Grand Final weekend

That grand final was a poor endorsement for the game.

The cap cheats versus the drug cheats. If I had to pick a team I wanted to win it would be Melbourne simply because they're not on their pat when it comes to systematically cheating the cap (one quarter of the current NRL licence holders have been found to have engaged in it,) and most teams by definition appear to breach the cap year in, year out.

Systemic doping is another kettle of fish. If it is to be believed, it may have sped up Jon Mannah's cancer and the resulting punishment from the anti-doping agencies and NRL was woeful, serving three weeks the year they won the wooden spoon and meant nothing while Essendon copped bans exceeding a year. I would hope the Mannah family are pursuing that.

Cronulla are a stain on the game. Whored themselves out and took handouts from every corner of the game (including walking out on the ARL to go to SL,) and then go on to engage in PED programmes, get flogged with a wet lettuce leaf and are rewarded with a premiership. No wonder people are disillusioned with the game, especially fans of clubs that appear to compete on the level.
 
The Bulldogs, Storm and Sharks all won premierships 2 years after massive scandals that brought the game into disrepute. Wonderful isn't it. As bad as the Storm might be, their cheating never resulted in any deaths being linked to it, unlike the Sharks.

The worst thing about the result is how everyone is patting the Sharks on the back, purely because its their first premiership. So what? Doesn't take away from the grubby tactics it took for them to get where they did.
 
@Cultured Bogan said:
That grand final was a poor endorsement for the game.

The cap cheats versus the drug cheats. If I had to pick a team I wanted to win it would be Melbourne simply because they're not on their pat when it comes to systematically cheating the cap (one quarter of the current NRL licence holders have been found to have engaged in it,) and most teams by definition appear to breach the cap year in, year out.

Systemic doping is another kettle of fish. If it is to be believed, it may have sped up Jon Mannah's cancer and the resulting punishment from the anti-doping agencies and NRL was woeful, serving three weeks the year they won the wooden spoon and meant nothing while Essendon copped bans exceeding a year. I would hope the Mannah family are pursuing that.

Cronulla are a stain on the game. Whored themselves out and took handouts from every corner of the game (including walking out on the ARL to go to SL,) and then go on to engage in PED programmes, get flogged with a wet lettuce leaf and are rewarded with a premiership. No wonder people are disillusioned with the game, especially fans of clubs that appear to compete on the level.

Couldn't have said it better CB

How even their supporters can still support them …... if I found my clubs actions caused physical harm to our players they'd never see another dollar of mine
 
@Cultured Bogan said:
That grand final was a poor endorsement for the game.

The cap cheats versus the drug cheats. If I had to pick a team I wanted to win it would be Melbourne simply because they're not on their pat when it comes to systematically cheating the cap (one quarter of the current NRL licence holders have been found to have engaged in it,) and most teams by definition appear to breach the cap year in, year out.

Systemic doping is another kettle of fish. If it is to be believed, it may have sped up Jon Mannah's cancer and the resulting punishment from the anti-doping agencies and NRL was woeful, serving three weeks the year they won the wooden spoon and meant nothing while Essendon copped bans exceeding a year. I would hope the Mannah family are pursuing that.

Cronulla are a stain on the game. Whored themselves out and took handouts from every corner of the game (including walking out on the ARL to go to SL,) and then go on to engage in PED programmes, get flogged with a wet lettuce leaf and are rewarded with a premiership. No wonder people are disillusioned with the game, especially fans of clubs that appear to compete on the level.

Well said CB.
Two teams vying for the greatest prize on offer in our game who have both disgustingly broke the rules severely and both got let off very lightly IMO. Players and officials from both clubs should have been wiped from the NRL for life.
Throw in the doctored premierships for various clubs in 2010, 2013 and 2014, the whole Parramatta disgrace , Mitchell Pearce being allowed to flee the country before being subjected to a drug test, Russell Packer, spouse-beaters Barba, Tetavano, Bird, Inglis ,Lui and plenty of others being allowed to still play in the comp…......the NRL is a massive cesspit of questionable human beings.
Instead of Arthur Summons and Norm Provan on our premiership trophy we probably should have 2 rubbish bins, it would be apt in this day and age of modern NRL.
(No disrespect intended for Summons and Provan, they are fantastic ambassadors and icons of RL, unlike many in the NRL these days).
 
@GNR4LIFE said:
The Bulldogs, Storm and Sharks all won premierships 2 years after massive scandals that brought the game into disrepute. Wonderful isn't it. Doesn't take away from the grubby tactics it took for them to get where they did.

Would love to hear the NRL come out and state that fact (admit to their limp-wristed punishments at least) when they next come out beating their chests about having X amount of different clubs win the premiership each year since the NRL formed in 1998.
 
