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Brian Waldron's letter of lies

   * Exclusive by Phil Rothfield
   * From: The Daily Telegraph
   * June 11, 2010 12:00AM

   
THIS is the bombshell letter disgraced former Storm boss Brian Waldron sent to the NRL in 2005, vowing to act with honesty and integrity in all salary cap dealings.

Instead he engineered the most elaborate cheating scandal in Australian sporting history, leading to the club being stripped of two premierships.

Read the letter below

The letter, signed by Waldron, was sent to salary cap auditor Ian Schubert in February 2005, not long after Waldron became chief executive of the club.

"It is a commitment of this administration to work within all rules and regulations of the NRL," Waldron wrote to Schubert in explaining a $120,000 cap breach by the previous administration. "Melbourne Storm is committed to acting with honesty and integrity in its salary cap dealings, a stance fully supported and expected by News Limited executives."

Melbourne-based crisis PR expert Michael Smith, who is acting for Waldron, sent us a text message, saying: "Brian has nothing to say about the letter - it seems to speak for itself. Thanks for the offer."

In the letter, Waldron claimed the Storm would operate $35,000 under the salary cap that season.

Instead, it has now emerged that a year after sending the letter to Schubert, Melbourne Storm was close to $300,000 over the salary cap in 2006.

Now we know that, far from adhering to the lofty principles set out in his letter, Waldron set up a secret second set of books to hide his charade. One player, skipper Cameron Smith, even had three different contracts, though he may not have known this amounted to a breach.

The extent of cheating grew each season as young players like Smith, Billy Slater, Greg Inglis and Cooper Cronk emerged as champions and superstars of the code.

The rorting reached $900,000 in 2009, an estimated $950,000 this year and up to a staggering $1.5 million for 2011.

NRL officials refused to comment last night on the letter leaked to The Daily Telegraph because of the ongoing court action by the Storm's independent directors against the games's administrators.

Investigators working on the Storm scandal have a copy of the letter and hundreds of emails seized from the hard drives on computers at club headquarters.

The investigators are continuing attempts to interview players and their agents.

Maybe the NRL should be trying to find out who is doing the leaking, just like they are investigating the leaking of the penalties and the betting fiasco!!!  The NRL or News Ltd directors - oh, that's rght, they're one and the same!!

Another example of why the players are legitimately concerned about the leaks from the NRL and News Ltd, speak to Deloitte today and the details of your contract (at least the made up details) are on the backpage of the Telegraph tomorrow!!

The NRl said in court this week, they can't  get information to Melbourne because the can't find the documents form April this year.  But the can give a letter from 2005 to a Newslimited owned paper.  There is something really wrong with this whole situation.

How can they still be saying it's $1.5m for next year when another article this week says that it's less than being reported?  I know it says "up to" but you could also say "up to $10m" and still be technically correct.

Scum like Rothfield make their living out of sensationalism. Just like his fellow puppet Kent, he is never held accountable for any of the fabrication he puts forward.

The guy is a clown. He just criticises all the time. At no stage is he wanting to discuss legitimate means of resolving the situation. He just continues to fan the flames of hate from all of the knucklehead Storm haters.

He clearly has zero proof of the actual figures that the Storm are over. The two puppets never bring any proof forward. Just like Kent's claim to have knowledge of "numerous" clubs and players that are breaching the salary cap restriction, it was never backed up with facts. They just want a reputation for being "hard hitting". Truth is, they are morons, respected by nobody.

The funniest thing is this sad, shambolic fiasco is that just before the whole salary cap news broke (and in the immediate days after), Rothchild was producing articles about how he knew a number of teams and players were knowingly rorting the cap.

He provided example after example of cap rort after rort, and claimed that everyone was doing it, and just how easy it was to get away with.

However, since the legal action was announced, the articles coming out of News Limited have been purposely silent on the problem of widespread rorting, and have focused solely on beating up the Storm.

