How did we buy our premierships exactly?

[1999]

I was just thinking all the other NRL fans are livid with us for buying our premierships and i got to thinkin about established players we signed to buy these trophies.. Turner, Crocker, Newton, Finch etc.. Not bad, but then i got really angry, because i thought about players we didnt buy, players we picked up as kids, players who played for norths, NYC, CC etc. Players who got a shot with us and made thier 1st grade debuts for us, in other words OUR JUNIORS, young players who regardless of where they were born were nurtured from a young age to play 1st grade for us someday, and i came up with this team:

1. Billy Slater (drove over 1000km's to trial with our old feeder club norths devils)
2. Will Chambers (junior union prodigy who signed a storm scholarship as a young kid) 
3. Matt King (sharks junior who got told he would never play 1st grade)
4. Israel Folau (norths colts player who came through our system, born in minto)
5. Joseph Tomane (another union prodigy who signed a storm scholarship as a young kid)
6. Greg Inglis (was spotted at a school carnival as a 15 year old and signed a storm scholarship)
7. Cooper Cronk (played junior rep union and was picked up by norths devils and impressed storm hierarchy)
8. Aiden Tolman (from hat head on the nsw north coast, was signed to captain our inaugural NYC team)
9. Cameron Smith (c) (logan brothers junior who came through the norths devils ranks, broncos told him he would never play 1st grade)
10. Brett White (dragons junior who left at flegg level for the storms lower ranks)
11. Adam Blair (junior kiwi who signed a storm scholarship as a pup)
12. Ryan Hoffman (tigers junior who left at sg ball level for the storms lower ranks)
13. Dallas Johnson (another norths colt who impressed and played through the storms development system) 

14. Sika Manu (junior kiwi who signed a storm scholarship as a kid)
15. Jeremy Smith (born and bred in victoria, was the 1st storm 'junior' to play 1st grade at the club, a late bloomer who made his way back via QLD Cup)
16. Nathan Friend (another QLD product who came to the storm at a young age looking for a chance)
17. Antonio Kaufusi (norths devils regular who got handed a chance by us and was largely unwanted)



Now the interesting thing about this list is every one of them played for us in our "rorting" years of 06-10, all of them debuted for this club and all were signed at a young age and were nurtured through some stage of the STORM development process. That team would never lose a game.

I ask again...

How exactly did we buy our premierships?
we spent extra to keep players we produced here which i know was wrong, but how exactly does paying a player a lil more more make them a better player on the field? We won those Grand Finals through hard work and great recruitment, we didnt buy them!

WE F***ING MADE THIS TEAM NOW THE VULTURES ARE SWOOPING IN FOR A PIECE, F*** OFF!!!!!!!!!!

[1999]

add to that journeymen who NO ONE WANTED like nielsen, tandy, norrie, finch, macdougall.. i just wanna cry, this club did so well and now its all messed up coz of a greedy few 

[Diehard_Storm]

I don't think anyones complained that we 'bought' a premiership.

I think the issue is we've 'alledgedly' retained our stars using illegal means (ie over-spending) when we re-newed their contracts.

There's no excusing the issue that we breached the cap to retain our big stars.

Unfortunately - all the good work that's been done in our recruitment over the years - the discovery of these major stars like Slater, Inglis and Smith, plus the lesser ones that seemingly no-one wanted - has all been tarnished now.

For every Tandy or Norrie we found, they'll just argue we cheated by signing Crocker (rep), Newton (rep), Quinn (rep), Finch (rep) as well as our big name stars.  It matters not if we legitimately signed them or not.  The mud has well and truly stuck and will continue to stick with us for years to come.

The club cheated the rules and as much as I hate to say it - all the good work by so many has been undone by so few.

[Freshy]

You guys forget, Gallop's enforcing the salary cap because he wants all teams to look like the Sharks  ;D

[Mattpoet]

Good team, but Friend actually debuted with the Broncos.

When did Newton play rep?  Don't remember that.  Quinn wasn't an origin player till he played for the storm but, I don't know about city-country.

