Melbourne should sit out 2010 comp

[Guest]

Simple mathematics of the matter say the 03 and 04 teams were also over the cap To say it took 6 years to cleanse your payroll is misleading and implies your club had a hard time of it When in reality besides the two throroughly desrved wooden spoons you got You were quite succesful and still enjoyed on field success through this period

No, I didn't imply that we had a hard time of it, far from it. Only making the point that the slate needs to be cleaned as we still had issues with our payroll up to and including late 2007.

By asking players to take paycuts we created some massive issues for ourselves down the track. Especially, when renegotiating with our own players. As players left and many did, the ones left behind rightfully asked for their full entitlements to be restored plus extras to reflect their standing in the game.

I am not claiming to be a victim in what happened, just making the point that it should have been dealt with much more decisiveness at the time in order for the club to erase the errors and move forward in accordance with the rules. The fact that didn't happen, causes people like yourself to point to our 2004 Premiership and cast doubts on it. I can't blame you for that, I would feel exactly the same way.

My first reaction when I heard the Storm news was the gut wrenching disappointment coming back from than those dark days and remember the sledging we received as supporters and in many instances still do. My initial thoughts would be with their fans.

[horrie hastings]

They have a right to be extremely pissed off about being cheated out of the 2 points...and obviously the teams that have to play them twice are even further disadvantaged...the lucky ones are the ones playing the Storm near the seasons end when they will have given up as it's pointless and they will be eyeing their end of season trip instead...they will play for pride for a handful of games and then reality will kick in and how can you be enthusiastic about playing for skata...

This is the only flaw in the punishment handed down to them that irks me...they are still playing with an unfair advantage....

The only thing they could do now is call all games that have been played null and void and start the comp all over again without the Storm and that aint gonna happen.It the comp continues in its current form and the league decided that there is a bye for the teams that were due to play Melbourne that would would be totally unfair on the teams that had already played them and had their for and against affected.
Anyway you look at it the 2010 season is totally ****ed now.

[Andrew Walker]

The only thing they could do now is call all games that have been played null and void and start the comp all over again without the Storm and that aint gonna happen.It the comp continues in its current form and the league decided that there is a bye for the teams that were due to play Melbourne that would would be totally unfair on the teams that had already played them and had their for and against affected.
Anyway you look at it the 2010 season is totally ****ed now.

In a way it is ****ed. Here I am watching Cronulla and Newcastle thinking to myself this is one of the battles for this years wooden spoon When I then remembered that this has already been decided this year

[Guest]

The season (like the last 5) is tained now either way you look at it, only this time everyone's aware of it. There are flaws with every option and someone is unfairly disadvantaged and this year's premiers will have a sting attached now no matter what.

I still think they should do what they did with the dogs. Get them under the cap and continue the games as it is normally. Only time will tell if this whole, no points approach will blow up in their faces.

[Guest]

The season (like the last 5) is tained now either way you look at it, only this time everyone's aware of it. There are flaws with every option and someone is unfairly disadvantaged and this year's premiers will have a sting attached now no matter what.

I still think they should do what they did with the dogs. Get them under the cap and continue the games as it is normally. Only time will tell if this whole, no points approach will blow up in their faces.

agree with what u are saying.THE thing i would change is the decision on them earning points,they should be allowed to earn points on the condition they shed $700,000 worth of players to the satisfaction of the NRL & all other clubs.Then those players that are shed are fostered out to other clubs and paid by the storm.they go to clubs that aren't travelling well in the comp & or fostered to clubs on standings on 2009 results judged by the nrl to be the most worthy of needing these players FOR 2010 OR EVEN A LOTTERY TYPE DRAW.say there are 6 players involved .6 clubs get chosen by a panel of experts to receive them and those clubs express interest on which players they want the most in a 1st 2nd and 3rd choice order and the panel decides who gets them.this way the 2010 comp is not eroded for both storm and the NRL.EVERYONE WINS.

[BUDDY]

agree with what u are saying.THE thing i would change is the decision on them earning points,they should be allowed to earn points on the condition they shed $700,000 worth of players to the satisfaction of the NRL & all other clubs.Then those players that are shed are fostered out to other clubs and paid by the storm.they go to clubs that aren't travelling well in the comp & or fostered to clubs on standings on 2009 results judged by the nrl to be the most worthy of needing these players FOR 2010 OR EVEN A LOTTERY TYPE DRAW.say there are 6 players involved .6 clubs get chosen by a panel of experts to receive them and those clubs express interest on which players they want the most in a 1st 2nd and 3rd choice order and the panel decides who gets them.this way the 2010 comp is not eroded for both storm and the NRL.EVERYONE WINS.

Agreed. For these players the only fair way of distributing them is similar to other codes (ie. AFL, NFL) being a draft system with the team coming last the previous season getting first pick, second last getting second pick and so on. Hopefully Cam Smith will be on that list

[Guest]

The storm played the first 7 games of the comp as an illegal side and the right decision is that the points they've been awarded so far are taken away.

I guess for teams like manly and the titans, the wins over the storm are effectively bonus points now. Any other team that beats the storm will end up in this situation.

For teams like cronulla, the knights and whoever else the storm have beaten earlier this year, it is unfortunate that they were beaten by an illegal team but all other tems that lose to the storm from now on will be in this situation.

So all in all, it seems fair that what happened in the first 7 weeks will continue until the end of the season. The storm are only in a position to deprive points to other teams and effect for and against.

[supermario]

The storm are only in a position to deprive points to other teams and effect for and against.

So the storm can effectivly "choose" who they win or lose against.

The storm can effectivly choose who gets into the final 8 or who misses out.

[Guest]

They ****in cheated, they should be OUT. Not play at all, and be forced to play $700,000 BELOW the cap for the next 3 years. Give 2 points each to the 4 teams they beat this year and two points to every other team they havent played yet. Then the rest of the games scheduled against them can be byes with no points awarded.

[Guest]

They ****in cheated, they should be OUT. Not play at all, and be forced to play $700,000 BELOW the cap for the next 3 years. Give 2 points each to the 4 teams they beat this year and two points to every other team they havent played yet. Then the rest of the games scheduled against them can be byes with no points awarded.

Doesn't work. Then a half a dozen teams will be one game short. There is not way under the current structure to make "Melbourne byes" work.

[Guest]

They are still taking the field with a side that's way over the cap...it is still an unfair advantage they have over the other teams they are playing...regardles if they can't win any comp points for the year they are still cheating with the side they are putting on the field and any team that gets beat by them and has no chance of earning the 2 points should still feel cheated...just because the tv rights say they get 8 games per weekend is not a good enough excuse to let them continue as they are...they either sit out the season and all teams recieve a bye against them or the other fair solution is they cull their side to get it under the cap and run out a team that is under the cap to be fair against their competitiors...the ones they cull obviously still have to be paid but they can't partake in any more games in the NRL for this year...

A horse (or it's trainer), for whatever reason, be it drugs or whatever, is found to have cheated and incurs a penalty that includes having it's 2 cox plates taken away, and being ruled ineligible to win it's next 20 starts.

This is like letting that horse start in it's next 20 races anyway, and saying that if that if that horse happens to win any of those race it receives nothing for it, but neither does the second horse

On a different note, David Gallop is exactly right in saying that Melb have acquired this squad of players illegally, and it's no good when you get caught just saying, "Oh ok then, we'll take paycuts or offload a couple and then we can keep going"