NRL poised to strip Melbourne Storm of points over salary cap breaches

Agreed.

 

**** Smith. He's a bitch and a faggot.

 

999. Michaels.

 

Reports suggest Melbourne Storm $3.2 million over salary cap limit

The Deloitte report commissioned to uncover the full extent of Melbourne Storm's salary cap rorting is set to reveal the club was almost twice as far over the cap as first thought.

According to Fairfax papers, the report, will show the Storm was $3.2 million over the cap from 2006 to the end of this season.

Initial estimates had the Storm in breach by $1.7m.

It was reported that News Limited - owner of the Storm - asked for the resignation of the four Storm directors not aligned to News yesterday, in light of Deloitte's revelations.

Storm chairman, Peter Moodie, who is pursuing action in the Victoria Supreme Court against the penalties imposed on the club by the NRL for the cap breaches, refused that order.

"We cannot resign even if we wanted to," Moodie told the Sydney Morning Herald.

"The players, the staff, the supporters, the coach and the sponsors have begged us to take the action that we have. We have no choice but to stay."

It is almost three months since Melbourne was caught cheating the salary cap but only on Tuesday was the Telstra Premiership trophy was returned to NRL headquarters in Sydney, despite the Storm having its status as 2009 champion revoked.

The NRL stripped Melbourne of its 2007 and 2009 titles as part of the club's punishment for breaching the salary cap, but you wouldn't know that from looking at the trophy. A small plaque still reads "Melbourne 2007". Another, set aside for the 2009 premier, remains blank.

"I haven't got an answer for you formally, but the decision was made earlier that the record would simply show premiership withdrawn,"

NRL media director John Brady said.

"Whether that goes on to the trophy is one of those things that has yet to be determined, but that was the earlier decision reached on how the records would be treated."

Then there is the matter of the missing plaque for 2009. For the time being it remains blank.

Brady kept details of the mission to bring the trophy home a secret. He confirmed an attempt had been made earlier in the year but didn't want to go into detail. The Storm also didn't want to disclose how they let the trophy slip out of their grasp.

"We just came in to work the other day and she was gone-ski," one club source said.

According to Brady, the trophy was due to come back to Sydney around this time anyway to be used in promotions for the upcoming finals series.

But its return is not considered as important as some other big issues.

The Storm must shed players if it is to be under the cap next year. And the figure of $3.2m, if true, will force the club to lose more players than it had planned. Melbourne remains desperate to keep its big four - Greg Inglis, Cameron Smith, Billy Slater and Cooper Cronk - in the hope it can rebuild the embattled club around them.

Already the Storm has shed several representative players for next season including Aiden Tolman and Ryan Hoffman.

http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,8659,27404706-5018866,00.html

 

Holy Moly.

I still LOL at keeping the big 4.

 

No wonder $4m or so was being pumped into them every year.