Day after day we're exposed to yet another 'cheating' headline, encouraging fans to boo both players and fans, leaking supposed confidential information from the supposed independent audit, and generally inciting hatred against this club.

It's for this reason I can no longer trust News Limited, nor do I want them involved with this club in any way shape or form.  The club must stand on its own two feet, without the scummy support of this morally bankrupt organisation.  If the club dies, so be it - but it wont be for lack of trying.  It'd rather try and fail, than continue to have a club run by owners whose interest is not in the club's interest but that of selling tabloid newspapers and ratings generated by off-field scandals.

If you need some proof:

Here is Phil's blog in the weeks leading up to the Storm scandal:

http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph ... alary_cap/

And here is Phil's blog in the immediate aftermath when news broke:

http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph ... g_the_cap/

This was an interesting quote from his own lips:  "Is it right that the Storm’s season is over while other cheats are still competing?"

Since the very minute independent Storm directors announced legal action against the NRL (ignoring News Limited's threats), the coverage has been woefully biased against the Storm:

Like this article:
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/nrl/g ... 5869406568

And this:
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/nrl/t ... 5874737316

Who can forget this media stunt to return the trophy:
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/nrl/t ... 5874730253

Storm players labelled as 'fat cats':
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/nrl/s ... 5876205080

There's been no mention of the extent that other clubs are rorting the cap.  is it that hard to imagine an internal memo being sent down from the likes of Hartigan to his hack journos, putting the skids on any other 'rorting is widespread' articles and to focus now on putting pressure on the Storm team, players and current administration and obviously the independent direcotrs.

Make no mistake - News are fighting tooth and nail to preserve their tenuous position in the game.

Hilarious how this article appears the day after the NRL is called out by the Judge.

Now we know that, far from adhering to the lofty principles set out in his letter, Waldron set up a secret second set of books to hide his charade. One player, skipper Cameron Smith, even had three different contracts, though he may not have known this amounted to a breach.




THERE IS NO SECOND SET OF BOOKS...... GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.
I SO HATE THAT REFERENCE IN THAT ARTICLE.

Diehard_Storm wrote: If you need some proof:

Here is Phil's blog in the weeks leading up to the Storm scandal:

http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph ... alary_cap/

And here is Phil's blog in the immediate aftermath when news broke:

http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph ... g_the_cap/

This was an interesting quote from his own lips:  "Is it right that the Storm’s season is over while other cheats are still competing?"

Since the very minute independent Storm directors announced legal action against the NRL (ignoring News Limited's threats), the coverage has been woefully biased against the Storm:

Like this article:
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/nrl/g ... 5869406568

And this:
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/nrl/t ... 5874737316

Who can forget this media stunt to return the trophy:
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/nrl/t ... 5874730253

Storm players labelled as 'fat cats':
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/nrl/s ... 5876205080

There's been no mention of the extent that other clubs are rorting the cap.  is it that hard to imagine an internal memo being sent down from the likes of Hartigan to his hack journos, putting the skids on any other 'rorting is widespread' articles and to focus now on putting pressure on the Storm team, players and current administration and obviously the independent direcotrs.

Make no mistake - News are fighting tooth and nail to preserve their tenuous position in the game.

And Uncle Roopert wants us to pay for such quality journalism! 

News Ltd put the Storm on Notice!! This doesn't look good.

http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,865 ... 66,00.html

News Limited warns of consequences for Storm players who knew of rorts
By David Beniuk
June 11, 2010


Melbourne Storm owners News Limited have hinted that some players were aware that the club was involved in salary cap breaches and warned those with knowledge of the rort would face the consequences.

News spokesman Greg Baxter said the company would take a dim view if any players had knowledge of wrongdoing and hinted that it may be the case.

"We've said all along that we've not seen any evidence that players were involved," Baxter said.

"Based on certain things that (News' auditor) Deloitte has reported to us, we're no longer in a position to say that with the same degree of confidence."

