Judgement Day

[Ice]

Great so News Ltd fires the 4 people that were standing up for us and saying that the punishments were wrong, then replaces them with people that work for News Ltd. Let's just face it - Melbourne Storm has NO independent directors - it's all News Ltd.
Which is bad.
Because they own half of the NRL, and if we say something that's true but goes against the NRL, News Ltd will fire whoever said it.
Because they're in charge now.
Completely.

Exactly. That's the worst possible scenario that could've come out of this. Like i said earlier, what News says goes now and there's nothing that anybody can do about it and i think that'll now include who stays and who goes on the playing roster.

[mka]

this stinks of a newslimited cover up. They have agendas and are happy to have got rid of the board.
I dont buy  the herald sun any more because of the biased new limited articles. Rebecca wilson is hartigans girl friend and also a good friend of gallop. Gee i wonder if she makes independant reports.
This is so one sided it is a kjoke and now that the independent directors are gone what hope do we have. I will go and follow my local afl club and enjoy that and move on from league. It is a joke

[BigG]

Foxsports news just said that Gallop has said they may be able to take pay cuts so that Storm can field a competitive team.

What I don't understand is if, as Hartigan says and the breaches amount to fraud then surely all the contracts would be illegal and have to be torn up anyway thus enabling Storm to draw up all new contracts.

The individual contrats would not be illegal, its the reporting (signing of stat dec's etc) of all the contracts put together that was incorrect so could be illegal, also the fabricating of invoicing to cover 3rd party payments.

[1999]

I'm just glad its all over, lets cut some players for 2011, drop the court case and cop this on the chin and get back to footy! I like watching rugby league, not soapies.

[tugga]

I'm just glad its all over, lets cut some players for 2011, drop the court case and cop this on the chin and get back to footy! I like watching rugby league, not soapies.

this

[tugga]

Hey tugga - get *lima lima lima duck*. I'm not taking any punishment. We WILL get our Premierships back!! The NRL didn't follow the rules when dishing out the punishments. The court will find in our favour and then the Premierships come back to where they rightly belong!!!

troll

[absentee]

Anyone else laugh when Hartigan said "I share your pain" near the end?  Please.

[Freshy]

Well done News you tossers. Let's hope the court case continues.

[stormfan]

Anyone else laugh when Hartigan said "I share your pain" near the end?  Please.

That's the bit I loved the best! it's like please dont' insult our intelligence by pretending you actually give a shit about the club, players, staff, coach, supporters etc.

[superstar5677]

Foxsports news just said that Gallop has said they may be able to take pay cuts so that Storm can field a competitive team.

What I don't understand is if, as Hartigan says and the breaches amount to fraud then surely all the contracts would be illegal and have to be torn up anyway thus enabling Storm to draw up all new contracts.

Well, Gallop's back flipped. He was saying that there was no way in hell that we'd be able to get pay cuts - and our players are the most willing to stay at the club. They'd do anything.
And while tearing up the contracts would be expensive and time consuming - it would mean that we can start over, and that's happened with other clubs that have been found over the cap.
Also, if we start ripping up contracts now and sending players overseas, there is the likelihood that Gallop will raise the salary cap again, and it'll turn out that we could have kept some of our players.

[BigG]

I agree with Jelly about that fact that we (and by that I mean a few people) did wrong and that the punishment - albeit harsh - was somewhat appropriate.  
I don't agree that the case (in some form) should be dropped however because those people are the only ones actually looking after the best interests of Melbourne Storm it seems.  The way things were handled in April by the NRL was suspect to say the least - there had to have been some collusion with News and their Storm reps without our independent members knowledge.

I do not agree with News Ltd sacking the four independent board members!  John Hartigan has made some insinuations about the board members and players that are disgusting!  I am so angry at that company and that man!  News are the ones who RUN the club and all this slipped by them over five years so now they are blaming everyone for their own incompetence!  
News Ltds monopoly with the NRL must end!!

Words cannot describe how I feel right now.

As much as you hate News Ltd, they are the ones proping up the Storm to a tune of 14m, so why should they not call the shots?? Need to look at this with your head and not your heart, as hard as it is.

[Ice]

[


As much as you hate News Ltd, they are the ones proping up the Storm to a tune of 14m, so why should they not call the shots?? Need to look at this with your head and not your heart, as hard as it is.

and we're meant to be grateful just because of that? It looks like News' spin had the desired affect on some people. If they were the only ones willing to prop us up then i'd show a bit of grattitude but the fact is they aren't. They had a consortium of influential Melbourne business men who actually love the club and were more than willing to "prop up the club" even after this whole debacle and they didn't sell. I tell you what, the day they do sell the club and we're rid of this cancer for good then and only then will i be grateful to News Limited. Until then, in my book they can go and get fcked.

[Woody]

[


As much as you hate News Ltd, they are the ones proping up the Storm to a tune of 14m, so why should they not call the shots?? Need to look at this with your head and not your heart, as hard as it is.

and we're meant to be grateful just because of that? It looks like News' spin had the desired affect on some people. If they were the only ones willing to prop us up then i'd show a bit of grattitude but the fact is they aren't. They had a consortium of influential Melbourne business men who actually love the club and were more than willing to "prop up the club" even after this whole debacle and they didn't sell. I tell you what, the day they do sell the club and we're rid of this cancer for good then and only then will i be grateful to News Limited. Until then, in my book they can go and get fcked.

[petawilk]

I'm just glad its all over, lets cut some players for 2011, drop the court case and cop this on the chin and get back to footy! I like watching rugby league, not soapies.

this

Agree...  only because what the hell can we do about it? News unfortunately own the Storm. We are members and or supporters, but they own it. I'd rather take the punishment, look forward to next year, than for News to close us down. 

They just SUCK.  Arseholes. 

[Tigger]

I agree with Jelly about that fact that we (and by that I mean a few people) did wrong and that the punishment - albeit harsh - was somewhat appropriate.  
I don't agree that the case (in some form) should be dropped however because those people are the only ones actually looking after the best interests of Melbourne Storm it seems.  The way things were handled in April by the NRL was suspect to say the least - there had to have been some collusion with News and their Storm reps without our independent members knowledge.

I do not agree with News Ltd sacking the four independent board members!  John Hartigan has made some insinuations about the board members and players that are disgusting!  I am so angry at that company and that man!  News are the ones who RUN the club and all this slipped by them over five years so now they are blaming everyone for their own incompetence!  
News Ltds monopoly with the NRL must end!!

Words cannot describe how I feel right now.

As much as you hate News Ltd, they are the ones proping up the Storm to a tune of 14m, so why should they not call the shots?? Need to look at this with your head and not your heart, as hard as it is.

Oh believe me I am using my head with this situation as it's taken so long to get to this point.
News are the ones running the club as you've stated - why then have they not (with their internal and independent audits) noticed over the past FIVE years that something was up?  Hartigan & his lackey stated that they did not see anything untoward in payments of a few hundred thousand dollars a year to charity - oh please!  Would you not wonder why Storm (even with the vast ethnicity of our players) would be giving out cash to a charity who works for mainly indigenous Australians?  Wouldn't you also question "consultation" payments from that foundation?  Why would a charity pay our players as consultants??

News have a conflict of interest with Storm & the NRL and Hartigan did not answer certain questions put to him well at all.  Stating that News would not sell Storm to Gerry Ryan (or anyone) until things were sorted completely......ANY company of repute, anywhere in the world, would be happy to get rid of a business that costs them so much to run with no return unless there were something else in it for them.

The sooner our club is out of News Ltds control the better.  Then we will have totally INDEPENDENT management of our club!