effects on player recruitment now Peter O'Sullivan named in Storm Scandal

[fletch]

well looks like early fears have been confirmed with Peter O'Sullivan tonight being named one as one of the five key members of the Storm management responsible for the salary cap scandal.

surely the Roosters must stand down O'Sullivan until such time an investigation is completed into his involvement in the salary cap rort.

there had always been questions how the Storm managed to sign a large chunk of the most talented youngsters from all over Australia, I guess we now know it was done with the help of payments not recorded in the salary cap.

there is no doubt that the Roosters will now come under extra scrutiny on the back of O'Sullivans ties to the club, hopefully he hasn't been doing anything questionable since changing clubs or we could be next in the firing line.

[Chook Norris]

well looks like early fears have been confirmed with Peter O'Sullivan tonight being named one as one of the five key members of the Storm management responsible for the salary cap scandal.

disappointing if true.. but.. source??

[Rooster_6]

What's the source?

This is something that's no doubt going to go on and on for the rest of the season... it'd be a massive call from the club to stand him down unless they were 100% sure that he was directly involved.

[fletch]

the source is The Herald Sun, below is a link to the article, obviously for legal reasons they must have some pretty damning evidence to name him otherwise they would be facing a nice defamation law suit.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/po...-1225857163988

[stsae]

Link: http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/l...0422-tfya.html


Melbourne hits rock bottom STATHI PAXINOS
April 23, 2010
THE premierships, the proud history, the hard-earned respect gained from two premierships from the past four grand finals have all been ripped from the Melbourne Storm.

Now the players - the superstars, in particular - who had often spoken about their wish to stick together as a one-team band to form something special in Melbourne are likely to be the next to go, according to board chairman Rob Moodie.

Moodie was yesterday resigned to the fact that some of the names who made the Storm the most dominant club of the past decade would not be with the team next year and possibly as early as the coming months.


Brian Waldron. Photo: Getty Images
Moodie did not nominate anyone, but it is the representative players, such as Cameron Smith, Billy Slater, Greg Inglis, Cooper Cronk and Brett White, who have the most to lose by staying with the Storm and will be the most difficult to keep in terms of what they can be offered money wise.

''We will have to completely re-evaluate our cap and who, in a sense, we can afford to keep and who we can't and I imagine that we will have a pretty substantially changed playing list,'' Moodie said.

''We're not going to pay another cent outside the cap. We've got no ideas because we haven't sat down and worked it out yet so obviously [the team] is going to be different.''

NRL chief executive David Gallop yesterday announced that the Storm had been stripped of its premierships from 2007 and 2009 and fined a total of $1.6 million after being found guilty of massive, long-term salary cap breaches, the rorting amounting to $1.7 million over five years.

The club would also not be allowed to accrue any premiership points this season.

''Over the last few weeks it has come to light that the Storm has engaged in a long-term system of operating what might conveniently be called the two sets of books,'' Gallop said. ''To their credit, this morning the Storm representatives have come in and confessed to a well-organised system of paying players outside the cap. On what we know this amounted to $1.7 million over the last five years, including approximately $700,000 in 2010.

''The elaborate lengths that they went to to hide the payments was quite extraordinary.

''The breakthrough in the investigation was the discovery by the salary cap auditor [Ian Schubert] of a file in a separate room at the Storm to the room that contained the file with the player's contracts, outlining the payments to the players not declared to us. These payments have allowed them to recruit and retain some of the best players in the game.

''The results of their practices on the field speak for themselves.''

Moodie said he was confident that the players were not involved or did not have knowledge of the deception. He instead pointed the finger in another direction, saying: '''I think where the questions have to be asked is with the player manager system.''

The people who are at the centre of the investigation, beside Brian Waldron and acting CEO Matt Hanson, are believed to be former chief financial officer Cameron Vale, the most recent chief financial officer Paul Gregory, who was believed to have been stood down last night, and former recruiting manager Peter O'Sullivan, who is regarded as one of the architects of the Storm's success with his recruitment of superstars such as Greg Inglis and Israel Folau.

Hanson also served as chief financial officer before he was promoted to chief operating officer, where he had responsibility for the Storm's transition's to AAMI Park.

He was appointed acting chief executive when Waldron took up his position with the Melbourne Rebels in January.

Hanson and the usually talkative Waldron did not return repeated messages to their phones yesterday while O'Sullivan and Vale said they had no comment to make.

