{NRL} Melbourne cooked the books!

[norbs]

They have been stripped of the last 2 premierships for salary cap breaches. Cheating fucks.

So Parra should be premiers for 2009!

[nutty]

fk im cut, guy at work got word of this early this morning, put $40 on wooden spoon.. Couldnt make it to the TAB.. he should pull in $10,000!

[Jiminee]

Holy smokes, $500k in fines, gotta pay back 1.1 mil in winnings and no premiers for '07 and '09 all sounds fair enough except for the Premiers bit really, Manly and Parra should be awarded the flags.
Glad I never bought a jersey for the cheating sods then.

[norbs]

I have often wondered how they could afford the talent they had.

[Exar Kun]

Wow, that's some pretty hardcore cheating as well as a pretty decent punishment! This salary cap business seems to cause a bit of trouble.

[Jiminee]

So are the Brisbane Lions next? lol

[norbs]

From the SMH...

THE NRL has stripped Melbourne Storm of two premierships, as well as any competition points this season, in the heaviest punishment for a salary cap breach in NRL history.

NRL chief David Gallop has just announced the extraordinary penalty, after it was uncovered that the club paid $1.7 million to its players outside the cap in the past five years.

The Storm has been stripped of its premierships in 2007 and 2009, three minor premierships and their eight competition points this season. They will not be able to accrue any more points this season, have been fined $500,000 and must pay back $1.1m in prize money.

"The elaborate lengths that they went to hide the payments was quite extraordinary," Gallop said. "These payments have allowed them to recruit and retain some of the best players in the game. There's no alternative for the NRL in terms of penalty."

Gallop said that the club had run a long-term system of "two sets of books".

"This morning the Storm representatives have come in and confessed to a well-organised system of paying players outside the cap. On what we know this amounted to $1.7m in the last five years, including approximately $700,000 in 2010.

"The breakthrough in the investigation was the discovery by the salary cap auditor [Ian Schubert] and his team of a file in a separate room at the Storm to the room that contained the file with the players' contracts."

News Limited chairman John Hartigan, the Storm's owners, said "at this early stage" the architect of the elaborate payment system was former CEO Brian Waldron, now the boss of incoming Super 15 rugby team Melbourne Rebels.

The penalty far exceeds the 37 points taken off Canterbury in 2002.

The Storm's acting chief executive Matt Hansen has been stood down.

Hansen and chairman Rob Moodie left NRL headquarters this afternoon after a meeting to discuss the allegations. Hansen and Moodie left without commenting to the waiting media and are believed to have departed in a News Ltd car.

Several bookmakers had earlier today suspended betting on the NRL wooden spoon following a stream of bets for premiers Melbourne to finish last.

Sportingbet Australia and SportsAlive both shut down their wooden spoon markets after fielding several bets at 250-1, with punters standing to win $10,000 on single bets.

Title favourites Melbourne are fourth on the NRL ladder after four wins and two losses and have been the subject of a salary cap investigation.

TAB Sportsbet left its market open, but wound the Storm into 20-1 for the spoon after taking a $200 bet at 200-1 for a collect of $40,000 last night.

The NRL has been investigating a third-party agreement between Storm captain Cameron Smith and FoxSports. Under salary cap rules, third-party agreements do not count under the salary cap as long as the club played no part in negotiating the deal. The deal has been queried as the Storm is wholly owned by News Ltd and FoxSports is part owned by News along with Consolidated Media Holdings.

The Herald-Sun newspaper reported last week that NRL auditor Ian Schubert had also insisted three other third-party deals must count under the Storm's salary cap as well as the termination payment to Origin star Dallas Johnson.

"We took three bets to win $10,000 and another to win $8000 for the Storm to win the wooden spoon all within 10 minutes of each other this morning," Sportingbet Australia spokesman Bill Richmond said.

"You don't take a series of bets like that unless someone knows something and we have suspended betting on the wooden spoon as a result.

"Melbourne is now our worst result for the wooden spoon despite the fact they are premiership favourites."

IASbet also suspended betting on the wooden spoon this morning, with the Storm paying a dividend of $151.

