Melbourne Storm stripped of premierships

[xbcool]

Originally Posted by Wally

The Storm can become the great spoilers, basically picking and choosing who they want field a full team against and who they want to rest their best against. They have it in their power to manipulate the ladder now.

I thought that as well ,hope they don't it will only lead to more negative media for them .

and the players have other things to consider (rep footy) if your seen to be dogging it on the field you could miss selection

personally I think the storm players will fire up and win more than they lose this season as a statement , that they would have won the comp if their managment wasn't stupid (who keeps 2 sets of books to be discovered : dumasses).



steve

[RG]

Originally Posted by GT0132

I'ts possible that a few of the major sponsors could have been involved as well - giving non cash benefits to playesr under the table

But the question is did the players themselves know about this or was it all organized through the player managers?

Outside payments have been going on for years in many many forms of sport.

[RedHotGT]

Originally Posted by exdubbleya

I wonder how many players got tattoo's of their premiership wins? You can take back a trophy, ring, money etc - little harder with ink.

At the end of the day - the players still experienced the premiership glory at the time - as they were unaware of the situation underneath them...

They still experienced the joy, elation, adrenelin, and everything else that comes with being the best in the league... and being premiers...

It is now that the pain will set now - that the win was not legitimate... and that they infact had unfair advantage (beyond their knowledge as players) over their opposition...

At the end of the day they have experienced the highest of highs that the NRL has...
Only to now feel the lowest of lows to have it stripped away...

[RedHotGT]

Originally Posted by Wally

The Storm can become the great spoilers, basically picking and choosing who they want field a full team against and who they want to rest their best against. They have it in their power to manipulate the ladder now.

I fail to see really how??

Every team that plays them - wins... like a walkover or a no-show...

The only way they can manipulate the ladder would be to deliberatly injure opposition players...

As the margins that they win (or lose by) will be irrelevant and the same for all teams that play them...
(ie: if storm win 14-10 over teamA, teamA gets 4 points and score = 0-0) so that way percentage is not affected... nor the ladder (as everyone who plays the storm gets the same result)...

*for the record - I don't actually know how it is going to work - but the above example makes sense to me*

[exdubbleya]

I would think that the scoring system will remain as it is in full - except the storm will not receive any points for a win. The other teams will still have to earn the win - earn the points and earn the percentage.
If opposition teams get the points win or lose - there may as well not be any game.

[charles_wif_xf]

I just saw on the morning news that the Storm's major sponsor has pulled their sponsorship.

[Tim27]

As if this sort of stuff doesn't exist at other clubs. 1.7 mil over 5 years works out just over 2k a year, divided by x amount of players, probably works out that each player might get an extra 15k a year in their wallet....compared to their proper earnings, does'nt really amount to much. imo

[russellw]

To be expected I guess...

Major sponsor ME Bank announced this morning it was withdrawing its support for the club after yesterday's revelations forced a rethink. "ME Bank believes in the principles of strong governance, transparency, integrity and fairness and we seek to ensure that all of our corporate and community partnerships uphold these same values," chief executive Jamie McPhee said.

.. and

Sportswear manufacturer SKINS, a fourth-tier sponsor whose latest advertising campaign slogan is "cheat legal", also dumped the club.

"SKINS is appalled by the actions of the Melbourne Storm," chief executive Jaimie Fuller said.

"Our core values are around fuelling the true spirit of fierce competition.

"We understand that sometimes there is a need to give second chances but this level of systemic deceit is inexcusable and therefore we will not be continuing with our partnership."

[SB076]

How does the salary cap work with employing friends or family in doing bascially nothing but getting paid big bucks some of which may filter down to the player? I wouldnt be surprised if other clubs had issues with salary caps maybe they have just been more creative in how they approach things.

Players might not have known - unless they knew the cap and knew what every other player was getting they could be innocent.

[charles_wif_xf]

The Storm has passed sadly...

[DJM83]

Originally Posted by Tim27

As if this sort of stuff doesn't exist at other clubs. 1.7 mil over 5 years works out just over 2k a year, divided by x amount of players, probably works out that each player might get an extra 15k a year in their wallet....compared to their proper earnings, does'nt really amount to much. imo

Im not a follower of NRL but that is pretty stupid. So what your saying is that its ok for the storm to overpay its employees while other teams abide by the rules.

Look at it like this, the guys that work next to you at work. You guys all get the same wage week in week out but they (employer) are paying your workmates and extra $100 per week. Would you be happy? Me thinks not.

