http://wwos.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=1043567

Even though I don't care much for the game, I find these measures to be mind boggling. Talk about cutiing off your nose to spite your face!
They've effectively destroyed rugby as a competitor to the AFL in Melbourne.

lol, I always find it a little hypocritical when a player or team gets caught cheating, in professional sports, and the governing  body acts all amazed and indignant.
They have people whose primary role is developing ways to get around, or subvert the rules, and I think the only ones who don't cheat, are those without the opportunity to do so.
Yet.
Still, the penalties seem harsh, especially for salary cap rules, which have always been a standing joke in all codes of footy, where the only ones who do not breach the cap, are those who do not have enough money to.

i thought the penalty was fair. could not really do much else.
some of the head honchos from the storm should be fired.

the salary cap ensures an even comp. else it would be the rich getting richer.

many people in the storm have ruined that game in melbourne.
many fans will leave it.

I think the penalty is fair, I'm a bulldog supporter it happenned to us three weeks out from the finals in 2002 and we were leading the comp, the NRL took 37 points off us which gave us the wooden spoon, I don't recall too many people who were not Bulldog supporters caring too much.
I'm not even certain we should have a team down there, the money would be better spent with another Qld team as is evident here Victorians either don't understand or don't care for rugby of any nature.

Ammad summed it up pretty well, in that if the intention of Rugby Leagues ruling body was to effectively remove Melbourne from the national competition, then Mission Accomplished.

When AFL teams have been "caught" rorting the salary cap, they have had fines imposed, and draft choice penalties applied, which are very significant penalties for any team to deal with, but at least the fans still have a team to support, albeit one languishing near the bottom for years because of their loss of draft picks.

I wonder if we Victorians can try and sue the NRL for damages in regard to the significant taxpayer investment in building a purpose built arena for the Storm?
260 odd million of our money to help support a code that does not want to include Melbourne seems a poor choice now, and next time the NRL comes asking for support, you can imagine them being shown the door in no uncertain manner.

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Although I don't mind watching rugby on occassions, the game isn't near as visually pleasing to watch as AFL, and I'd place it below soccer if I had an equal choice of the two to watch.
Marketed properly, rugby could still be popular in Victoria, but the admin. have stuffed up big time here. The team is more important than the player, the game is more important than team, and supporters are more important than the game.
By stripping flags, they are alienating the players and the supporters who have already celebrated the flags. The players involved in those flags gave their utmost and got the best out of themselves in order to come out on top. It's ridiculous to now say that it was all for nought because the celebrations of reward for effort have already passed and a new challenge is in place.
I don't know if News Ltd. is bigger than public support. I don't think that it is.
Like Mozz said, there is $260m in taxpayer's money invested into a new stadium within our sporting precinct dedicated mostly to the support of rugby league. We won't be relying on no inept backwater admin. in the future that decides to pull the rug from our feet when the money has already been invested.
Although I'd be supportive if the storm chose the direction of inordinate character, I'd think that to just "flip the bird" would be the better thing to do.

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The Vic. vs NSW thing seems to be that, Sydneysiders like to continually rubbish Melbourne and we don't care.
Generallly, we don't have a lot to say about Sydney except that the harbour is pretty, the olympic games were good, and it's a prick of a place to drive in.

I agree to an extent that the code of sport you enjoy most tends to be what you have been brought up with, and it is also reliant on the conversations that you involve yourself in.
The AFL Sydney team is pretty popular here. You can always expect a bigger crowd at games where Sydney is involved rather than any other interstate team, because Sydney (formerly South Melbourne) has kept some support and has also grown new support with it's innovation of televised football where they had the entire day's advertising to themselves.
If it was rugby, it wouldn't have taken off. In fact at one stage, rugby flooded the channels, but it got little support, and not for a lack of the public trying to get into it. It just didn't take here.


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The draft works very well, also by becoming a part of the public's interest.

I can't see why the NRL would reject the notion of putting a price on the  potential of young players, because it's very important to the future of any club who doesn't rely on buying up the best proven players.
I thnk that a draft is very complimentory to a salary cap, probably even a necessity.

The draft concessions that Carlton has had to endure for overstepping the salary cap were lesson enough for them to play by the rules.
Long time Carlton man John Elliot was shamed as being detrimental to the future of the club and the game, and was shown the door.
Carlton (the politician's team) bought plenty of players over the years in order to give them the best chance to win a flag, but the players still needed to produce and the supporters still needed to support.
I don't think that many people would have thought that retrospectively stripping them of flags would be the right way forward.
The lack of daft choices has given them a couple of spoons to soil their proud history, much to the glee of the anti-establishment supporters like me.
And that's good enough. The objective is to see them playing the game on it's merits, not to form a lynch mob and to oust them from the game completely.
The flags have been and gone, their worth has been devalued enough without removing them from the history books. Nothing will discount the fact that they were the best team at the time, it's just how they come to be there that will be questioned.

Further implications involved with the stripping of flags may include disgruntled punters that bet against the Storm claiming that they are due compensation. That's another kettle of fish that I don't see to have any real merit, but they are probably well within their rights to take it up legally.

A daft can of worms has been opened here regarding a modest salary cap infringement that could have been gotten around by more learned means. Everybody is the loser.ii