Why?

Surely they'd focus on a club who have already been caught doing exactly what Melbourne were doing by having two different contracts for players. One declared to the Salary Cap Audit and a different real one. It becomes unfortunate when a careless agent faxes the wrong one to the RFL though.

At least Melbourne have been punished in a manner that befits cheats.

I dont mind Hawksbee & Jacobs in the afternoon's. They are both RL fans and give the sport a fair go. The rest of the station is cr@p and its presenters idiots.

But Melbourne had no previous history IIRC, so had the Aussie salary cap "police" focussed on previous "law breakers" then maybe Melbourne may have got away with it for a while longer.

Has it been disclosed yet how they were "found out"?

Madge grassed on them so we can buy Inglis, Smith, Slater, Blair and Cronk.

True, I think H&J have both been to the CC final, Adrian Durham lived in Hull for a while and follows the game, Ronnie Irani always sticks up for RL when Alan Brazil 'waffles' on about union, but in general the sport gets little decent coverage.

or you could have a system were-by if you spend on your stadium to impove it you could be rewarded by having your SC increased so you could keep/attract the best players

Cant remember why they were being investigated or whether it was just a rountine check but this is the quote that explains how they got caught out....

NRL chief executive David Gallop

Any mention of the 'spirit' of the cap ??

That would be bad for Wigan, Hull and Huddersfield as they don't own a stadium to improve.

I think we are way beyond breaking the spirit of the cap with what melbourn have done. This is downright cheating....

Errrm, I know, It was meant to be sarcastic................

I know you were being sarcastic

Couldn't have put it any better.

I know you knew I was................................

[url=http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/04/22/2880568.htm?site=sport&section=rugbyleagueThe club knew they'd been found out 9 days ago.[/url

[iBut it appears the man being held responsible for most of the damage has already gone, with John Hartigan - the chairman of News Limited which owns the Storm and half of the NRL - labelling former Storm chief executive Brian Waldron the "architect".

"He's the centre, and while it's early days, he appears to be the architect of the whole shooting match," Hartigan said of Waldron, who now heads up the Melbourne Rebels Super 15 franchise.[/i

[url=http://www.watoday.com.au/rugby-league/league-news/stars-to-go-as-cap-cuts-bite-20100422-tfya.htmlStars to go as cap cuts bite.[/url

THE premierships, the proud history, the hard-earned respect gained from two premierships from the past four grand finals have all been ripped from the Melbourne Storm.

Now the players - the superstars, in particular - who had often spoken about their wish to stick together as a one-team band to form something special in Melbourne are likely to be the next to go, according to board chairman Rob Moodie.

Wigan fan is Ronnie.



Can we release loads of players on loan and bring Slater in for next week?

I agree. Saints and Bradford should have lost their titles when they cheated to win them.

There is a difference between "technical" breaches that it could be argued Saints and Bradford did and actually have "under-the-counter" contracts that are different to the ones being declared to the salary cap auditors. Clubs that do that are blatantly cheating and should be punished in the manner that Melbourne have.

Surely we can all agree on that?

Note the wink. I was joking mate.

What you mean is every team other than mine caught cheating should be punished, no such thing as a technically cheating, your either a pound over the limit, or your not.

Nope.

It all depends on voting paterns imo. Why should the Storm be dictated to by the other teams?

For example i know under Whelan and Mo Wigan voted for the cap to rise but the lesser ambitious teams such as Cas, Hudds, Wakey & Salford held us and the game back by voting it down. Why should they be able to do this?

In that situation, imo, it’s ok to do the underhand stuff.

Now if Melbourne voted for the system and then cheated it it’s bang out of order.

All this episode proves to me is that the cap isn’t working and needs to be raised.

[url=http://www.watoday.com.au/rugby-league/league-news/harsh-penalties-no-melbourne-should-be-banished-20100422-tg01.htmlViews from Eels fans.[/url

I do like the line of thinking that appears prevalent on this thread of 'the rules are being broken, let's get rid of the rules' perhaps we should do the same with other offences such as robbery and murder? 'Many people do it, so f*ck it, let's just get rid of the law that attempts to prevent it'.

The players were obviously in on it, they had to sign the contracts that were fraudulent, as were the coaching staff in all likelyhood, but I can't see many coming over here. Too many of them have international ambitions and with the exchange rate being poor and the overseas tax loophole being closed, it isn't as profitable to come over here now.

I also think we may see bigger penalties being imposed on SL clubs for SC breaches now there is no relegation. A large points penalty would not ruin a club like it would had they been relegated because of it.

Why would a Warrington fan talking about Saints and Bradford being saying that? Given the pages of qualifications and rules on the cap I would suggest it isn't as simple as 'you're a pound over, lose all points'

However, having two contracts to hide your cheating is as simple as that.