IASbet.com’s Matt Campbell said his agency had suspended betting on the NRL wooden spoon after a couple of “fairly odd” bets when Melbourne were $251-1. He said there had been “nothing big” with IASbet, and the wooden spoon was a “more of a novelty market”, but his agency was in no hurry to lift its ban.

“We’ll sit tight, we’ll sit on our hands for the moment,” he said, indicating his agency was “reacting accordingly” to the rumours circulating about Melbourne Storm’s possible salary cap penalties.

Most agencies do not run markets on the wooden spoon. Betfair, which runs a betting exchange, rather than operating as a bookmaker, says it has not had any significant bets on Melbourne to win the wooden spoon.

Betfair spokesman Hugh Taggart said that his agency would not void a market based on hearsay and rumour, and it would take advice from the NRL for Betfair to stop the public betting on the market.

“We would only avoid a market in an extreme circumstance.

“Punters always bet on rumour and innuendo.

“Our markets will be dictated by what happens in the public domain.”

Taggart said there were only $12,000 in bets currently matched on the wooden spoon market.

TABSportsbet spokesman Glenn Munsie said he didn’t think much of the initial $200 bet on Wednesday night until further bets followed on Thursday morning.‘‘The spark starts, becomes a brushfire, becomes a bushfire,’’ Munsie said.‘‘It all started in a couple of places this morning and they’re now coming from everywhere.’’

In 2002, the Bulldogs were deducted 37 competition points and fined $500,000 after being found guilty of salary cap breaches totalling more than $1 million in two seasons.

It took the Bulldogs from the top of the table to eventual wooden spooners.

The New Zealand Warriors were docked four points in 2006 for less serious breaches, but the punishment ultimately cost them a finals berth


$700,000 over this year! Fuck them!

[norbs]

Wiki is being edited back and forth at the moment.

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LOL

[DexterPunk]

Good... I hate rugby and don't want it here anyway. I hope that means they take it off the TV here.

[r8response]

Good... I hate rugby and don't want it here anyway. I hope that means they take it off the TV here.

Yeah.... Nah, not gunna happen. Still prefer it over aerial ping pong.

[kwijibo]

Good... I hate rugby and don't want it here anyway. I hope that means they take it off the TV here.

I don't think we get any rugby on tv in Adelaide.. at least not during waking hours

This is huge news from any sporting perspective though, and should hopefully serve as a warning to any AFL clubs considering similar. Sucks to be the teams that were runners up in those years.. they've been robbed. Premiership windows are only open for so long.

[nutty]

So are the Brisbane Lions next? lol

well I wouldnt be surprised at all!

[Bauer]

Would the penalty have been as harsh if it was a Sydney based club?

I personally couldnt give a rotund rodents about NRL in Melbourne but I do wonder if they are trying to shaft them (deserved though)

[Rots]

I would be completely gutted if it was the Wests Tigers that were the caught offenders of the salary cap breach (not suggesting they are in breach or not). But, if you break the rules like that, then punishment should be harsh and I think they have gotten what is deserved.

Norbs, many people have thought exactly that about the Storm. The next big thing will be when they finally catch the financial link between Channel Nine (or the commentators or sponsor) and the Sydney Roosters. Out of the first 7 rounds this year, the Roosters have been on Channel 9 six times in the Friday or Sunday time slot. No other team in the NRL receives that much free TV time and it's not the first year it has happened.

Anywho, after the shocker that was 2009, 2010 was looking to repair the last season off field damage. Bloody Mexicans sabotaged our sport within!

[Rots]

Would the penalty have been as harsh if it was a Sydney based club?

I personally couldnt give a rotund rodents about NRL in Melbourne but I do wonder if they are trying to shaft them (deserved though)

Bulldogs 2002. They were stripped of all competition points (37) and became the wooden spoon team when they should have been the minor primiership winners. Their penalty was not as harsh as they had only breached it for that year, not five years with secret books like the Storm did.

[Bauer]

Would the penalty have been as harsh if it was a Sydney based club?

I personally couldnt give a rotund rodents about NRL in Melbourne but I do wonder if they are trying to shaft them (deserved though)

Bulldogs 2002. They were stripped of all competition points (37) and became the wooden spoon team when they should have been the minor primiership winners. Their penalty was not as harsh as they had only breached it for that year, not five years with secret books like the Storm did.

ah ok. good. I thought it might have been a bit of anti Victorianism.

