depends if we do the rep games or not

what does everyone think yes to tip rep games or no just nrl games?

Melbourne Storm executives won't be charged with fraud-related offences

Anthony Dowsley From: Herald Sun May 06, 2011

MELBOURNE Storm executives investigated over the salary cap breaches debacle will not be charged with fraud-related offences.

The protracted criminal investigation, which began in April last year, identified some potential offences, but detectives will not lay criminal charges relating to salary cap breaches.

The Storm debacle ended with former Storm executives being investigated.

The five Storm officials who were alleged to have had knowledge of the transactions that resulted in salary cap cheating were identified by News Ltd, owner of the Herald Sun, as chief executive Brian Waldron, Matt Hanson, Peter O'Sullivan, Cameron Vale and Paul Gregory.

Victoria Police say it cannot spare resources to pursue that matter any more.

"After a long and thorough assessment investigators have found no fraud related offences have been committed,'' a Victoria Police statement said.

Investigators say they identified evidence that could be pursued in a criminal probe but they were complex because they occurred outside Victoria.

"We have decided not to pursue this line of enquiry as to do so would be extremely resource intensive and there is a high probability it would not result in any charges being laid,'' the statement said.

"Victoria Police understands other regulatory agencies have some jurisdiction in relation to the salary cap breaches and believe the criminal environment is not the most suitable way to prosecute this matter.''

The Storm scandal rocked Australian sport just over a year ago when it was revealed the club had grossly rorted the NRL salary cap.

Australian sport has never witnessed a more savage response to a cheating scandal.

Mr Waldron was named as the architect behind the rorting that saw the Storm stripped of two premierships, fined $500,000 and banned from earning points for a season.

The NRL revealed that Storm breached the salary cap by $1.7 million over five years by keeping a second set of payment books, hidden from authorities in another room.

Some players were allegedly paid in $15,000 increments with special game day bonuses dressed up as third-party hospitality payments.

At the time, NRL chief executive David Gallop said salary cap breaches would never be tolerated.

"They (Storm) had a long-term system of effectively two sets of books and the elaborate lengths they have gone through to cover this up has been extraordinary,'' he said.

The Victoria Police fraud squad, the Tax Office and the Victorian Office of State Revenue are among the bodies that have investigated the findings of a Deloitte audit of salary cap rorting at the Storm involving cars, flights, gift vouchers and other back-door payments.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/melbourne-storm-executives-wont-be-charged-with-fraud-related-offences/story-e6frf9if-1226051106194

Storm
Titans
Dragons
Sea Eagles

Raiders get $1m for Bruce upgrade

BY NOEL TOWELL, CHIEF ASSEMBLY REPORTER
09 May, 2011 06:52 AM

ACT taxpayers have been slugged more than $1 million for a state-of-the-art revamp to the Canberra Raiders' headquarters.

The ACT Government has justified the expense on the grounds that the Raiders building on Canberra Institute of Technology land in Bruce belongs to the territory and the Raiders are its tenants.

The club, which reaps more than $9 million through its pokies at its six licensed clubs in Canberra, pays $1 a year in rent for the buildings and $160 a week for the oval.

The NRL strugglers will also get $1.44 million in cash from the territory Government in performance fees this year plus payroll tax concessions of up to $500,000 on the big wages paid to its on-field stars.

But the Raiders bosses say that the 20-year arrangement on the headquarters is fair after the club pumped $1.4 million of its own money into Canberra Stadium in the 1990s.

As the team looks to end its woeful run of performances in Sydney tonight against the Manly Sea Eagles, work is being finalised on the new-look home which will feature expanded changing rooms, a new video suite and upgrades and expansion of the administrative offices.

Documents tabled in the Legislative Assembly this week finalised the financial end of the upgrade deal, with $1.14 million transferred to the Canberra Institute of Technology from the Department of Education and Training.

Raiders chief executive Don Furner told The Canberra Times that he believed the deal was a fair reflection of money the club had put into the Canberra Stadium as part of the ill-fated upgrade that ultimately ended Kate Carnell's tenure as chief minister. ''An important thing to point out here is that this is not our asset, it's the Government improving its own asset and this was only one of the reasons why it went through,'' Mr Furner said.

''We wish that we did own it.''

The chief executive said the club now regretted that decision to accept a lease at Bruce instead of building its own headquarters at Braddon Oval.

''The thing that always gets missed in this is that 12 or 14 years ago we put a lot of money, $1.4 million, into the stadium upgrade,'' Mr Furner said. ''What we should have done is take that money and built that asset on our own land at Braddon.''

