by his claim that Waldron was the chief instigator of the widespread breaches.

"I said something last Thursday, he's the architect of this whole badness in this club," said Hartigan.

"And I also suggested at another level that there were rats in the ranks.

"I think it's quite simple, if you draw a line between both of those comments I think it leads to the chief rat, and I have no question or doubt that it's him."

Melbourne were stripped of the 2007 and 2009 premierships, fined heavily and banned from earning any competition points in 2010 for the salary cap breaches.

Hartigan understood why the players might want to contest some of the sanctions, but he said News Ltd would not provide support or funding for any such appeals.

AAP

[vztrt]

http://news.theage.com.au/breaking-n...0427-tpor.html

Gallop refutes Waldron cap amnesty claim
IAN MCCULLOUGH
April 27, 2010 - 5:29PM

AAP

NRL chief David Gallop has strongly denied ruling out a salary cap amnesty out of concern that the rorts revealed would damage the game's reputation.

That claim reportedly came from embattled former Melbourne Storm chief executive Brian Waldron, who says he told Gallop in 2007 of widespread salary cap cheating and suggested an amnesty.

"At no stage would I have ever told him that it was not possible to grant an amnesty because of `concerns about the sport's reputation'," said Gallop in a statement on Tuesday.

"That is rejected totally and the statement would be at complete odds with the actions we have taken in relation to the enforcement of the salary cap and the penalties that we have enforced.

Gallop noted those included over 50 breaches totalling around $3.5 million prior to the toughest sanctions of them all against Melbourne last week.

Waldron has been described as the chief architect of the Storm's salary cap scandal, which saw the club stripped of their 2007 and 2009 premierships, fined heavily and banned from earning any competition points in 2010.

"I have said that while I had no recollection of the conversation (with Waldron), it was something he may have said but something also that would not have seemed significant to me because a number of people had suggested amnesties from time to time," added Gallop.

"The reason that amnesties were not considered, and will not be considered, is that the line was drawn in the sand with the Bulldogs in 2002.

"It is impossible to take the action we did in relation to the Bulldogs and grant amnesties to others.

"We owe that to the players, the fans and the officials of the Bulldogs.

Gallop had a "positive" meeting with players' association boss David Garnsey on Thursday to discuss the Storm players' predicament.

He said they agreed to continue to support existing provisions related to any move for access to financial records of individual players.

But he noted the NRL probe was more directed at club officials "who were aware of the Storm's overall salary cap provisions".

© 2010 AAP

[greens_tuf]

I haven't been able to read the whole thread, so sorry if it is a repost...

Why are they making such a big deal about Brian Waldron when:

1. He is no longer at the storm or in charge of things, and the cap breach was getting higher and higher after he left?
2. The NRL is going to look stupid when other club's cheating is revealed... but since they have crucified the Storm now, all other clubs will make sure they get rid of any evidence...

BTW I'm an Eels supporter, and to be honest I wasn't surprised, shocked or even angry, because anyone with half a brain would have known something was going on... But I just look at the Eels too and wonder how they can squeeze so many good players in their cap... or the Broncos for that matter...

If Melbourne couldn't keep Israel Faloul through off the books payments, I wonder how brisbane could do it on the books, with lockyer and hunt, hodges... although the Broncos have shed alot of players lately...

My 2c...

[greens_tuf]

I just realized that Brian Waldron only left this year... lol

[wonk123]

unfortunately , I reckon more than half the clubs are cheating the cap in some way. Would be intersting to only have a top 5 again though.

[DRU842]

Just wondering if anyone has a changed opinion on this after this weeks announcements:

http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/latest/...ok-to-move-on/

[BOSHOG]

Originally Posted by DRU842

Just wondering if anyone has a changed opinion on this after this weeks announcements:

http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/latest/...ok-to-move-on/

nope, the report just confirmed what i already thought.

i doubt the Storm will still be in the NRL in 2yrs

[gtxb67]

Originally Posted by DRU842

Just wondering if anyone has a changed opinion on this after this weeks announcements:

i guess you are wondering if storm fans have changed their opinion, but here is my two cents again anyway

my view has not changed, because the nrl gave a similar penalty to us in 2002. we were lucky we had no minor or major premierships to get taken off us, but when considering our form that year, maybe they did effectively take one of each

at least with the storm situation, it shows the nrl have some consistency about them. it sucks for the fans, but then if the cap was not breached, would the same success or any have been achieved. maybe, maybe not - at least the fans got to live the moment of success, and those warm fuzzy feelings cannot be taken away

fair enough, the bitterness of recent events cannot either, but they have had four seasons of ephoria before this year, so they still had their money's worth in a way






hopefully every club learns from this - be it with salary caps, or accepting money from book makers etc. and they all try to play within the rules for fear of a major penalty. hopefully the bulldogs, storm and even clubs in italian serie a will be examples of what happens if the rules are broken
i doubt it though - in time, someone will be dumb enough to do it again

[MNM96]

More like Greedy Enough!