If I was the Storm Id shut up shop. 3 weeks in Id be waving and saying see ya next year if we are still here. Hard to pull out a season from here. No one will have their heart in it.

[Unforgiven]

Bulldogs did $1million in breaches over 2 years!! Looks like they just got picked up earlier than the Storm who did $1.7 over 5 years.

The thing that I cant get my head around is

The NRL has been investigating a third-party agreement between Storm captain Cameron Smith and FoxSports. Under salary cap rules, third-party agreements do not count under the salary cap as long as the club played no part in negotiating the deal. The deal has been queried as the Storm is wholly owned by News Ltd and FoxSports is part owned by News along with Consolidated Media Holdings.

The Herald-Sun newspaper reported last week that NRL auditor Ian Schubert had also insisted three other third-party deals must count under the Storm's salary cap as well as the termination payment to Origin star Dallas Johnson.

I find that a bit harsh. Sure News Ltd oens storm but they are seperate trading entities. What about other NRL players that are payed by Fox Sports to be on telly? shouldn't they be counted. Yes I understand that there is a bit of difference there but down here in Melbourne the only place that you see any and I mean any NRL is on Fox Sports.

So while any other player contracted to appear on Fox Sports can be paid and paid well a Storm player cant be paid at all?? I find that a bit questionable.

[Rots]

Bulldogs did $1million in breaches over 2 years!! Looks like they just got picked up earlier than the Storm who did $1.7 over 5 years.

The thing that I cant get my head around is

The NRL has been investigating a third-party agreement between Storm captain Cameron Smith and FoxSports. Under salary cap rules, third-party agreements do not count under the salary cap as long as the club played no part in negotiating the deal. The deal has been queried as the Storm is wholly owned by News Ltd and FoxSports is part owned by News along with Consolidated Media Holdings.

The Herald-Sun newspaper reported last week that NRL auditor Ian Schubert had also insisted three other third-party deals must count under the Storm's salary cap as well as the termination payment to Origin star Dallas Johnson.

I find that a bit harsh. Sure News Ltd oens storm but they are seperate trading entities. What about other NRL players that are payed by Fox Sports to be on telly? shouldn't they be counted. Yes I understand that there is a bit of difference there but down here in Melbourne the only place that you see any and I mean any NRL is on Fox Sports.

So while any other player contracted to appear on Fox Sports can be paid and paid well a Storm player cant be paid at all?? I find that a bit questionable.

Ahh, didn't know it was over two years. Well, it's not like it helped them win a minor of the premiership the year before, so probably why only punished for the year caught.

[Dr. Pain]

Wonder if they added salt and freshly ground black people while they cooked those books? Thank god for AFL. Although the league game at Etihad Stadium could be good with the Storm interchange on the piss during the game cause they don't give a fuck anymore.

[Bauer]

apparently channel 9 have commissioned a new tv series based on the true story of the sordid details of organised crime in melbourne.

the show is called - Under Bellamy.

[r8response]

Too soon?

[pixelboy]

EVERY NRL club does it..

The system encourages it..

[norbs]

EVERY NRL club does it..

The system encourages it..

Nothing surer Pix. I don't expect Melbourne to be the only one caught either.

[kwijibo]

EVERY NRL club does it..

The system encourages it..

Nothing surer Pix. I don't expect Melbourne to be the only one caught either.

When they find out that all teams do it, will they all be robbed of earning premiership points for the year? That'll be funny

[Crowella]

It's really not unusual for the NRL to find teams that have breached salary caps, if you want numbers on salary cap breaches.

2000: 8 teams
2001: 3
2002: 6 (This was the year Canterbury got caught out, fined and deducted of 37 championship points)
2003: 9
2004: 7
2005: 4
2006: 0? (The year that the Warriors received a fine and loss of 4 points for being over the cap in 2004 and 2005. Also had to start 2007 with a deducted salary cap)
2007: 1
2008: 6
2009: 5
2010: 1 (so far)

Every team has done it at some point in the last decade. This current issue with Melbourne just underlies that there might have been many other clubs doing a similar thing over the past 10 years and not been caught.

No doubt later this year we'll see some other teams caught. It'll be interesting to see how the NRL react to the next cases.