The Storm are really pissing me off

[Coxy]

Sure the Storm went over the salary cap. So what. There just a team of footy players like every other team in the competition who just happened to be getting paid a little of what their worth. The fact of the matter, is the salary cap is to low and is not doing the job it was meant to do. Look what the salary cap has done for the Sharks and the Broncos, for that matter. There is no incentive or reward for developing your own juniors.
I personally know I would rather watch a competition full of Storm teams over Sharks teams any day.

Yep, and the Titans had that figured out from the start, and hence haven't bothered developing juniors, just go ahead and buy everyone else's talent :P

Good accountants too, lots of free houses to give away [icon_wink

 

[tkday]

Why wasn't making Storm drop players to fit into the cap an option? Then they could compete still and not be a waste of a season and their fans would still enjoy going to games.

 

[Anonymous person]

why would the storm bother dropping players to get under the cap this year? theyve been told they cannot earn points regardless of dropping players or not, so why not put your best team out there and try and show the other teams and the NRL that even though someone else will be the premiers, they werent the best team of the year?

anyone suggesting the players should 'roll over and take the fall' is stupid. the players did nothing wrong, and you can bet your arse that they are the people that have been hurt the most out of this whole thing. not us broncos fans, not the NRL administrators, not the Storm fans - the players who for 4 years have put in the hard yards, all for nothing now.

 

[forward_pass]

Why wasn't making Storm drop players to fit into the cap an option? Then they could compete still and not be a waste of a season and their fans would still enjoy going to games.

Taking a pay cut still defeats the purpose, there is no way you could simply wipe $850,000+ this year alone clean, the team was compiled illegally in the first place. Melbourne WILL have to cull players.

My personal belief is they shouldn't be playing at all, the rounds be made a bye. This removes any risk of an opponent player suffering season ending injuries by an illegally accumulated playing roster. And yes, if it were the Bronco's I'd say exactly the sme thing - rules are rules, like 'em or not, just the way it is.

 

[Flutterby]

Actually I enjoy watching the Storm play now more than before they got busted and were forced to play for no points. They are playing with much more abandon now and damn the consequences as really there are none for them, rather than their usual boring (IMO) style of overly-structured "safer" play. The way they are playing the past few weeks is much more exciting to watch for mine - and they are still winning, maybe they and other teams will take this on board and note that you can still win with an expansive "riskier" and more exciting style of play.

 

[Coxy]

Actually I enjoy watching the Storm play now more than before they got busted and were forced to play for no points. They are playing with much more abandon now and damn the consequences as really there are none for them, rather than their usual boring (IMO) style of overly-structured "safer" play. The way they are playing the past few weeks is much more exciting to watch for mine - and they are still winning, maybe they and other teams will take this on board and note that you can still win with an expansive "riskier" and more exciting style of play.

+1! Agree completely.

 

[Anonymous person]

My personal belief is they shouldn't be playing at all, the rounds be made a bye. This removes any risk of an opponent player suffering season ending injuries by an illegally accumulated playing roster. And yes, if it were the Bronco's I'd say exactly the sme thing - rules are rules, like 'em or not, just the way it is.

theyre not the rules though, so its not a 'rules are rules, like 'em or not' situation.

there is no rule saying that if you breach the salary cap you forfeit every match. thats why this whole problem came about - there is no rule for what happened.

 

[Professor47]

[quote="forward_pass":3ibduoos]
My personal belief is they shouldn't be playing at all, the rounds be made a bye. This removes any risk of an opponent player suffering season ending injuries by an illegally accumulated playing roster. And yes, if it were the Bronco's I'd say exactly the sme thing - rules are rules, like 'em or not, just the way it is.

theyre not the rules though, so its not a 'rules are rules, like 'em or not' situation.

there is no rule saying that if you breach the salary cap you forfeit every match. thats why this whole problem came about - there is no rule for what happened.[/quote:3ibduoos]

and I agree AP - and as you said the players might be the ones hurting the most and so forth ... but they have to UNDERSTAND that they WERE an illegal team... you can't just cry for sympathy...

I feel for the innocent players - I really do... but they have to ACCEPT the fact that the administration screwed them over and that it is FACT they were an ILLEGAL TEAM and that the team WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN FORMED if they DID NOT cheat.

In my personal opinion - they are not admitting to that. What do you think?

 

[Anonymous person]

they dont have to admit that, because noone knows who wouldve left/stayed had they been under the salary cap. its all well and good to say that they wouldnt have their big 4 players, but we dont know 100% that they wouldnt be there - from all reports, the players genuinely love the team and also - and this is a big part of it - love living in Melbourne. living there for them gives them relative anonymity. they MIGHT have stayed there for $200k less than theyre on, if the only other option was moving to Cronulla to play in a rubbish team and then put up with being in the spotlight every minute of their life.

we just dont know.

the team wasnt FORMED on the basis of cheating, the admins cheated to RETAIN the team that they formed legally. The players have nothing to admit to IMO. can you say, with 100% certainty, that Melbourne would not have been the best team over the last few years if they were under the salary cap? can you say with 100% certainty that they wouldnt have Inglis/Smith/Cronk/Slater? i sure cant.

