NRL investigation uncovers further $150,000 in Melbourne Storm salary cap rorts
Exclusive by Phil Rothfield From: The Daily Telegraph May 01, 2010 12:00AM
THE NRL was rocked last night by stunning revelations that disgraced premiers Melbourne Storm had broken the salary cap by 20 per cent more than cheating officials originally confessed to.
NRL salary cap auditor Ian Schubert and a team of forensic accountants have uncovered more evidence of rorting and fraud, which lifts this year's player salaries to $4.95 million. There are now genuine fears the payments for 2010 will burst over the $5 million mark by the time investigations are completed.
Original estimates, which came from the confessions of sacked CEO Matt Hanson last Thursday week, indicated the club was $700,000 over the cap this year, having spent $4.8 million.
"Yes, I can confirm it's now up to $850,000 for this year alone," said NRL boss David Gallop when confronted by The Daily Telegraph. "More information has come to light over the past seven days and the investigation has another couple of weeks to run. It's going to take some time to finalise the figures."
Gallop says the fact that the amount of the rorting continues to rise justifies the NRL's heavy punishment in not allowing the Storm to compete for premiership points this season.
"This highlights the flaws in what some people were suggesting that the club simply sheds a few players, goes back to zero and starts again," Gallop said. "At first it was $700,000 worth of players, now it's $850,000. At this stage we don't know what they've got to do to get back under the cap. That's why I stand by our original decision."
To counter Gallop's argument, fans from other clubs will be even angrier knowing their teams are only spending $4.1 million but could miss out on a finals berth by losing to the Storm, who have spent $850,000 more on players.
Salary cap auditor Ian Schubert has yet to reveal how he uncovered the extra $150,000 of illegal payments during the week.
Stand-in chief executive Frank Stanton worked alongside Schubert and the accountants, checking all the books and computer records at Storm headquarters.
Still, the players remain hopeful the team will stick together as they prepare for tonight's game against the Cowboys in Townsville.
"I think it's going to take a little bit more than this to ruin what the Melbourne Storm have done down there over 12 years," champion fullback Billy Slater said.
"We've just got to stick together. There's not much else for us to do other than play football. We'd love to hold this group together, we're not just colleagues, we're great mates.
"We've played a lot of football together.
"I've played with some of these guys for 10 years now, but the future is unknown."
The Daily Telegraph