Melbourne Storm / Rebels / Waldrom

[fatprop]

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sp...hitect-of-deceit/story-e6frexnr-1225857172372

STORM boss Brian Waldron was never going to take the rap on his own. Half an hour before David Gallop opened his press conference and revealed the full extent of Storm's salary cap rorting yesterday, a panicking Waldron told me: "There were people on the board who knew about everything that was going on.
"It's happening everywhere. What about [name withheld] leaving us and getting paid $200,000 by [sponsor withheld] outside the cap by the [team name withheld].
"This is a joke. All clubs do it. I can't say any more.

 

[DPK]

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sp...hitect-of-deceit/story-e6frexnr-1225857172372

STORM boss Brian Waldron was never going to take the rap on his own. Half an hour before David Gallop opened his press conference and revealed the full extent of Storm's salary cap rorting yesterday, a panicking Waldron told me: "There were people on the board who knew about everything that was going on.
"It's happening everywhere. What about Israel Folau leaving us and getting paid $200,000 by Gatorade outside the cap by the Broncos.
"This is a joke. All clubs do it. I can't say any more.

Fixed?

 

[en_force_er]

I would say it certainly runs deeper. Every club with money in every salary capped sport is trying to skirt it.

But there is just no way the NRL are going to sink every team in the league financially, no point. Plus... by their roster it would appeal Storm were doing it the most anyway.

 

[RugbyReg]

Lote Tuqiri sounded very worried on Twitter about it.

Reckon the Titans will be under pressure too.

 

[en_force_er]

Lote Tuqiri sounded very worried on Twitter about it.

Reckon the Titans will be under pressure too.

Could you post the quote? I don't use twitter.

 

[PhucNgo]

Re: Melbourne Storm stripped of 2007 + 2009 premierships

It's very much so criminal. It's fraud. Rugby league is professional, therefore it's run as a business. All incomings/outgoings must be declared & on record. The architect of this is in serious shit.

Due to fraudulant behaviour, their incomings through prize money (over 1 mill), revenue from finals games, sponsorship, everything has been increased.

How you can say that this is only "unethical" leaves me completely bewildered!

Where's the fraud in this? Surely all they've done is broken the infinitely elastic rules of the Boganball Alliance? Any misallocation of prizemoney etc. therefore is an internal issue. Would be a different matter if the parties concerned were personally receiving payments, but this appears not to be the case. The club hasn't turned a dollar from day one, so probably not a tax issue either, for the club at least, but ATO may go sniffing around players to see that all income has been declared. Whole thing is therefore, dare i say it, a Storm in a .... well apparently they don't have any cups left.

Anyone know who the directors are? As the CEO and CFO have been made the scapegoats here, it'll be interesting to see whether the recent precedent in the Hardies case is used as an objective benchmark for directors duties by the NRL. Hang on, isn't Gallop a New appointee? Too many potential conflicts of interest here to ponder and this is probably the most time I've devoted to thinking about Boganball in the last 100 years anyway. Can I have my 10 minutes back please?

Gallop's only comment was that the NRL required the execution of statutory declarations twice a year, the penalties for that are

The Oaths Amendment Act 1996 provides that if a Statuary Declaration is made to gain material benefit and the
offence is dealt with by indictment the penalty is up to 7 years imprisonment. If dealt with summarily then the penalty
is up to 2 years imprisonment and/or a fine of 100 penalty units ($11,000 in 1998). If the offence is swearing a false
declaration, that does not involve material benefit, the penalty is up to 12 months imprisonment and/or a fine of 50
penalty units ($5,500)

I wasn't aware of the Stat Dec issue, but probably difficult to prove that the execs (assuming it was they who signed) stood to gain a material benefit.

 

[fatprop]

Re: Melbourne Storm stripped of 2007 + 2009 premierships

It's very much so criminal. It's fraud. Rugby league is professional, therefore it's run as a business. All incomings/outgoings must be declared & on record. The architect of this is in serious shit.

Due to fraudulant behaviour, their incomings through prize money (over 1 mill), revenue from finals games, sponsorship, everything has been increased.

How you can say that this is only "unethical" leaves me completely bewildered!

Where's the fraud in this? Surely all they've done is broken the infinitely elastic rules of the Boganball Alliance? Any misallocation of prizemoney etc. therefore is an internal issue. Would be a different matter if the parties concerned were personally receiving payments, but this appears not to be the case. The club hasn't turned a dollar from day one, so probably not a tax issue either, for the club at least, but ATO may go sniffing around players to see that all income has been declared. Whole thing is therefore, dare i say it, a Storm in a .... well apparently they don't have any cups left.

Anyone know who the directors are? As the CEO and CFO have been made the scapegoats here, it'll be interesting to see whether the recent precedent in the Hardies case is used as an objective benchmark for directors duties by the NRL. Hang on, isn't Gallop a New appointee? Too many potential conflicts of interest here to ponder and this is probably the most time I've devoted to thinking about Boganball in the last 100 years anyway. Can I have my 10 minutes back please?