''But this [lease arrangement] is like an amortisation of that money we put into the stadium.''

A spokeswoman for Sports Minister Andrew Barr defended the spending as standard practice and said that the Raiders undertook the upkeep of their headquarters themselves.

''The Raiders and the Government work in cooperation at the site and, as is normal practice, the Government has upgraded what is an ACT Government asset,'' the spokeswoman said.

''However, the Raiders have also done works to the site at their own expense over the years and pay the upkeep and running costs on the buildings and oval.''

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local/sport/rugby-league/raiders-get-1m-for-bruce-upgrade/2156624.aspx?storypage=0

Report into Melbourne Storm salary cap rorting urges life ban for former CEO Brian Waldron

From: AAP May 11, 2011

THE NRL report into the Melbourne Storm salary cap scandal recommends the club's former chief executive, Brian Waldron, never be allowed to work in rugby league again.

Waldron, his deputy Matt Hanson and two unnamed Storm financial executives should all be barred from any involvement in the game, concludes the explosive report which was released by the NRL today.

It described a "toxic culture of deceit" which saw rorting the league's salary cap as "a bit of a game".

Waldron - described by club owner News Limited, publisher of The Australian Online, chairman and chief executive John Hartigan as the scandal's "chief rat" - as well as Hanson and former chairman Rob Moodie, all knowingly signed false statutory declarations, the report says.

Current Sydney Roosters recruitment manager Peter O'Sullivan, who previously held that role with the Storm, arranged dual contracts used to rort the cap, it adds.

It says unnamed sponsors were complicit in paying extra money to players and should be compelled to make statutory declarations that all payments have been disclosed to the NRL.

Players should have heard "alarm bells" and, for one unnamed player no longer at the club, those alarm bells should have been "deafening", it says.

Four player agents - Alan Gainey, George Mimis, Issac Moses and David Riolo - have already been asked to show cause as to why their accreditation should not be revoked. All four have denied any wrongdoing.

NRL boss David Gallop said his organisation stood vindicated with the findings now in the public arena.

"The report remains a significant watershed for the game and an important warning for anyone who would even think of breaching the salary cap," he said.

"Over 136 pages it details a sophisticated level of dishonesty on the part of a number of people who were the ones ultimately responsible for plunging the club and the game into disruption.

"The fans, the players and those persons at the Storm who were not involved were in fact let down horribly and there can be no doubt from this report that the acts were intentional and premeditated."

The Storm were stripped of two premierships, prizemoney and fined $500,000 as a result of the scandal.

They would also be stripped of the 2010 World Club Challenge title, the NRL said.

"Hopefully this brings closure to that quite extraordinary chapter in the game's history," Gallop said.

"There are two key messages out of that report.

"Firstly that there is a high probability that even the most elaborate scheme to avoid the salary cap will unravel.

"And, secondly, when it does unravel the details of the transactions around that salary cap breach will be put under the spotlight.

"The salary cap is not a game, it's a serious part of the business.

"Every dollar that you hide is potentially another dollar taken away from the game."

The release of the report came the same day it was announced the Wests Tigers are facing a hefty $187,000 fine for a salary cap breach.

Audits of the 2010 season show the Tigers breached the cap by claiming a long-serving player allowance, a claim denied by Tigers officials.

Gold Coast, St George Illawarra, Parramatta and Canberra were also fined smaller amounts for breaches.

AAP

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/sport/report-into-melbourne-storm-salary-cap-rorting-urges-life-ban-for-brian-waldron/story-e6frg7mf-1226054101486

Canterbury-Bankstown v St George Illawarra
Penrith v Brisbane
Melbourne v Canberra
South Sydney v Wests Tigers
North Queensland v Parramatta
Newcastle v Warriors
Cronulla v Sydney Roosters
Gold Coast v Manly

So Bulldogs once again ripped off by the video ref in a game against the Dragons.

Yeah ripped off, but i don't think Canterbury really deserved to win the game anyway... St George controlled the game and that was pretty much it

:lol: Rabbitohs up 26-0 just before HT. Was going to say the Tigers playing like dog shit, but this is even worse than that :lol: It really is great to see them getting spanked so badly.

I wouldn't pick him for origin anyway no matter how well he played.

Time for the Storm 'cheaters' to fess up

Phil Gould
May 15, 2011

It's time we heard from the accused. We have heard enough from the prosecution. The defendants can now state their case.