Originally Posted by gtxb67

i doubt it though - in time, someone will be dumb enough to do it again

[The G6ET Spot]

Originally Posted by DRU842

Just wondering if anyone has a changed opinion on this after this weeks announcements:

http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/latest/...ok-to-move-on/

No, haven't changed my mind on any of it.

Also if the auditors really think that the players didn't know what was going on then they really have their heads stuck up their own backsides.

[prydey]

Originally Posted by The G6ET Spot

Also if the auditors really think that the players didn't know what was going on then they really have their heads stuck up their own backsides.

this will more than likely open a can of worms again, but i believe it would be virtually impossible for the players to know they are in breach of the cap.

it may all eventually come out one day but i think the players should be left out of it for now.

[BOSHOG]

the players were signing multiple contracts which is a salary cap breach and recieving money from sponsors, they KNEW what they were doing was wrong, but i think we all wouldve took the extra money too, we're only human

the thing that stood out for me was players getting paid by charities (which is bad enough) but never actually doing anything for the charities in question.

[prydey]

this is going over old ground i guess, but i don't really follow what goes on in the sport, but i'm sure i've heard on various new/sports shows that many of the clubs have 3rd party agreements and the like, where players are recieving gifts or finances from other sources. houses, cars, etc all bought for them. there's obviously a fine line between playing within the rules, and crossing the line.

[Bucknaked]

I don't see what all the fuss is about. Playing football is a job? As an employee, obviously with skills that are sort after, why can't you be paid what your worth? They have short careers. It can end at any time. Looks at the amounts FA Cup players get in England. Look at the salary's of players in eurpoean leagues. It can hardly be called cheating. If their skill commands big bucks, why can't they get it. We whinge and complain when the good players go oversea's, and its for this reason. You want to keep them, pay them the money. Everything is expensive now.

I'm sure if your employer came to you and said "sorry, but we are slashing your salary because of a cap, and we need more workers", would you be cool with it?

[Ralliart]

ive been reading all about this since april when it got announced, they have been letting players like go like anything which is disappointing, and just now G.i is on verge of Joining Brisbane, so that means they will be breaking up the big 4, i knew it was eventually going to happen it was just matter of time, storm will have 3 more players leaving to join English Super league, there is no way storm will survive imo they are realsing their best player that made them invisibles.

[Zed7fiddy]

At least it made Inglis change his mind and Sign with the Broncos!

[jaysway]

Originally Posted by BOSHOG

nope, the report just confirmed what i already thought.

i doubt the Storm will still be in the NRL in 2yrs

they will be, its worth too much in tv/media and sponsor $ to not have them in the comp, wether or not they are competitive is another thing.
as long as they can keep hold of smith, cronk and slater they will still have the core to build on.
now is the time to blood a few of the promising young vic bred players in the ranks.

[rodderz]

If Storm keep their current coaching team they will be still ok. Slater, Crock, Smith, Inlgis all started there as juniors and were brought up to be amongst the best in the world. Their current crop of juniors aren't bad either

[Peter B - CV8]

The players involved MUST have known that they were cheating ie 2 different contracts, third party payments etc. Quite frankly, and given the level of $$$ involved, the players are lucky that they haven't been banned from playing (after all that's what drug cheats get - and this is just is cheating for significant financial gain).
I would have given them a couple of years holiday to ponder their actions....

[BOSHOG]

Originally Posted by jaysway

they will be, its worth too much in tv/media and sponsor $ to not have them in the comp, wether or not they are competitive is another thing.
as long as they can keep hold of smith, cronk and slater they will still have the core to build on.
now is the time to blood a few of the promising young vic bred players in the ranks.

i hope youre right, we need a national comp. but my gut tells me that News ltd will pull the money out of league sooner rather than later now leaving the storm unviable

[nstg8a]

Originally Posted by Bucknaked

I'm sure if your employer came to you and said "sorry, but we are slashing your salary because of a cap, and we need more workers", would you be cool with it?

but in this case its more like, "your eba says you get 50k a year, but because your such an awesome worker we are gonna give you two time cards, and you will then get 100k a year"

and then when they get caught "sorry now we have to pay you what you should have been getting all along, be thankful your not being made to pay it back"

[rodderz]

Maybe the NRL needs to start seriously looking at upping the cap figure. It might be harder on the smaller/less popular teams, but look how many players are leaving to overseas comps or union.

[vztrt]

Originally Posted by rodderz

Maybe the NRL needs to start seriously looking at upping the cap figure. It might be harder on the smaller/less popular teams, but look how many players are leaving to overseas comps or union.

I remember reading something that only the raiders wouldn't have the money to pay the players more.

[nstg8a]

i dont think money is the only thing making some of them jump ship, while obviously a major one.

if they go to union then there is the possibility of getting a place in the national team, which means a lot more international travel and tournaments.

afl, i believe is purely for the cash though.