Storm's dossier of salary cap dirt
THE Melbourne Storm's roster will be torn apart next season in order to retain superstar players Greg Inglis, Billy Slater, Cameron Smith and Cooper Cronk.
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THE Melbourne Storm's salary cap dossier of dirt has blown out to $3.2 million worth of illegal payments over the past five seasons, it was revealed today.
And the club's roster is poised to be torn apart in order to accommodate the huge salaries of superstar players Inglis, Slater, Cronk and Smith, who collectively will take up $2.2 million of the Storm's salary cap in 2011.
The move means the named and shamed Victorian NRL club will be forced to field a team of novice "pub" players, mostly rookies with limited experience, around their established stars.
"Looking at it on the basis that the suggestions the top 4 players are going to make up half the salary cap, they're going to finish up with the possibility of having a "pub" team," News Limited chief executive Mr John Hartigan said.
"If you say that the top 4 take up half, thats $2.1m, then you say well they've got to get rid of some players, you work on the basis the next 5 get $250,000, then you finish up with the remainder of your 25 players possibly being all, the most you can pay them is 90,000 dollars."
A total of 13 Melbourne Storm players, seven current and six former, were named as being the recipients of illegal payments outside the salary cap.
The findings were handed down at a press conference at News Limited headquarters in Surry Hills at 11am after a two-month forensic investigation conducted by independent accounting firm Deloitte.
The 13 players named by News Limited chief executive Mr John Hartigan were: Will Chambers, Cooper Cronk, Mick Crocker, Matt Geyer, Ryan Hoffman, Antonio Kaufusi, Greg Inglis, Dallas Johnson, Anthony Quinn, Billy Slater, Cameron Smith, Steve Turner and Brett White.
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Mr Hartigan urged leading figures at the club to "take your medicine" in relation to the hard line penalties imposed on the Storm, but stressed all players were exonerated in relation to any knowledge about cheating the system.
The depths and elaborate methods of salary cap cheating involved players receiving free airfares, cars, plasma TV's, a boat and lucrative third-party payments.
Mr Hartigan said "backdoor payments to players" were mainly made through third-party deals, with three of the club's stars in Greg Inglis, Cameron Smith and Billy Slater signing separate "side letters" of agreement,.
These "side letters" were part of a dual contract system where players signed one contract that was registered with the NRL and another which was the real amount they were being paid.
Slater's side letter was unsigned by the Storm fullback or his agent George Mimis.
All Storm players refused to co-operate with the investigation or be interviewed, adding a further degree of difficulty to the salary cap debacle.
But coach Craig Bellamy was interviewed in full and has been cleared.
"The methods used were deliberately designed to deceive others, cheat the system and avoid detection," Mr Hartigan said.
"There's no alternative but to accept the club cannot play for points this season. These are tough for some people in the Storm family who have done absolutely nothing wrong."
The Deloitte Investigation named the "gang of five" - five Storm officials who had knowledge of the salary cap cheating.
They were "chief rat" Brian Waldron, Matt Hanson, Peter O'Sullivan, Cameron Vale and Paul Gregory.
The illegal third-party payments were primarily made through The Unity Foundation and the Andrew McManus Presents companies and were disguised as "donations" or "consulting fees".
The money was then forwarded to players but disguised and hidden on the Melbourne Storm books. Despite the detailed dossier of evidence, both McManus and the Unity Foundation were cleared of any knowledge of illegal payments outside the salary cap.
The Daily and Sunday Telegraph have previously revealed the depth and methods of the Storm's salary cap rorting included gifting star centre Greg Inglis a boat and $60,000 worth of home renovations for captain Cameron Smith.
When salary cap auditor Ian Schubert initially blew the whistle on Melbourne's systematic cheating last April, the Storm were stripped of two premierships and two minor premierships, banned from accruing any premiership points this season and slapped with a $500,000 fine.
The club initially pledged to accept the NRL's hard line stance but as the weeks wore on and the severity of the punishment set in, four independent Storm directors opted to mount a legal challenge.
The quartet, headed by chairman Dr Rob Moodie, is appealing against the way the NRL made its snap decision, without convening a full meeting of the board.
The relationship between the directors - Moodie, Gerry Ryan, Peter Maher and Petra Fawcett - and the NRL and News has been under increasing pressure since the legal challenge.
Moodie was asked to resign last Tuesday by News chief operating officer Peter Macourt after the report found the club's breaches amounted to $3.2 million from 2006 through to the end of this season.
The four independent directors were sacked from the club today.