It had been assumed the Storm's stable of superstars had no knowledge of the club's massive salary cap rort, a position News is no longer prepared to take.

Reports have suggested captain Cameron Smith had three different contracts with the club.

The Storm players, minus their State of Origin stars, met Deloitte representatives on Wednesday and were asked to provide copies of their contracts to the auditing firm next week.

The players, though, have been reluctant to do so and their managers have been examining the confidentiality agreement with Deloitte.

Baxter said questions about who knew what could largely be cleared up by the players' cooperation.

"That's an issue that Deloitte are obviously keen to clear up by seeing the documents the players have and talking to them," he said.

But he added News boss John Hartigan's warning to those at the club involved in the breach applied across the board.

"John Hartigan has said that anybody at the club or anybody associated with the club who was either involved in these breaches or was aware that they were taking place and was somehow complicit in them, there would be consequences for those people," Baxter said.

Asked if players who knew their contracts were irregular would be the first culled to help get the club under the cap, he said: "It's really going to depend on what information comes out of the investigation."

The Storm are reportedly $850,000 over the cap this year and will be $1.5 million over in 2011.

Baxter said exact figures were not yet available but the size of the rort had been increasing.

"Until we've got some clarity I think all the numbers are guesswork but, from a trend point of view, certainly the numbers have been growing rather than declining," he said.

He said the club would not be in a position to begin making decisions on which players it will shed until after the investigation is complete.

"Until you get to a point where you're happy with the numbers that you've got ... it's impossible to form a view about how the club will manage it's playing list for next year in a way that brings it back under the cap," he said.

With Baxter now trotting out the "we'll punish players" threat on NRL.com & just quietly contradicting Deloittes statement yesterday that 'it's NOT as much as has been mentioned'

Baxter said exact figures were not yet available but the size of the rort had been increasing.

"Until we've got some clarity I think all the numbers are guesswork but, from a trend point of view, certainly the numbers have been growing rather than declining," he said.

Meanwhile some player managers are getting tired of the delaying tactics.
Storm cull leaves players waiting
Or is it that "other clubs" are using this as an excuse to talk down player salary expectations 

BTW : I particularly like the journalistic use of the word 'CULL'
Won't it be just Oh so sad if the isn't one 

Diehard_Storm wrote: The funniest thing is this sad, shambolic fiasco is that just before the whole salary cap news broke (and in the immediate days after), Rothchild was producing articles about how he knew a number of teams and players were knowingly rorting the cap.

He provided example after example of cap rort after rort, and claimed that everyone was doing it, and just how easy it was to get away with.

However, since the legal action was announced, the articles coming out of News Limited have been purposely silent on the problem of widespread rorting, and have focused solely on beating up the Storm.

Day after day we're exposed to yet another 'cheating' headline, encouraging fans to boo both players and fans, leaking supposed confidential information from the supposed independent audit, and generally inciting hatred against this club.

It's for this reason I can no longer trust News Limited, nor do I want them involved with this club in any way shape or form.  The club must stand on its own two feet, without the scummy support of this morally bankrupt organisation.  If the club dies, so be it - but it wont be for lack of trying.  It'd rather try and fail, than continue to have a club run by owners whose interest is not in the club's interest but that of selling tabloid newspapers and ratings generated by off-field scandals.

Totally agree. There is nothing that I would like to see more than News Ltd. piss off from our great game. They are utterly corrupt, evil & untrustworthy (Fox News channel is also proof of this) - they are an aggressive, malignant cancer that must be removed from rugby league ASAP.

And the scandalously biased articles by blinkered wankers like Rothfield make me want to puke. 

He is nothing but a sad, pathetic, talentless excuse for a journalist, and he can stick his articles up his massively oversized arse!

There needs to be a journalistic cull at News Ltd as well!

Thor19 wrote: There needs to be a journalistic cull at News Ltd as well!

Well....a cull of people MASQUARADING as journalists at News Ltd (but we know what you meant  )