f#$% some of you guys are dense.
lets have a look at some salary cap infringements by a certain team we all love, then decide if the punishment Melbourne received is fair or not.
1. Broncos, 2001, $118,314 over the cap. Included an undisclosed payment of $50,000.
2. Broncos, 2002, $115,067 over the cap. Fully disclosed.
3. Broncos, 2003, Undisclosed guarantee to player via 3rd Party Entity
4. Broncos, 2006, Unapproved TPA
5. Broncos, 2007, Unapproved TPA
6. Broncos, 2009, Playing an Unregistered Player. No contract or Registration. Rnd 1 and Rnd 6
all up ~$200 000 in fines were handed out to the Broncos for salary cap breaches. since 2000 there have only been 4 years where the broncos did NOT breach the salary cap!
now correct me if im wrong, but didnt something pretty significant happen with the Broncos in 2006? hmmm what was it......oh thats right, we won the premiership! so if we are all to agree with stripping melbourne of their premierships then surely we would all agree that the broncos should be stripped of their 2006 title, correct?
also, melbourne knocked up out in 2007 with their salary cap breaching team......but we were also breaching the salary cap. we'll call that one even. 2009, same thing - salary cap breaching melbourne knock the salary cap breaching broncos out. we'll call that one even too hey?
if that doesnt show you that the Storm have been treated unfairly, youre biased - plain and simple.
i dont think theres any coming back from this for the storm, the NRL has just handed them a death sentence.
- noone will want to sponsor the storm, and expect all of their current sponsors for this season to pull out over the next week.
- their fans will leave in droves. their new stadium will be lucky to get 2000 people to it on its opening game.
- say goodbye to season members, and say hello to refunds or court action from the members.
- say goodbye to the players. there is the possibility that they might 'rally' and want to stick together, but geez......$700k over this year apparently, and thats with a team with 7 or 8 'nobodies'. they must also be pretty disillusioned with the club at the moment.
- the melbourne storm have been in financial distress for years, only being kept afloat by handouts from the NRL and News Limited. they will not be getting these handouts anymore, thats for certain.
so unfortunately its goodbye Melbourne Storm IMO.