The Melbourne Storm salary cap drama has been dragging on for more than 12 months now. Predictably, and despite threats at the time, this matter has not gone to court and no one has been charged by police. The matter has been played out in the media's court of public opinion, but only one side of the story is being told.

For me, and for everyone else in rugby league, I believe the hottest interview in town would be a face-to-face honesty session with the sacked Melbourne Storm directors and those former Storm officials who have been branded cheats and fraudsters in this whole affair.

There is no doubt that salary cap rules were broken - and it would appear they were broken to a large extent. We can argue the fairness and effectiveness of these rules at another time, but for the time being no one can deny the rules in place were breached.

Throughout this soap opera my questions have always been: "Who had knowledge of the breaches and how far back did they know? Who else, if anybody, was a party to covering up the discovery of these breaches at any point along the way?"

I think we all deserve answers to these questions.

I want to hear Brian Waldron's side of the story. Former Storm recruitment manager Peter O'Sullivan must surely have a story to tell.

When the Storm salary cap story was first broken, it was broken with a list of penalties already decided. The judge, jury and executioners acted as one - on day one. Allegations of criminal activity and fraud were announced.

A Victoria Police investigation concluded no charges would be laid in relation to the scandal.

Victoria's fraud and extortion squad uncovered the falsification of statutory declarations but said it would find it difficult to lay charges for those offences.

The Victoria Police statement read: ''After a long and thorough assessment, investigators have found no fraud-related offences have been committed.''

The independent Storm directors, Peter Maher, Petra Fawcett and Gerry Ryan, and the chairman, Rob Moodie, were all sacked after News Ltd, the owner of the club, had auditor Deloitte conduct an investigation of the books. This effectively ended any chance the matter would reach the courts and these three men and one woman never got the opportunity to place their accusers in the witness box. Would we see another side to this story if they did?

These four are all highly qualified, well-respected, upstanding citizens. How does it sit with them to have their reputations challenged in this way? Twelve months ago, it was alleged that former chief executives Waldron and Matt Hanson, former chief financial officer Paul Gregory, O'Sullivan and another former chief financial officer, Cameron Vale, were the architects of this deception. We have never heard publicly from any of these people. What is their story? Do they have any information, accusations or confessions they would like to share? If not, why not?

Four player agents - Allan Gainey, George Mimis, Isaac Moses and David Riolo - have been asked to show cause as to why their accreditation should not be revoked.

My first thought here is player agents work for their clients - not the NRL. It is not up to player agents to enforce NRL salary cap rules. It is up to clubs to abide by these restrictions. The player agent just gets the best deal for his client and ensures his client gets paid. Nevertheless, these men have had their reputations challenged publicly by the NRL. So when will they speak up?

Last week the NRL tabled its independent findings on the Storm cap drama. The same people get the blame. There is no hint that anyone other than the usual suspects had any prior knowledge of the cheating. According to this report, as with the News-commissioned Deloitte report, the cover-ups and deception do not extend past the list of names already supplied.

O'Sullivan now works for the Sydney Roosters. The NRL is demanding that the Roosters take action against him, I guess in the form of dismissal. What does O'Sullivan have to say?

If Waldron, O'Sullivan, the player managers, or any of the independent directors were to be injected with truth serum, what would we discover? Are there others who would suffer if any of these people did speak? Are they protecting anyone?

From my perspective, and I believe for all rugby league fans, this story will never be complete until all parties have given evidence.

As it stands, history will record that these people were the only ones who had knowledge of these actions. They will forever be branded as the "rats in the ranks". No one else knew. No one else was involved in the cover-up.

If this is the truth, then this part of the game's great history will be recorded with accuracy.

If it is not the total truth, then it will one day become truth, simply because it is the only version of events on file. Future generations will read of those who cheated the system. Future generations cannot read between the lines.

It's why we need people with courage to speak up from time to time in all sections of society; so that history shows there was debate, dissension, and perhaps another side of the story given air. If history is written only by the victors or those with hidden agendas and vested interests, then we give future generations a false impression.

Your Honour, I know this is only rugby league, and in the overall scheme of things it is only a game, but I believe it is very much in the public interest that the defendants be called to the stand.


Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/rugby-league/league-news/time-for-the-storm-cheaters-to-fess-up-20110514-1enal.html#ixzz1MN52qUEe

Canberra v Canterbury-Bankstown
Wests Tigers v Penrith
Warriors v South Sydney
Sydney Roosters v Newcastle
Parramatta v Cronulla