@Fade To Black said:
@Cultured Bogan said:
That grand final was a poor endorsement for the game.

The cap cheats versus the drug cheats. If I had to pick a team I wanted to win it would be Melbourne simply because they're not on their pat when it comes to systematically cheating the cap (one quarter of the current NRL licence holders have been found to have engaged in it,) and most teams by definition appear to breach the cap year in, year out.

Systemic doping is another kettle of fish. If it is to be believed, it may have sped up Jon Mannah's cancer and the resulting punishment from the anti-doping agencies and NRL was woeful, serving three weeks the year they won the wooden spoon and meant nothing while Essendon copped bans exceeding a year. I would hope the Mannah family are pursuing that.

Cronulla are a stain on the game. Whored themselves out and took handouts from every corner of the game (including walking out on the ARL to go to SL,) and then go on to engage in PED programmes, get flogged with a wet lettuce leaf and are rewarded with a premiership. No wonder people are disillusioned with the game, especially fans of clubs that appear to compete on the level.

Well said CB.
Two teams vying for the greatest prize on offer in our game who have both disgustingly broke the rules severely and both got let off very lightly IMO. Players and officials from both clubs should have been wiped from the NRL for life.
Throw in the doctored premierships for various clubs in 2010, 2013 and 2014, the whole Parramatta disgrace , Mitchell Pearce being allowed to flee the country before being subjected to a drug test, Russell Packer, spouse-beaters Barba, Tetavano, Bird, Inglis ,Lui and plenty of others being allowed to still play in the comp…......the NRL is a massive cesspit of questionable human beings.
Instead of Arthur Summons and Norm Provan on our premiership trophy we probably should have 2 rubbish bins, it would be apt in this day and age of modern NRL.
(No disrespect intended for Summons and Provan, they are fantastic ambassadors and icons of RL, unlike many in the NRL these days).

You continue assuming that players new every detail of the salary cap discretions and each others salaries FTB

I decided to ask a few ex players I know about signing contracts and got some interesting answers

Don't know if you know any ex players , but players who play together rarely discuss their own salaries , it creates too many messy situations with players egos getting dinted and massive jealousy issues

Possibly discuss whether they got what they wanted or thought they were worth but never actual figures

They might discuss what a player from another club is worth , but that's a completely separate issue

From one ex player I spoke to about this , he said many players get confused with contracts especially once they start adding in TPA's

I'm not trying to excuse the Storm at all , the officials were definitely involved in the worse salary cap rorting of any club

But when you start thinking that many of the big names from the Storm were probably only just starting to get TPA's when the dramas started

But to suggest that players would know exactly what their rosters $$ value was is ludicrous and then think that the club could then trust this information to any of the players (who might lose form , get dropped ,get sacked for any indiscretions) to keep this all a secret is even more ludicrous
 
Melbourne and Canterbury were somewhat hammered compared to Parramatta and the Warriors. Parra and NZ got off lightly compared to the rest.
 
The Storm had premierships stripped and had to play an entire season without competing for points. Couldn't have been much harsher.
 
@Cultured Bogan said:
Melbourne and Canterbury were somewhat hammered compared to Parramatta and the Warriors. Parra and NZ got off lightly compared to the rest.

The Sharks got off the lightest of all considering what they did. The whole organisation should have been banned for a couple of years. It only takes a few rotten apples in high places to rort a salary cap but systematic doping involves all the players and coaching staff who all have their own individual responsibility.
 
@Nelson said:
@Cultured Bogan said:
Melbourne and Canterbury were somewhat hammered compared to Parramatta and the Warriors. Parra and NZ got off lightly compared to the rest.

The Sharks got off the lightest of all considering what they did. The whole organisation should have been banned for a couple of years. It only takes a few rotten apples in high places to rort a salary cap but systematic doping involves all the players and coaching staff who all have their own individual responsibility.

I totally agree. Flanno copped a year and Elkin got run out of the game. Everyone else got off scot free.

Players took 3 weeks in a season that meant nothing.

Total farce. If it is proven Mannah's death was accelerated by the doping I hope his family sue the club into oblivion.
 
@Nelson said:
@Cultured Bogan said:
Melbourne and Canterbury were somewhat hammered compared to Parramatta and the Warriors. Parra and NZ got off lightly compared to the rest.

The Sharks got off the lightest of all considering what they did. The whole organisation should have been banned for a couple of years. It only takes a few rotten apples in high places to rort a salary cap but systematic doping involves all the players and coaching staff who all have their own individual responsibility.

Its funny , I saw one of the Melbourne players interviewed recently and he said the first player who arrives at the gym sees Craig Bellamy as does the last player to leave the gym

One wonder how many other club coaches can say that ??
 
@innsaneink said:
Who did you ask happy?