[SB076]

Originally Posted by BOSHOG

get ya hand off it! you know what your paid and how you recieve the money. and if you think players dont talk about contracts and do the math youre kidding yourself

FFS its been obvious for many years that they were over the cap

Not trying to defend the players as I dont know the facts (and it may be some time before we do) But i work for an organisation that employees many people - I have no idea what anyone else is paid. I am only concerned with my wage. I dont talk to anyone about salary etc or what they get and a lot of my mates are the same. Maybe the Storm players didnt discuss what they got paid and even if some did, some wouldnt have which means they wouldnt have known they were paid over and above the salary cap unless the club told them (which I doubt)

[irlewy86]

Call my cynical but a News limited venture has a scandal (scandalous in nature but compared to others there are no real victims). I wonder what the value of all the "exclusive" media deals adds up too over the following weeks.

[MNM96]

Originally Posted by loftie

I fail to see really how??

Every team that plays them - wins... like a walkover or a no-show...

The only way they can manipulate the ladder would be to deliberatly injure opposition players...

A team must beat the Storm to get points. In effect if the Storm wins, neither team gets points.

Pick who they want to let get 2 points, take points from those who they wish to.

[xbcool]

Originally Posted by Tim27

As if this sort of stuff doesn't exist at other clubs. 1.7 mil over 5 years works out just over 2k a year, divided by x amount of players, probably works out that each player might get an extra 15k a year in their wallet....compared to their proper earnings, does'nt really amount to much. imo

of course rorting the cap goes on at other clubs ,they just don't keep records of illegal activity.



if the storm only had one set of bookwork the auditor would have struggled to make the charges stick

steve

[RedHotGT]

Originally Posted by MNM96

A team must beat the Storm to get points. In effect if the Storm wins, neither team gets points.

Pick who they want to let get 2 points, take points from those who they wish to.

Ahhh..... I see... has this all been clarified in the press yet???

Well that does make some sort of sense... at least the opposition will have to try and win still...

[FGII-XR6]

the individual player knows he is being paid more than what is in the contract that is shown to the NRL. the players are just as guilty as the club, their greed has brought this on. if they did not demand the higher fees to play the club would not have breached the cap. they deserve what is coming to them from the ATO

Originally Posted by SB076

Not trying to defend the players as I dont know the facts (and it may be some time before we do) But i work for an organisation that employees many people - I have no idea what anyone else is paid. I am only concerned with my wage. I dont talk to anyone about salary etc or what they get and a lot of my mates are the same. Maybe the Storm players didnt discuss what they got paid and even if some did, some wouldnt have which means they wouldnt have known they were paid over and above the salary cap unless the club told them (which I doubt)

[itchy brother]

Originally Posted by russellw

To be expected I guess...

Major sponsor ME Bank announced this morning it was withdrawing its support for the club after yesterday's revelations forced a rethink. "ME Bank believes in the principles of strong governance, transparency, integrity and fairness and we seek to ensure that all of our corporate and community partnerships uphold these same values," chief executive Jamie McPhee said.

.. and

Sportswear manufacturer SKINS, a fourth-tier sponsor whose latest advertising campaign slogan is "cheat legal", also dumped the club.

"SKINS is appalled by the actions of the Melbourne Storm," chief executive Jaimie Fuller said.

"Our core values are around fuelling the true spirit of fierce competition.

"We understand that sometimes there is a need to give second chances but this level of systemic deceit is inexcusable and therefore we will not be continuing with our partnership."

That was to be expcted unfortunately!
Seems that Harvey Norman has anounced that he will be sticking with his deal to keep backing the Storm!
Good on you Harvey!
At least not everyone is dropping them like a hot potato!

[RG]

Originally Posted by au3xr6

the individual player knows he is being paid more than what is in the contract that is shown to the NRL. the players are just as guilty as the club, their greed has brought this on. if they did not demand the higher fees to play the club would not have breached the cap. they deserve what is coming to them from the ATO

Really?

You have no clue how player payments work quite obviously, it isn't quite as straight cut as you may think.

[DBourne]

Least it's interesting if nothing else!

Great post by Pinch earlier in the thread!

Also as far as players knowing, I'm sure it was a bit more sophisticated than having a contract saying "You will receive $2,000 a week"

*player goes to ATM, mmm I got paid $5,000 this week.. ahh I'm sure it's a typo.

[Wally]

Originally Posted by au3xr6

the individual player knows he is being paid more than what is in the contract that is shown to the NRL. the players are just as guilty as the club, their greed has brought this on. if they did not demand the higher fees to play the club would not have breached the cap. they deserve what is coming to them from the ATO

I understand this is not the case. As far as the player is concerned he is getting paid what the contract states. However the contract he signed and the contract copy given to the NRL are two different things. One set of accounts would be for the board with consolidated wages less the excess salary cap, the difference being hidden under some expense item. The other book would be used for PAYG, etc so as not to attract the taxation dept.