 

[Emma]

If the players were willing to stay for so much less money AP, why was there any need for the admin to do anything illegal?

 

[Dexter]

We are not talking about us, this is about the fairest way forward for every team.

And if you think we will go within 2 points of the 8 you must be expecting 4 or 5 more teams to get busted for salary cap infringemnets.

No my point is that we here as Bronco fans would be pissed at the NRL and the Storm if we missed the 8 by 2points (Storm match) and im sure every other team's fans would feel the same. As for the teams that beat the Storm good on em. if they miss the 8 they have problems.

Just to add another variable into this, if every team gets 2 points then there is no advantage to anyone except the teams which have to play them twice who would get 4 points and gain a 1 game advantage and not have to win.
If you say the Storm games are worth nothing then those teams who draw them twice lose the chance at gaining 2 points.

 

[Anonymous person]

If the players were willing to stay for so much less money AP, why was there any need for the admin to do anything illegal?

maybe they thought to get them to stay they had to pay them more? i mean, i never even heard a whisper of any of them even thinking about leaving Melbourne, so maybe the storm made them offers that were too good to refuse (because theyre illegally good lol) so they didnt even need to shop around.

actually there was the whole Cam Smith going to the titans thing the other year, but never heard anything about Slater/Inglis/Cronk.

 

[Emma]

Hmm, I just can't believe that a club would offer players an amount that would put them over the cap without them having a genuine reason to believe they could go elsewhere unless they did so.

 

[Anonymous person]

well theyre inglis, smith, cronk and slater - every team under the sun wants them in their team. thats enough reason, cause they know other teams will make them big offers - and the second they have a firm offer for say $500k from the roosters, and it goes public that they offered around that much, if melbourne then keep the player it would raise suspicions of how much melbourne must be paying them.

thinking about it, until this whole thing came out, did ANYONE really have any idea how much money those 4 guys were on? i didnt, because no other teams had tabled offers for them because melbourne resigned them well before they could talk to other teams.

 

[Professor47]

they dont have to admit that, because noone knows who wouldve left/stayed had they been under the salary cap. its all well and good to say that they wouldnt have their big 4 players, but we dont know 100% that they wouldnt be there - from all reports, the players genuinely love the team and also - and this is a big part of it - love living in Melbourne. living there for them gives them relative anonymity. they MIGHT have stayed there for $200k less than theyre on, if the only other option was moving to Cronulla to play in a rubbish team and then put up with being in the spotlight every minute of their life.

we just dont know.

the team wasnt FORMED on the basis of cheating, the admins cheated to RETAIN the team that they formed legally. The players have nothing to admit to IMO. can you say, with 100% certainty, that Melbourne would not have been the best team over the last few years if they were under the salary cap? can you say with 100% certainty that they wouldnt have Inglis/Smith/Cronk/Slater? i sure cant.

ahhh come on mate - you're saying Slater and GI would have stayed for 300k offers?!?!? Turn it up sir!!!
They are very big MIGHTS... probability wise you have to say the % of that happening would have been LOW.

We cant say with 100% certainty who would have stayed and who would not have - but the bottom line is the team is ILLEGAL and that is FACT... what is there not to accept about that?

It is FACT they would NOT have had the same teams throughout the years - can you deny that? (regardless of the big four)

 

[Flutterby]

thinking about it, until this whole thing came out, did ANYONE really have any idea how much money those 4 guys were on? i didnt, because no other teams had tabled offers for them because melbourne resigned them well before they could talk to other teams.

You make an excellent point AP - there were rarely any public rumours that these players were looking to leave; however I still have to think that at some point one or more of them (ie their managers) told the Storm they would consider any offers of $xxx, therefore the Storm mgt very quickly ensured these players were paid that amount to stay, ergo they had no reason to shop themselves around.

 

[Je$ter]

Peter o'sullivan has already left the storm and gone to the Roosters..

Like 2 years ago?

 

[Professor47]

thinking about it, until this whole thing came out, did ANYONE really have any idea how much money those 4 guys were on? i didnt, because no other teams had tabled offers for them because melbourne resigned them well before they could talk to other teams.

And that is exactly right - so those last contracts they have signed (those were the illegal ones) and Melbourne snapped them up easy because the offers were that good (because they were not legit).

Again AP - the players are not at fault here... they are thinking the deal is great and they get to stay in Melb... no probs with that...

Now though, these players have to realise those contracts were NOT WITHIN the limits of the cap... They bled for their titles no one is denying that but unfortunately with illegitimate teams... they are victims of an deliberate administrative cheating scheme... it is something I feel the club are not quite getting ATM - but it could be because they are still deeply hurting.
--> But to go around smashing teams with an illegal team and saying this is what we're all about - we deserve to be known as a great team (when the team is illegitimate)? I don't get it... It's just not humble.