People are saying that we bought the premierships!  They say that we Assembled the team illegally and that is not true we retained the team illegally and I think that point isn't stressed enough!

[Jacko]

Good team, but Friend actually debuted with the Broncos.

When did Newton play rep?  Don't remember that.  Quinn wasn't an origin player till he played for the storm but, I don't know about city-country.

People are saying that we bought the premierships!  They say that we Assembled the team illegally and that is not true we retained the team illegally and I think that point isn't stressed enough!

Assemble or retained is really just a play on words. I thinks it's time to stop trying to explain away what happenned and trying to suggest that it was all Ok, because no one is buying that.

Now is the time to start building a salary cap compliant team for 2011.

[petawilk]

Good team, but Friend actually debuted with the Broncos.

When did Newton play rep?  Don't remember that.  Quinn wasn't an origin player till he played for the storm but, I don't know about city-country.

People are saying that we bought the premierships!  They say that we Assembled the team illegally and that is not true we retained the team illegally and I think that point isn't stressed enough!

Assemble or retained is really just a play on words. I thinks it's time to stop trying to explain away what happenned and trying to suggest that it was all Ok, because no one is buying that.

Now is the time to start building a salary cap compliant team for 2011.

Yes, we need to look toward 2011, BUT, Gallop's keeps going on and on about how the NRL can't have teams "buying" premierships by bringing in the top players. He says that's why the NRL needs the salary Cap.  The TRUTH is, as 1999 stated, MOST, if not all of our best players were developed, trained, MADE by the Melbourne Storm. ALOT are players who nobody else wanted. 

The SYSTEM is wrong. Yes, it was wrong to cheat the system, but it is also wrong of Gallop to keep going on and on about us buying premierships. Gus Gould pointed out to him over and over that our best players (the big 4) started with the Storm. Until Gallop acknowledges this, the punishments cannot be regarded as fair. WE didn't BUY players, we KEPT our players by 'cheating' an unfair system.

[CaptainKlutz]

Good team, but Friend actually debuted with the Broncos.

When did Newton play rep?  Don't remember that.  Quinn wasn't an origin player till he played for the storm but, I don't know about city-country.

People are saying that we bought the premierships!  They say that we Assembled the team illegally and that is not true we retained the team illegally and I think that point isn't stressed enough!

Absolutly correct.
Turner was way behind Wesser so you can include him as a Storm traind Star.

There is a huge diffence between assembled and retained. This difference needs to be respected by Jurnos and commentators if they want to be reasoned and unbiased.

[CaptainKlutz]

Good team, but Friend actually debuted with the Broncos.

When did Newton play rep?  Don't remember that.  Quinn wasn't an origin player till he played for the storm but, I don't know about city-country.

People are saying that we bought the premierships!  They say that we Assembled the team illegally and that is not true we retained the team illegally and I think that point isn't stressed enough!

Assemble or retained is really just a play on words. I thinks it's time to stop trying to explain away what happenned and trying to suggest that it was all Ok, because no one is buying that.

Now is the time to start building a salary cap compliant team for 2011.

Yes, we need to look toward 2011, BUT, Gallop's keeps going on and on about how the NRL can't have teams "buying" premierships by bringing in the top players. He says that's why the NRL needs the salary Cap.  The TRUTH is, as 1999 stated, MOST, if not all of our best players were developed, trained, MADE by the Melbourne Storm. ALOT are players who nobody else wanted. 

The SYSTEM is wrong. Yes, it was wrong to cheat the system, but it is also wrong of Gallop to keep going on and on about us buying premierships. Gus Gould pointed out to him over and over that our best players (the big 4) started with the Storm. Until Gallop acknowledges this, the punishments cannot be regarded as fair. WE didn't BUY players, we KEPT our players by 'cheating' an unfair system.

In fact the Storm just over paid them.

