As I said I don't want to revisit the issue, the bulldogs lost one seasons points, during the season, . . .they're a sydney team,. . the Storm lost several premierships, huge fines and no points for the year, and they're not a sydney team,. . . . but easy to see how a sydney sider could see that as fair.
With Gallop and his crew of bean counters constantly at the bronc's the raiders and the storm, not to mention the knights, . it was only a matter fo time before they'd catch one of them doing what everyone was doing, trying to keep the best players they could and keep a team together.
Gallop is a clown and I no longer spend one red cent on Sydney Rugby League ( there will never be an NRL until the grand final is played at one of the contenders grounds. while that devisive **** is there. he is a hater with an agenda of seeing the trophy remain in Sydney and nothign else, and that's why other codes are expanding while League is loosing players and fans .[bgn]
Sorry to shoot holes in your argument TS, but you seem to have missed a couple of points.
When it became clear that the Bulldogs were in breach of the cap, it was very late in the season and deducting the 37 points that they had at that stage left them without even a mathematical chance of making the finals. Melbourne were caught out early which meant that they could still make the finals if all points accrued to that point were deducted.
The Bulldogs were also fined $1,000,000, with $500,000 suspended.
The Bulldogs didn't win any premierships with an illegal team. I'm sure if they had won premierships whilst over the cap, they would have lost them the same as Melbourne did.
IN 1994, Canberra fielded a team that was over the salary cap by a considerable margin and were only fined, not stripped of a premiership. (admittedly, Gallop wasn't in charge then)
In addition to that, after the Bulldogs got caught, Melbourne had to be made an example of.
Personally , I think the salary cap is a restraint of trade and should be gooone, but rules are rules and EVERYONE should abide by them. The clubs you mentioned, I don't believe are singled out any more than others. Both the Bulldogs and the Storm weren't caught out by the NRL, they had rats in the ranks that blew the whistle. For the NRL to claim credit for finding the rorts is totally laughable. Every team in the NRL is quite creative with their salary cap accounting and it is impossible to police it correctly anyway.
The AFL still have their Grand Final at the MCG. It could also be said that Andrew Demetriou, is a hater and wants to keep the AFL trophy in Melbourne. Personally, I have no issue with the Grand Final moving to another state, dependent on which teams are playing. As soon as it was moved from the SCG all tradition was lost in my opinion.
The one thing that I do agree with you on is Gallop. He is gormless, witless and completely out of his depth in the role. The current NRL management are reactionary, not visionary. The sooner the Independent Commission arrives, the better.