Gallop's only comment was that the NRL required the execution of statutory declarations twice a year, the penalties for that are

The Oaths Amendment Act 1996 provides that if a Statuary Declaration is made to gain material benefit and the
offence is dealt with by indictment the penalty is up to 7 years imprisonment. If dealt with summarily then the penalty
is up to 2 years imprisonment and/or a fine of 100 penalty units ($11,000 in 1998). If the offence is swearing a false
declaration, that does not involve material benefit, the penalty is up to 12 months imprisonment and/or a fine of 50
penalty units ($5,500)

I wasn't aware of the Stat Dec issue, but probably difficult to prove that the execs (assuming it was they who signed) stood to gain a material benefit.

they then get you in this bit

25 False declaration

In all cases where by this Part, or under the authority thereof, or by virtue of any power or authority hereby given, a declaration:

(a) is substituted in lieu of an oath or affidavit, or

(b) is directed or authorised to be made and subscribed, although not substituted in lieu of an oath or affidavit,

any person who wilfully and corruptly makes and subscribes any such declaration, knowing the same to be untrue in any material particular, shall be guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for 5 years.

 

[RugbyFuture]

there are waaaayy too many lawyers here...

 

[Ash]

Reckon teams like Manly, Broncos, Titans among others could face some really interesting investigations. Manly in particular is one club who I really wonder how they keep the team together and bet that there is something going on there too.

Broncos I always understood had under the table payments from the Thoroughbreads, which the club purposely distanced itself from. Would be bloody hard to pin them with that, unless one of the Thoroughbreads turns around with proof of working with the club (of which no doubt one of them has).

 

[TOCC]

at least in recent years i would think its quite obvious that the Broncos havent been flirting with the salary cap considering the calibre of players they have lost to other clubs

 

[Ash]

This is all my personal surmising, but I think the Broncos have seen a large departure of "under the table" support since the departure of Wayne Bennett. Not saying that it was Bennett involved, just the supporters were also strong supporters of Bennett. I am still referring to the Thoroughbreads, of course, and am just guessing. But yeah, the Broncos have bled talent in recent years and now are a middle of the table side for the first time in well over a decade.

Manly would be the first team that would leap out as suspect after the Storm. Souths would be up there too, especially with Crowe's hand in it.

Cronulla would be one of the few sides I would not suspect. Those guys a flat broke and can't even afford to spend their entire cap, plus - their team is mostly crap.

 

[AussieDominance]

It seems that way, your not seeing clubs coming out celebrating that finally someone has been caught are we?

 

[TOCC]

This is all my personal surmising, but I think the Broncos have seen a large departure of "under the table" support since the departure of Wayne Bennett. Not saying that it was Bennett involved, just the supporters were also strong supporters of Bennett. I am still referring to the Thoroughbreads, of course, and am just guessing. But yeah, the Broncos have bled talent in recent years and now are a middle of the table side for the first time in well over a decade.

Manly would be the first team that would leap out as suspect after the Storm. Souths would be up there too, especially with Crowe's hand in it.

Cronulla would be one of the few sides I would not suspect. Those guys a flat broke and can't even afford to spend their entire cap, plus - their team is mostly crap.

i wonder if the 'Thoroughbreds' have some kind of club house that they meet at, would be rather interesting little circle to get into

 

[cyclopath]

Got asked today by someone from Melbourne "You're a rugby fan aren't you?". "Yes". "What do you think about the Storm?". "Oh, I'm sorry, I'm a Rugby fan, don't give a rat's arse about a rugby league team going down". " Oh......".

After that short conversation, and after actually thinking about the whole thing, I agree it would be nigh on impossible for the players to be unaware of the whole situation. If they are complicit in this, and get off clean then the whole thing really stinks. I expect other clubs to be found out, and ultimately the salary cap will be challenged by clubs and / or players unions as a restraint of trade and it will all fall in a heap.
I feel really sorry for David Gallop - he seems a decent bloke, and a mate I know has a kid at the same school as he does, and says he is a good guy. Whatever he gets paid, he deserves for having to deal with the fucktards of mungoball day in / day out - players, agents, club officials and assorted media pond-scum.

 

[Scarfman]

As I said on the blog, I don't know about Gallop's smarts here. He really went 110% with big statements in the media, very early in the process, maximising publicity for this catastrophe. It has opened all sorts of sores and I wonder of the competition he runs might fall over in the process.

JON wouldn't do it like that at all. Full investigation, crack appropriate heads together, but leave a fair bit behind the veil of commercial-in-confidence, etc, and come out with the smell of a thorough cleaning out of the corruption.

 

[Gagger]

It seemed to go to the cops very quickly, and once they're in you've got no control.

Although how long had they been sitting on it before it broke in the media?

 

[RugbyFuture]

i hope this is the change in gear we want from league, to "R" at 200 km/h

 

[DPK]

The stars are aligning. League shoots itself in the foot, at least two Aussie teams good chances to make the Super 14 final and exciting rugby being played, and a RWC just around the corner.

 

[PhucNgo]

there are waaaayy too many lawyers here...

You've obviously not heard the one about the difference b/w lawyers and lab rats then.

 

[PhucNgo]

Got asked today by someone from Melbourne "You're a rugby fan aren't you?". "Yes". "What do you think about the Storm?". "Oh, I'm sorry, I'm a Rugby fan, don't give a rat's arse about a rugby league team going down". " Oh......".

After that short conversation, and after actually thinking about the whole thing, I agree it would be nigh on impossible for the players to be unaware of the whole situation. If they are complicit in this, and get off clean then the whole thing really stinks. I expect other clubs to be found out, and ultimately the salary cap will be challenged by clubs and / or players unions as a restraint of trade and it will all fall in a heap.
I feel really sorry for David Gallop - he seems a decent bloke, and a mate I know has a kid at the same school as he does, and says he is a good guy. Whatever he gets paid, he deserves for having to deal with the fucktards of mungoball day in / day out - players, agents, club officials and assorted media pond-scum.

Give Dennis Tutty a call. He might give you a few pointers.