If the stats are correct they did not cheat by much.$1.7 million over 5 yrs is $340,000 divided by say 20 players is just $17,000 per player p.a.

The pressure was on the Storm to perform since News LTD would sell far more papers upon their success.The Murdoch empire wanted the game to go national.So in reality there would have been enormous pressures on them to perform.

You cannot however replace tribal loyalities of decades with money and hype.People still have some self respect which Ruppert has yet to realise.

Life is wonderful, is it not?
In a thread about a known crime against a sport, much is already known, some who have zero information or understanding make wrong comments.
Evidence, NEVER, will be shown that every player got extra cash or goods.
It like every high profile sport is about bribing star players, to keep them in your team, 7 players are to be investigated.
4 are known to have shared $400.000 in over contract cash or goods so far this year.
A further $300.000 was to be spent, this year.
Fundamentalist Christian, gets involved further distancing his view of God from reality, and reminding us [well inferring] the answer is in praying, not preying.
And understand those of you who are in even the smallest sporting club, not every one knows every thing.
I have both played and contributed in cash to a club and seen it all gone over night, criminals hide truth.
Yesterday left me feeling I may take a bash at predicting the future.
Fans filled the stadium, players gave their all.
A determination to stay alive was born yesterday.
Maybe it has been planned but Gallop will let all fines stand and restore points.
Cynical? no realistic what great front page out of the ashes.
hey ,how can anyone doubt the guilt in general of this scandal however?

That's all well and good, Belly.

>>Fans filled the stadium, players gave their all.
A determination to stay alive was born yesterday.<<

It is fundamentally a sporting contest. And as you know, when you run out onto the park, you have only one objective in mind.

But tell me, how do you feel about the players who have been cheated out of their moment of glory? Do you have any sympathy for them at all?

Suze, you wrote:

<< They deserve everything they get.>>

But who’s ‘they’?

Is it the whole team and thousands of people associated with it or is it just the guilty people?

Apparently according to Gallop and the NRL it is the former. This is the great travesty of justice here. This is an enormous violation of the basic principle of fairness. It is a huge breach of trust perpetrated by the governing body that has been entrusted with the duty to be fair to all that it wields power or influence over.

Is it not absolutely essential that the NRL, or any authority with the power to mete out penalties, strive to target the guilty people and to minimise the effect on innocent people? How utterly basic is this principle?

I think that Premier Brumby or maybe PM Rudd needs to come out and say that the NRL has fundamentally stuffed up here with the most basic principle of law enforcement and needs to set all penalties aside ASAP, do a thorough analysis and then APPROPRIATELY allocate penalties.

While I live for my game and am not a fan of storm, few would think they got robbed by them in grand finals.
Yes they had an advantage, and it was by some one cheating , but I know of no player who would want to win by another's disqualification that way.
At most, about half , probably much less knew about this, fans never did.
Give Melbourne a break, give my game air, give back the points.

Ludwig, from what I have read and heard on TV, as well as from some of the people actually involved, I believe that all the players and management of Storm must have been aware of the money some of the 'stars' were getting.

They were all probably quite happy to turn a blind eye to the cheating aspect of it all in order to pursue the winning points, to win games and premierships.

By all the 'thousands' you say have been unfairly punished, I assume you mean the other staff and the fans? They should all certainly be upset with the Storm management and players who have now lost two premierships and any points for the games played this season because they cheated!

At the end of the day, this team still consists of all the top players they recruited with illegal pay cheques, at the expense of other rugby teams.
Thus, the Storm are a team gathered together by cheating and therefore should not be allowed to score on a level playing field like the other teams.
It all seems fair to me.