Neither the agent nor the player would necessarily know there is anything wrong, because they wouldn't be privy to accumulated team payments.

[RG]

Originally Posted by SgtBourne

Least it's interesting if nothing else!

Great post by Pinch earlier in the thread!

Also as far as players knowing, I'm sure it was a bit more sophisticated than having a contract saying "You will receive $2,000 a week"

*player goes to ATM, mmm I got paid $5,000 this week.. ahh I'm sure it's a typo.

Exactly.

From what I've been told (I assume it would be about the same set up for NRL as AFL) you near on need to be an accountant to make sense of player payments. All the bonuses, endorsements, match bonuses etc etc, make things quite difficult to make heads or tails of.

Strangely enough most players aren't in it for the money and those who are generally get so much that they wouldn't exactly be needing to check their bank accounts too often.

[Charliewool]

Saints next???

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/af...-1225857401605

[Tim27]

Originally Posted by DJM83

Im not a follower of NRL but that is pretty stupid. So what your saying is that its ok for the storm to overpay its employees while other teams abide by the rules.

Look at it like this, the guys that work next to you at work. You guys all get the same wage week in week out but they (employer) are paying your workmates and extra $100 per week. Would you be happy? Me thinks not.

What i'm saying is, I wouldn't be surprised if other clubs also breached the salary cap rules. I certainly don't remember saying it's o.k for Melbourne and not other clubs. As for the rest of your statement........well lets see. Players are getting varying wages to one another anyway, so umm yeah what more can i say?

[Fireblade]

Originally Posted by RG

Really?

You have no clue how player payments work quite obviously, it isn't quite as straight cut as you may think.

In fairness why would a club pay more to a player that doesn't know he's getting paid more. Its a little bit more than going to the bank and going "oh I got paid more than I should have". These players would be pushing for more money to stay or go to another club and receive that money. Back door payments have been around a long time and I doubt this is the last we will hear of a professional sports team doing this.

[Archilino]

david schwartz an ex-afl player in the late '90s put it perfectly on radio yesterday, he said the players manager take care of all negotiations for the players-thats what they are paid for. So if player X wants 400k a season the manager will request it from the club, then negotiations begin and a compromise is reached for arguments sake of 370k.

The players wouldnt know from where the $$$ come from as they dont know what each and every player gets.

[HULK EF]

Originally Posted by just_pazz

Good riddance! News Ltd just shut the Storm down and get this rubbish code out of our state! The majority of Victorians despise NRL.... and no one supports the storm down here. This is AFL town baby.... ******** off back north where ya's came from!

All our fields are ovals... all our young blokes grow up playing AFL. Hell... up until my early teens I didn't even know rugby league existed. The code has no future in this state, best spreading the resources around the northern states.... and we'll happily keep playing our "GAYFL".

obviously 3 or less teeth.. 2 top one bottom and even less iq

[DJM83]

Originally Posted by Tim27

What i'm saying is, I wouldn't be surprised if other clubs also breached the salary cap rules. I certainly don't remember saying it's o.k for Melbourne and not other clubs. As for the rest of your statement........well lets see. Players are getting varying wages to one another anyway, so umm yeah what more can i say?

I realised that bit. But what im saying is how would you feel if you were the other teams abiding by the rules, if indeed they are.

[gtxb67]

there is no way the players who were getting paid too much would not know
they should know how much went into their bank account/other means and how much they declare to the tax man. if the two do not correspond, then surprise, surprise there is a problem
if part of their wage comes from a third party that their wife works for - she does five minutes a week there, just long enough to pick up the pay cheque - surprise, surprise there is a problem

i do not give many footballers too much credit in the brains department, but even they would know if something is not right - or else they conveniently do not look, in which case they are guilty anyway

the contracts may be confusing to all but accountants, but come june 30th we all know how much we have made and where it came from

[just_pazz]

Originally Posted by HULK EF

obviously 3 or less teeth.. 2 top one bottom and even less iq

Yeah I barrack for Collingwood... but I fortunately have all my teeth.

Face it mate.... League is not wanted in this state. Hell.... if you wanna follow the rugby down here you've either gotta show up at a storm match, pay for Foxtel or wait till 12-1am in the morning on a Saturday night and channel nine may replay a match. The number don't lie....

At least when I lived in Nrth Qld I could catch my few games a week of AFL no worries. I say give the new stadium to the victory and the heart, a code worthy at least of the name "football", and NRL cut your losses and go back home.