Melbourne should be kicked out of the competition for their shameful demonstration of sheer arrogance. How could a club start rorting the salary cap so cynically only a few years after the Bulldogs were exposed and penalised so heavily for what was, until now, the biggest rort in league history.
Other rorts go on, of course they do, and then there are the technical breaches for which a few clubs are fined by the NRL annually. But this was from the top shelf - systematic cheating over a number of years.
The league hammered the Storm yesterday, as it should have. The club didn't deserve anything less than being stripped of premierships and minor premierships, forced to return prizemoney, fined, and forbidden from earning competition points this season. But they deserved more.
Sure, it will be humiliating for the club to be forced to step out against the Warriors at Etihad Stadium on Sunday with no chance of picking up competition points, no matter how well they might play, but it could be worse. They should not playing at all.
POLL: Can the Storm survive this controversy?The league's deals with the game's television broadcasters, Channel Nine and Fox Sports, call for the league to provide eight games per week. If there weren't eight games, there are provisions in the deals for the league to earn less.
But, even in these days when the game could do with more funds and is anxiously awaiting an anticipated increase in earnings when the next TV contract comes around, that would be a price worth paying.
When it came to the salary cap, how much more of a warning that bald-faced lying wasn't on did the Storm need to have than what happened to the Bulldogs? The club is in disgrace, and is a disgrace. It has thumbed its nose at the league world and is getting its just desserts.
It has not been hard, in recent years, to find people from other clubs who reckoned the Storm were cheating the cap. Whether that was just jealousy at the Storm's achievements or not wasn't clear, but they have turned out to be right.
The salary cap is not foolproof, and never will be. It's the same in any high-profile football competition you want to mention. But it's one of the best things the NRL has going for it, and it deserves the respect of the clubs.
Melbourne stand naked in the game. They've been stripped of their comps and their cash, and they stripped themselves of their character. But they should think themselves lucky that they're still in the competition, because they should be gone.
Source: smh.com.auTELL US WHAT YOU THINK OF THE STORM SCANDAL
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