Waldron was a larger than life figure at the Storm, often fashioning an image for himself as the protector of the code's vision in enemy AFL territory against the pre-historic attitudes of some of the bosses of traditional Sydney club's, such as Parramatta chief executive Denis Fitzgerald. Yesterday, however the tide had turned against Waldron, who was described by News Ltd chief executive John Hartigan as the architect of the deceptions.

Moodie said: ''It's been a complete betrayal of trust … it's just appalling.''

The scandal blew up yesterday when Sportingbet.com.au suspended betting on who would win this year's wooden spoon when four bets within 10 minutes were placed on the Storm, which at that stage was at 251-1.

The players themselves were not talking yesterday with the team marching off the Visy Park field after a shortened training session to attend a meeting where they were told of the NRL's punishment.

A source inside the club said the players, most of whom sport premiership tattoos from either or both 2007 and 2009, were devastated. Tears and anger supposedly flowed in equal measures.

Hartigan, whose company News Ltd owns the Storm, did not mix words when he spoke about those who were alleged to have been involved.

''Fraud, by its very nature, involves deception.

''And when two people at a very senior level set out to be deceitful they look at ways that they can beat the system, beat the checks and balances that we put in place. And that is what I believe has happened in this case.

''I accept a number of people within the administration are disgraced. I think it's a bit rich to say it spreads throughout the club - it doesn't.

''I've spoken to about five people [suspected of involvement], this forensic inquiry is going to identify possibly more. I think that the other 15 teams should feel mighty tough about it.

''This is not cheating around the edges. This club has had a couple of rats in its ranks and its my intention to try and root them out and try to rebuild a great club.

''We've got a couple of people in our midst who are dishonest,'' Hartigan said. ''We employ 10,000 people in Australia, we don't often come to you and say 'There's a couple of people who are cheats'.

''In this case you've got a couple of people who are cheats that shouldn't bring down the overall club which has some great players, and it remains to be identified whether the players knew about this. That should be determined over the next few weeks.''

Source: The Age



I think its amusing News are pushing blame at players and player managers and ex-staff but they havent mentioned the clubs owners responsibilities or who appointed these so-called "cheaters".

It only says these others (inc POS) are "believed" to be involved.

[redwhiteandbluester]

I fail to see how the bloke responsible for signing young talent would be affected by cheating at the top end of the wage scale but, if he has some part in this, our football club must sack him.

[Rooster_6]

I fail to see how the bloke responsible for signing young talent would be affected by cheating at the top end of the wage scale but, if he has some part in this, our football club must sack him.

Well at the moment it seems the players didn't know about it so I agree I don't see how it'd affect him and I don't see what role he would have to play.

If it turns out that the players did know about the money then it's a totally different story.

[Kingbilly]

Not named officially, its just speculation.

But I would not be surprised if he does get investigated

[Guest]

POS never went after the big name players, surely when he signed guys like Folau & Inglis they wouldn't have been on big money, given that they were yet to play first grade. you would have to think the extra money went to the big guns at the top.

I'm wondering if the recuitment manager has any involvement with contract negotiations of existing players. I suspect that after he gets them to the club his involvement would become fairly minimal. At least i hope so for our sake.

[Guest]

I'll be glad to see the back of O'Sullivan

[Guest]

I think we can all agree that POS held/holds more power than your average recruiter.

It would be hard to believe that he was oblivious to it all.

[Guest]

could reprocusions of this mean that our club would be investigated due to o'sullivan?

[Guest]

I'll be glad to see the back of O'Sullivan

Then you're a moron who'll probably get his wish.

Chook.

[Guest]

well looks like early fears have been confirmed with Peter O'Sullivan tonight being named one as one of the five key members of the Storm management responsible for the salary cap scandal.

surely the Roosters must stand down O'Sullivan until such time an investigation is completed into his involvement in the salary cap rort.

there had always been questions how the Storm managed to sign a large chunk of the most talented youngsters from all over Australia, I guess we now know it was done with the help of payments not recorded in the salary cap.

there is no doubt that the Roosters will now come under extra scrutiny on the back of O'Sullivans ties to the club, hopefully he hasn't been doing anything questionable since changing clubs or we could be next in the firing line.

damn they could take our spoon away from last season!!!!!!

devastated

[Vasco]

could reprocusions of this mean that our club would be investigated due to o'sullivan?

No because all of this was planned by News Ltd to ensure the demise of the Storm. And, Politis is involved in the forming of the "Independent Commission".