Off the top of my head Campion ,Hetherington ,Southern and Hohn , can't remember if there were others

The only reason I started asking as I was curious after a heated debate on here in the past

One didn't play under TPA's but all said they didn't discuss their contracts with other players in actual $$ terms
 
@happy tiger said:
@Nelson said:
@Cultured Bogan said:
Melbourne and Canterbury were somewhat hammered compared to Parramatta and the Warriors. Parra and NZ got off lightly compared to the rest.

The Sharks got off the lightest of all considering what they did. The whole organisation should have been banned for a couple of years. It only takes a few rotten apples in high places to rort a salary cap but systematic doping involves all the players and coaching staff who all have their own individual responsibility.

Its funny , I saw one of the Melbourne players interviewed recently and he said the first player who arrives at the gym sees Craig Bellamy as does the last player to leave the gym

One wonder how many other club coaches can say that ??

Bellamy is around the club supposedly 24/7 yet you continue to bury your head in the sand and protest that he knew NOTHING about blokes signing 2 contracts to keep them at his club? Good one!
 
@GNR4LIFE said:
The Storm had premierships stripped and had to play an entire season without competing for points. Couldn't have been much harsher.

The Storm were able to play on GF day and enjoy all the trimmings of "winning" a GF, any punishment after that is irrelevant IMO. If it comes out in the future that WT 2005 premiership was tainted with salary cap dodginess and we were stripped of that premiership would you really care? I know it wouldn't take back the awesome time I had as a supporter for the back end of that season.
And everybody that I have heard interviewed from the Storm who were involved in those dodgy, cheating "victories" all insist to a man that they honestly believe they won those premierships legitimately- that is the thing thank really gives me the s#%#s about that vermin sporting organization. They have never admitted any wrongdoing as a club.
The Bulldogs weren't allowed to have the "satisfaction" of being a cheating club wrongfully standing on the dias holding up a tainted premiership cup.
 
@Fade To Black said:
@happy tiger said:
@Nelson said:
@Cultured Bogan said:
Melbourne and Canterbury were somewhat hammered compared to Parramatta and the Warriors. Parra and NZ got off lightly compared to the rest.

The Sharks got off the lightest of all considering what they did. The whole organisation should have been banned for a couple of years. It only takes a few rotten apples in high places to rort a salary cap but systematic doping involves all the players and coaching staff who all have their own individual responsibility.

Its funny , I saw one of the Melbourne players interviewed recently and he said the first player who arrives at the gym sees Craig Bellamy as does the last player to leave the gym
\
\
One wonder how many other club coaches can say that ??

Bellamy is around the club supposedly 24/7 yet you continue to bury your head in the sand and protest that he knew NOTHING about blokes signing 2 contracts to keep them at his club? Good one!

Being around the gym and the office are two completely different scenarios FTB

Then again seeing that Bellamy spent many years working under Bennett , he may have well been involved in recruitment playing good cop bad cop with the players and CEO's

But then again you bring up secrets , don't know about you , but if I wanted to keep a secret I'd tell no one unless I had to

You have the Storm officials telling everyone bar Ian Schubert and David Gallop :roll
 
@Fade To Black said:
@GNR4LIFE said:
The Storm had premierships stripped and had to play an entire season without competing for points. Couldn't have been much harsher.

The Storm were able to play on GF day and enjoy all the trimmings of "winning" a GF, any punishment after that is irrelevant IMO. If it comes out in the future that WT 2005 premiership was tainted with salary cap dodginess and we were stripped of that premiership would you really care? I know it wouldn't take back the awesome time I had as a supporter for the back end of that season.
And everybody that I have heard interviewed from the Storm who were involved in those dodgy, cheating "victories" all insist to a man that they honestly believe they won those premierships legitimately- that is the thing thank really gives me the s#%#s about that vermin sporting organization. They have never admitted any wrongdoing as a club.
The Bulldogs weren't allowed to have the "satisfaction" of being a cheating club wrongfully standing on the dias holding up a tainted premiership cup.

They Bulldogs did however allow their players to all take pay cuts to keep the same side together and win the premiership two years later. It was rubbish they were allowed to do that.

Like I said it was a lesser of two evils, but Melbourne aren't the only club to cheat the cap systematically, Cronulla systematically doped, possibly caused the death of one of their players and got SFA in the way of punishment.
 
@happy tiger said:
@innsaneink said:
Who did you ask happy?

Off the top of my head Campion ,Hetherington ,Southern and Hohn , can't remember if there were others

The only reason I started asking as I was curious after a heated debate on here in the past

One didn't play under TPA's but all said they didn't discuss their contracts with other players in actual $$ terms

Hmmm yeah, not surprised those four were confused :brick:
Id guess Blocker, Gavin Miller & Spud Carroll would be a bit confused as well
 

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