Storm for Wooden Spoon - Betting Suspended

[Black Philip]

why not? they let the bulldogs take paycuts? double standards

I don't know the full story but apparently the Bulldogs were only able to make those pay cuts through a loophole in the rules. After the Bulldogs copped it but retained their star players, the NRL changed the rules.

 

[Nashy]

http://www.foxsports.com.au/league/video/0,,NRL%20News_32092,00.html
Gallop has said they won't allow paycuts, good!

Good. Gallop has finally grown a pair and isn't bending the rules.

 

[Coxy]

why not? they let the bulldogs take paycuts? double standards

And the Bulldogs won a premiership 2 years later with a near identical team. Not double standards, it's called learning from your mistakes.

 

[Anonymous person]

so basically the NRL wants melbourne to not be competitive for 3-4 years. fantastic. well done NRL, make the quality of the competition even worse than it already is. is it any wonder all the good players want to leave and go to union?

 

[HITMAN82]

so basically the NRL wants melbourne to not be competitive for 3-4 years. fantastic. well done NRL, make the quality of the competition even worse than it already is. is it any wonder all the good players want to leave and go to union?

Not at all - they want Melbourne to be on a level playing field with every other team, as it should have always been!
They have been near unbeatable for the last 5 years SOLELY because of illegal player payments.
And who knows, if Bellamy is the amazing coach that many believe he is, maybe their $4.1 million dollar team will be just as successful?

 

[gUt]

Did anyone see Mark Geyer's column in RLW? If not, don't bother. Sometimes I think he makes sense, when talking on the TV, but his writing is sheer idiocy in print.

Not at all - they want Melbourne to be on a level playing field with every other team, as it should have always been!
They have been near unbeatable for the last 5 years SOLELY because of illegal player payments.
And who knows, if Bellamy is the amazing coach that many believe he is, maybe their $4.1 million dollar team will be just as successful?

Let's not lose sight of the fact that Melbourne took these players, who were nobodies, and transformed them into what they are. The cap has to change to reward a club's efforts in developing players.

 

[Charmamba]

Not at all - they want Melbourne to be on a level playing field with every other team, as it should have always been!
They have been near unbeatable for the last 5 years SOLELY because of illegal player payments.
And who knows, if Bellamy is the amazing coach that many believe he is, maybe their $4.1 million dollar team will be just as successful?

Let's not lose sight of the fact that Melbourne took these players, who were nobodies, and transformed them into what they are. The cap has to change to reward a club's efforts in developing players.

And if every team was rewarded for that Melbourne would not have been so successful imo.

 

[Coxy]

Did anyone see Mark Geyer's column in RLW? If not, don't bother. Sometimes I think he makes sense, when talking on the TV, but his writing is sheer idiocy in print.

Not at all - they want Melbourne to be on a level playing field with every other team, as it should have always been!
They have been near unbeatable for the last 5 years SOLELY because of illegal player payments.
And who knows, if Bellamy is the amazing coach that many believe he is, maybe their $4.1 million dollar team will be just as successful?

Let's not lose sight of the fact that Melbourne took these players, who were nobodies, and transformed them into what they are. The cap has to change to reward a club's efforts in developing players.

Agree completely. But bear in mind the Broncos have done the same thing. Players like Stagg, Boyd, Eastwood, Civoniceva, Hunt...players that the Broncos brought on as kids, who became outstanding players, and their reward was having to let them go to stay within the rules of the salary cap.

I empathise with the Storm, but the fact they cheated to get around having to let players go, even the superstars they scouted and developed.

 

[HITMAN82]

Did anyone see Mark Geyer's column in RLW? If not, don't bother. Sometimes I think he makes sense, when talking on the TV, but his writing is sheer idiocy in print.

Not at all - they want Melbourne to be on a level playing field with every other team, as it should have always been!
They have been near unbeatable for the last 5 years SOLELY because of illegal player payments.
And who knows, if Bellamy is the amazing coach that many believe he is, maybe their $4.1 million dollar team will be just as successful?

Let's not lose sight of the fact that Melbourne took these players, who were nobodies, and transformed them into what they are. The cap has to change to reward a club's efforts in developing players.

Hopefully when the new TV deal comes through, the cap can be raised significantly without clubs folding, and then EVERY club can afford to keep their homegrown stars, not just rorting scum like the Storm.