[LESStar58]

I was just thinking all the other NRL fans are livid with us for buying our premierships and i got to thinkin about established players we signed to buy these trophies.. Turner, Crocker, Newton, Finch etc.. Not bad, but then i got really angry, because i thought about players we didnt buy, players we picked up as kids, players who played for norths, NYC, CC etc. Players who got a shot with us and made thier 1st grade debuts for us, in other words OUR JUNIORS, young players who regardless of where they were born were nurtured from a young age to play 1st grade for us someday, and i came up with this team:

1. Billy Slater (drove over 1000km's to trial with our old feeder club norths devils)
2. Will Chambers (junior union prodigy who signed a storm scholarship as a young kid) 
3. Matt King (sharks junior who got told he would never play 1st grade)
4. Israel Folau (norths colts player who came through our system, born in minto)
5. Joseph Tomane (another union prodigy who signed a storm scholarship as a young kid)
6. Greg Inglis (was spotted at a school carnival as a 15 year old and signed a storm scholarship)
7. Cooper Cronk (played junior rep union and was picked up by norths devils and impressed storm hierarchy)
8. Aiden Tolman (from hat head on the nsw north coast, was signed to captain our inaugural NYC team)
9. Cameron Smith (c) (logan brothers junior who came through the norths devils ranks, broncos told him he would never play 1st grade)
10. Brett White (dragons junior who left at flegg level for the storms lower ranks)
11. Adam Blair (junior kiwi who signed a storm scholarship as a pup)
12. Ryan Hoffman (tigers junior who left at sg ball level for the storms lower ranks)
13. Dallas Johnson (another norths colt who impressed and played through the storms development system) 

14. Sika Manu (junior kiwi who signed a storm scholarship as a kid)
15. Jeremy Smith (born and bred in victoria, was the 1st storm 'junior' to play 1st grade at the club, a late bloomer who made his way back via QLD Cup)
16. Nathan Friend (another QLD product who came to the storm at a young age looking for a chance)
17. Antonio Kaufusi (norths devils regular who got handed a chance by us and was largely unwanted)



Now the interesting thing about this list is every one of them played for us in our "rorting" years of 06-10, all of them debuted for this club and all were signed at a young age and were nurtured through some stage of the STORM development process. That team would never lose a game.

I ask again...

How exactly did we buy our premierships?
we spent extra to keep players we produced here which i know was wrong, but how exactly does paying a player a lil more more make them a better player on the field? We won those Grand Finals through hard work and great recruitment, we didnt buy them!

WE F***ING MADE THIS TEAM NOW THE VULTURES ARE SWOOPING IN FOR A PIECE, F*** OFF!!!!!!!!!!

You may want to add "told he was too small" to DJs dossier.

[stormfan]

Now the interesting thing about this list is every one of them played for us in our "rorting" years of 06-10, all of them debuted for this club and all were signed at a young age and were nurtured through some stage of the STORM development process. That team would never lose a game.

I ask again...

How exactly did we buy our premierships?
we spent extra to keep players we produced here which i know was wrong, but how exactly does paying a player a lil more more make them a better player on the field? We won those Grand Finals through hard work and great recruitment, we didnt buy them!

WE F***ING MADE THIS TEAM NOW THE VULTURES ARE SWOOPING IN FOR A PIECE, F*** OFF!!!!!!!!!!

I 100% totally agree with everything you have said above. I think what "everyone" out there is saying, in response to the argument that we found kids like Inglis etc at a young age, was that all of the other clubs could see that he was a talent, but because we had more money, we could afford to pay him more and therefore, he signed with us.

A very conveninent excuse for them all to use now I think. The truth of the matter is, we had/still have an excellent recruitment & coaching staff who sees things in these young players that no one else does.

Put plain and simply - the other clubs are jealous (stating the obvious, I know, but hey).

[thunder]

Now lets ask Eagle to assemble a similar list with their 2008 list.
This will be fun seeing what that TROLL comes up with! Can't wait!

Keeping in mind: Matt Money Bags Orford, Jamie Lyon, Brent Kite, Steven Bell, Josh Perry, Heath L'estrange, Glenn Hall, Mark Bryant, Michael Robertson - Not a bad cheque book effort!