Storm stripped of GF wins

[meter maid]

Ok, I just went on the nrl site and answered my own question. NO. my poor Eels won't be recorded as last years premiers. Well, that stinks!

[titanstattman]

- every sponsor gone
- 1.5 million dollars in prize money to be returned
- 500,000 dollar fine
- no points
- cant gain points
garenteed last in 2010
no preimierships no miner perimerships

ever

[titanstattman]

it just sucks now that u could be knocked out of the top 8 by the storm witch is not fare...

[Ryan]

Ok, I just went on the nrl site and answered my own question. NO. my poor Eels won't be recorded as last years premiers. Well, that stinks!

I don't see why they should be recorded as Premiers - They didn't win the grand final. Yes they were beaten by a cheating team, but so were other finals contenders not to mention 9th place. If Melbourne were disqualified back then, then Parra would have had to beat someone else - and whose to say they would have? Same goes for Manly 2yrs before.
There would be too many unfair roll-on effects for simply handing over the Premiership to the next team.

This is hugely embarrassing for the code having two 'blank' years on the Premiership history, this blemish on the record books will be there forever.......

[titansrawesome]

Stripped of their 3 minor premierships and 2 PREMIERSHIPS in the past 5 years for a salary cap breach of 1.7M in this time. PLUS they will end the season on 0 points...so whoever bet on them getting to wooden spoon...congratulations

and we gotta watch these cheats play here in Adelaide later in the year...

are you ****ing kidding me? that is so not fair and i hate the storm, this is ridiculous if your not pulling my leg.

[Adelaide Titan]

they were the best team those years regardless of how much players were paid. If it were up to me id fine them the 500K and strip them of THIS SEASONS points, not the past. Steve Mortimer even said they shouldn worry about past years. Darkest day in th history of the Storm..and maybe he NRL.

[titansrawesome]

so what, now there is pretty much no 2007 and 2009 premiers? and now the storm will finish last no matter what?

[hully gully]

Will the players get immidiate pay cuts or do wage contracts have to be honored ? Can someone please explain salary cap laws regarding what is in the cap and when it becomes third party payments??? Although this case seems to be simple fudging the books...SAD

[titansrawesome]

will players have to return premiership rings too?

[shamus]

Will the players get immidiate pay cuts or do wage contracts have to be honored ? Can someone please explain salary cap laws regarding what is in the cap and when it becomes third party payments??? Although this case seems to be simple fudging the books...SAD

I can only assume the palyers will still get their money, hence Storm not getting any points this season...

....as for past seasons. IMO yes, they need to be stripped of the premiership. If they had stayed under the alary cap they would not have the Inglisses, Smiths, Slaters, Cronks etc to help them win the premiership. (Well they would have had some of 'em ....but not all of 'em..I am sure you know what I mean)

[GCT_89]

this is without a doubt the saddest day in Rugby League since the super league war..... im not a huge fan of the storm (full of qldrs) but i loved what the club was doing for Rugby League in Victoria/Melbourne

2000 - Brisbane Broncos
2001 - Newcastle Knighs
2002 - Sydney Rooster
2003 - Penrith Panthers
2004 - Canterbury Bulldogs
2005 - Wests Tigers
2006 - Brisbane Broncos
2007 - VOID
2008 - Manly Sea Eagles
2009 - VOID
2010 - Gold Coast Titans

In future years this is what people will see and its not a pretty sight (except for 2010, that looks nice like that)

[Ryan]

Will the players get immidiate pay cuts or do wage contracts have to be honored ? Can someone please explain salary cap laws regarding what is in the cap and when it becomes third party payments??? Although this case seems to be simple fudging the books...SAD

From what has been said so far, it was payments on the side that were in breach - nothing to do with contracts registered with the NRL, but extra contracts under the table promising extra money. These aren't even third party arrangments - just flat out cheating done by the players and Chief Executive.

The investigations have revealed the Storm maintained a dual contract system and the club has today confirmed that side letters promising extra payments were stored in a secret file at the home of the Chief Executive.

The accounts were structured in such a way that it would appear the commitments were not apparent to either the Melbourne Storm Board or its owners.

The NRL has uncovered breaches estimated to be in excess of $1.7million over five years, around $400,000 in 2009 and with a projected breach of $700,000 in 2010.

[hully gully]

Falau has 8 days to get out of his contract if he wants... guess he'll stay put now...

[eelectrica]

Huge kick in the teeth for both Storm and league fans alike.
I'm not sure why Melbourne fans would even bother to turn up to watch their team play now for this year with nothing to play for.

I wish the NRL could find some alternate punishment for this year.

And Waldron who oversaw this fiasco, I mean is it fraud what he's done? Someone please tell me its fraud so he can go to jail and no other CEO will even contemplate such action again.

Still looking forward to watching the Titans go around though, but I just don't know how many more hits our great game can take.

[Chaos]

This is crazy...how can they play the rest of the season without incentive to win games.
Do they get match payments?