AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou has backed the NRL for its action against the Melbourne Storm and says his organisation also would strip clubs of premierships for "very serious" salary cap cheating.
Demetriou had only just heard about NRL premiers the Storm being stripped of two titles when he fronted the media on Thursday afternoon.
"Obviously this is a very serious matter - I don't have enough of the detail," Demetriou said.
"As someone who works in a code, I congratulate the NRL for the position they have taken, they must have obviously done some extensive work in the area to come up with these findings.
"All supporters want to know is that the code is being run with the highest integrity and issues that relate to salary cap rorting are issues that all codes take very, very seriously."
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In late 2002, the AFL fined Carlton nearly $1 million and stripped the club of top draft picks for cap breaches.
The draft penalties in particularly were a savage blow for the Blues, who struggled for several years.
"The fact they (NRL) have come out very strongly is something we would applaud, you've seen how we've done that in recent years with Carlton and Melbourne," Demetriou said.
"It sends a strong message to everyone, to all people involved in the industry, that serious matters of this nature will not be tolerated.
"Our rules do provide that we wouldn't hesitate in stripping clubs of points or for that matter, if it was very serious, of stripping a club of a premiership.
"All the clubs are aware that those punishments and those sanctions are available to us."