Don't forget that they have continued to recruit very solid (including many rep) players around the core of homegrown stars - they certainly couldn't have afforded them under normal circumstances. Put the "big 4" ($2 million of market value talent at least) in with 21 players on a maximum of $100,000 each and see how well they go.

 

[Dexter]

Storms player turnover since 2006, hardly a stellar lineup of stars recruited and certainly not many rep players.
Fair dinkum some of the generalisations and myhts being started already.


OUT

Natnan Friend
Scott Hill
David Kidwell
Glen Turner
Jake Webster
Chris Walker
Dennis Scott
Jamie Feeney
Ben Cross
James Aubusson
Matt King
Clint Newton
Ryan Shortland
Garret Crossman
Mick Crocker
Folau
Sam Tagataese
Will Chambers
Antonio Kaufusi
Liam Foran
Matt Geyer
Russel Aitkin
Joseph Tomane
Steve Turner
James Maloney
Matt Cross
Dallas Johnson
Scott Anderson
Aidan Guerra
Wairangi Koopu
Brett Anderson

IN

Clint Newton
Brett Finch
Russel Aitkin
Anthony Quinn
Matt Rua
Ben McDougal
Ryan Hinchcliff
Matt Cross
Willie Isa
Chase Stanley
John Kite
Todd Lowrie
Atelea Vea
Like McDougal
Bryan Norrie
Rory Kostjasyn

 

[Coxy]

I don't think anyone's implying the Storm bought a premiership. The issue is they've got arguably the best players in the world in 3 positions - fullback, centre and hooker. Yes, they produced them. Yes, they were kids when they started out. BUT, fact is the rules don't give you benefits for that unless they've been at the club for 10 years, and none of them have.

Ergo, to pay them the big dollars players of that stature deserve you either have to cut the middle tier (Cronk, Lima, Blair, Finch et al) and just have a bunch of kids alongside them, or you let one or more of those stars go.

You don't think the Broncos would love to still have Tate, Civoniceva, Eastwood, Stagg and Boyd in the team? And although not developed by the Broncos, Ennis and Hannant too?

HITMAN82 has a point. Although only Finch in that lot was a rep player when he came, Newton, Quinn and Lowrie aren't guys you could really get on match payments except when released midseason. Quinn has since played Origin afterall. To get those kind of players alongside Origin and International stars Slater, Inglis and Smith is hard to believe.

 

[Dexter]

I was referring to Hitman82s comment "including many rep players".

Also Newton came for half a season, Quinn was a kid Finch originally came cheap after the Eels gave him the boot and Lowrie lol he wouldn't be on more than $125k he is only just NRL standard.

 

[Coxy]

Quinn was hardly a kid, he'd had at least a few seasons in regular first grade at the Knights.

Fact remains though, in order to retain Smith, Inglis, Slater, Cronk, Lima, Blair, White there's no way they could've offered Finch a contract this year and stay under the cap.

 

[Coxy]

Plus the NRL do have notional values in place. For example, the Broncos could not register a contract for Darren Lockyer for $50000, even if he wanted to. He has a set value based on experience, rep honours etc. Finch would be the same.

The only time they bend it a bit is midseason releases, a la 2009 for him, 2003 for Chris Walker going to the Roosters on bugger all etc.

 

[Dexter]

Still get back to the point of my post, the outs far outway the ins and there were not "many rep players" bought by he Storm just 1

 

[Flutterby]

Let's not lose sight of the fact that Melbourne took these players, who were nobodies, and transformed them into what they are. The cap has to change to reward a club's efforts in developing players.

I agree clubs need to be rewarded for developing players; HOWEVER Smith, Inglis, Slater were going to become superstars no matter where they played, Storm didn't really have to do much.

 

[Dexter]

That's true FB but the same could be said of the Broncos many stars. If we had discounts for developed talent how would our current side look today?

 

[Flutterby]

But the point is we didn't have discounts and we let a lot of players go as we couldn't keep them within the rules as they currently stand. The Storm administration chose to ignore the rules of the sport and deliberately cheated them obtain their success.

All things being equal if both the Broncos and the Storm had been allowed to keep all the players they brought into the NRL/Developed and/or if both had stayed within the rules and released superstar players they had brought into the NRL/Developed then there is no way the Storm would have achieved the success that they did.