Fairness of Penalty on the Storm

[Canteen Worker]

I think the NRL got it just right myself, though how they did it and got away with not letting the NRL board members vote due to conflict of interests is beyond me.

These rorts were not trifling ones nor honest mistakes but a deliberate attempt to break the rules and so they got everything they deserved. It saddens me too that we would have most likely won in 2007 had they not been cheats.

 

[SilentBob]

Too harsh. It's ****ed the whole comp the way they are letting them play as is without accruing points. Get them to drop some players, put em back to -20 and let them fight for the spoon with Cronulla.

or

Drop them completely for this season, let the players go where they like outside the NRL, if they want to stay, put them in a draft to find a side for the rest of this year, at the end of the season they are all free agents. Melbourne side gets relaunched next year for the 2012 season, new colours, new name, new coach, new everything.

 

[Wolfpack]

Everything was fine other than not allowing them to play for anything this season.

Should've forced them to make a salary cap compliant team to play in 2010 & then played out the rest of the year. Maybe drop them back down to -10 points on the ladder or something similar, just give them the semblance of actually having something to play for.

 

[Ian Martin tragic]

This is a pretty interesting idea SB but goes beyond a penalty regime, and into territory that would have to be negotiated with the club and its contracted players.

the fact is the comp was ruined before the rort was uncovered, as has the last several years of the comp, by the rort. we nonetheless have to have a comp with as much integrity as we can from here on.

I think this playing for zero points idea is a big risk. probably would have been better to kick them from the comp altogether this year, retrospectively give everyone a bye round for their scheduled melbourne games, and get on with it. but I would say the tv rights deal and delivering 8 games per weekend were motivations for the way they have done it.

 

[Corso_Pete]

With gambling being such a major part of the NRL these days the fact that Melbourne have either nothing to play for, or alternatively plenty to play for is so motivated by the financial result of a game is of a concern to me.

 

[Ian Martin tragic]

Excellent point. It's like an invitation to experiment with results for some other motivation as they have nothing to do with the rest of the teams who are in the 'competition'.

 

[Jethro]

Like I said in the "Clowns puppets and crooks" thread:

Whilst I agree with the punishment handed out to the Storm, there is still something inside of me that says that they should still be able to earn some points this season. Maybe they should have just been told that they would forfeit all points to a certain point of the season. For example, if they have breached the cap by the 25% that CW has said in his post above then let them only earn points for 25% of the season.  Forfeit their points until up to and including say round 19 or 20. This way they can't make the finals and would keep them at least slightly competitive and also give the Sharks and the other lowly placed teams a bit more incentive to not win the spoon.  Even though I would love to see the Storm take home the spoon, I would rather see that they earned it and not be handed it.

 

[Berkeley_Eagle]

I also think the no points for the year is a stupid idea as well, the Nrl could have suspended them from the remainder of the 2010 comp & have them compliant with the salary cap at the start of the 2011 season,

with the rest of the comp do a re-draw for the rest of the season there are still 20 weeks left play everyone once and 3 bye weekends for Origin with a full season tv schedule in place as well

 

[Berkeley_Eagle]

even though I hate the merkins NRL do need a team down there

 

[court83]

I don't see how melb could play for anything this year....

To get under the cap this yr they would need to lose a lot of players (or a few big names)?but these players all have contracts,storm can't just cut players at can they???just say they drop cam smith,don't they still have to pay out the remaining yrs that are left on his contract? Wouldn't that money come under the cap still????

 

[missing_something]

They can't be allowed to play for points YET, there's still new rort's coming out in the papers today, till everything is cleared up and the FULL extent of their cheating is known (and if there's players that have knowingly cheated they need to be punished), there's no way in hell they can be give a $$$ target of players they need to cut and them earning points while their still over the cap is unfair and wrong.

It's going many many months for this all to be sorted, so them competing this year is not realistically feasible

 

[DSM5]

Like I said on another thread, put them in the NSW Cup and put their game on TV.  Highlights that comp and keeps them going.  Start over next season with another leadership team in place.

 

[Kiwi Eagle]

They have no right to be in the finals and win the comp this season, that part is correct

Another way of doing it perhaps could have been to find a figure, lets say with 18 games remaining, this season, they lost 26 points. They have to play to wipe off those points, and they continue onto next season, so to start with a clean slate next season, they would have to win 13 games. If they only won 10/18, then they started next season -6 until those points are wiped off

 

[Jatz Crackers]

I cant form an opinion on the fairness or not of the penalties applied for the simple reason that the scope of the cheating is still a work in progress.

Ive said this previously, the exact extent of the coach & players who benefited from this and what they knew during contract negotiations & subsequent contracts agreed upon, needs to be out in the open, and all (if any, lol) need to own up & publicly face the consequences. Not just the suits.

If the coach who is an integral part of the recruitment comittee and its processes is complicit in this then the current penalties do not go far enough. Same for the players although a case is already being made by certain parties to minimise the outfall on them in particular.

Who knows just how transparently committed News Ltd is to making sure that the full extent of this is exposed and what actions will be taken to construct a clean slate for next year.