Officials to blame, not the players: NRL

The NRL is pointing the finger at officials and not players for the systematic
salary cap rorting which has resulted in Melbourne being stripped of two
premierships and all their competition points in 2010.
NRL chief executive David Gallop said it would be "very difficult for individuals"
to be aware of the breaches, with John Hartigan - the boss of News Limited which
owns the Storm and also half of the NRL - labelling former Melbourne chief executive
Brian Waldron the "architect" of the five-year breach totalling $1.7 million.
Waldron left the Storm earlier this year to take up a role as chief executive of new
Super 15 rugby union franchise Melbourne Rebels, a position Hartigan believes should
now be in question.
"He's the centre and while it's early days, he appears to be the architect of the
whole shooting match," Hartigan said.
"In my view if we're to be honest as a company and as a sport we should look further
than rugby league.
"We don't want people like that in sport in Australia."
Acting Storm chief executive Matt Hanson and another "senior Storm official" have
both been stood down, but the witch hunt has only just begun.
Hartigan says he knows of more people within the Storm organisation who were aware
of the illegal payments, with Gallop admitting the league had been given a helping
hand by a whistleblower no longer with the club.
"There are other people that I believe are involved that are no longer with the club
- our enquires so far have identified five people who knew about the efforts to
conceal these payments," Hartigan said.
"We can only act on these that are directly in our employ now.
"We haven't formed a view about other people within the club so we'll await the
results of that forensic enquiry to see if there are going to be further actions
taken about anyone associated with the club."
But while it may seem difficult to conceive that the players were unaware of two
sets of books being kept, Gallop however moved to distance squad members from the
blame.
"The focus in the cap is on clubs, it's about the remuneration that the player's
paid in total by clubs to players," Gallop said.
"It's not necessarily fair to single out players if they get caught up in something
like this because they aren't aware of what is said in statutory declarations on
behalf of the club to the NRL.
"At the extent of any sort of salary cap breach it's very difficult for individuals
to get a handle on unless they are the people in control of the cap at the club and
that's where our focus is."