Monday Milestone: 2000s Rugby League – Salary Caps

As we head towards the rugby league finals, the Milestone takes the Delorean forward for the final decade this week, this time focussing on rugby league in the twenty-first century.
The Milestone hopes you have enjoyed the series on historical rugby league.

This Week in History:
2009, October 4
The Melbourne Storm win their second premiership from their fourth consecutive grand final. The following April, this would be stripped from them due to enormous salary cap breaches.

Rugby league has changed.

When the new century dawned, the game was still picking up the pieces in the aftermath of the Super League war, and dealing with merged clubs with the exile of the Pride of the League still burning in the conscience of the game.

Since then, in the information age of the twenty-first century, rugby league has been dominated by off-field scandals. But there has also been some of the more remarkable rugby league ever played. We only need look at the dynasty of the Melbourne Storm.

The club born from the ashes of the Super League war has risen to prominence from the most unlikely city possible – Melbourne. In 2006 the charge began, as the Storm procured the minor premiership, before the breakthrough in 2007. Thumping wins through the finals before a precious premiership was delivered south of the Murray. A the third consecutive minor premiership and grand final appearance followed in 2008, before yet again defeating the fast finishing Parramatta in 2009 to claim the club’s second title in three years. They had made four straight grand finals. They were the best side of the modern age.

But we were all deceived.

Deep in the back rooms of the Melbourne Storm headquarters, something else was taking place. Shady, underhanded deals were occurring. $20,000 gift vouchers were being offered from third-party suppliers. Boats, and cars, and even home renovations were on offers to special players. Invoices were inflated to covertly avoid detection from the NRL.

To hide this, a second set of financial books was created like a truckers log books; one that documented the real information. When the full horror documented in these deceitful transactions was unveiled in April 2010, some of the numbers revealed were astonishing.

Knowingly, and deliberately, the Melbourne Storm had flaunted the cap by some $3.78 million over the previous five seasons. In 2006 they were outside the cap by $303,000. By 2007, the first premiership year, that amount had risen to $457,000. In 2008, they were over by $954,000 and in 2009 and 2010 they were in excess of the legally enforced rules by over a million dollars.

The NRL threw the book at them. Upon discovery of this overt defiance of strictly enforced salary cap regulation, for the first time in history, premierships were stripped. Minor premierships were stripped. The fine was the largest in Australian sporting history. The Storm were unable to accrue premiership points for all of 2010, and unless cuts were made, would be banished from 2011. Truly this was one of the darkest days of rugby league, and certainly not one that could have ever been envisaged in previous generations.

But then, it is proof how much the game has changed. The twenty-first century has highlighted just how much rugby league is no longer park football, and is instead a multi-million dollar business. 

Today, more activity takes place off the field than on it, with television rights, and salary caps, and professional footballers now the way of the game.

And just like it has through the decades, the game we know and love, rugby league will continue to evolve. It’s just a matter of how.

 

Milestone Five: Notable Moments of twenty-first century rugby league

5. 2003 – Penrith lock forward Scott Sattler runs down Todd Byrne in a memorable tackle as the Penrith Panthers upset the more highly fancied Sydney Roosters 13-6 in the Grand Final.

4.  2009 – Parramatta are defeated in the Grand Final after winning seven from their last eight to make the Grand Final, and then defeating the top three teams to qualify. The irony being that the title the Storm won was later stripped.

3. 2002 – Canterbury Bankstown are found to be in breach of the salary cap. After winning seventeen consecutive matches, new NRL CEO David Gallop stripped the Bulldogs of 37 premiership points effectively ousting the club from that season.

2. 2001 – Led by George Piggins, through a string of legal battles, the South Sydney Rabbitohs, after spending two seasons in exile, are readmitted to the NRL for the 2002 season.  The would however, only win five games, and secure three of the next four wooden spoons.

1. 2010 – The Melbourne Storm are revealed to have been $3.78 million outside the salary cap, marking the first time any club has been stripped of premierships, minor premierships, or World Club Challenges.

 

 With thanks to Mark Nolan/Getty Images AsiaPac for the picture

The Monday Milestone is taking a sabbatical after the rugby league season. It will return in a few weeks.