The NRL has struck the heaviest blow against cheats in Australian sporting history, throwing not only the book but the whole library at the Melbourne Storm over systemic salary cap rorting.
The NRL, so often maligned over atrocious off-field behaviour by players, meted out the strongest possible retribution against the Melbourne club in an attempt to restore rugby league's seriously tarnished reputation.
After the Storm confessed to cooking the books by keeping two sets of accounts, hiding salary cap breaches of $1.7 million over five years, the NRL shook Australian sport to its foundations by:
* stripping Melbourne of the 2007 and 2009 Premierships;
* stripping the club of three Minor Premierships from 2006-8;
* stripping away all competition points for the entire 2010 season;
* fining the club $500,000;
* and forcing it to return $1.1 million in prize money, to be distributed evenly among the other 15 clubs.
A grim-faced NRL chief executive David Gallop told a news conference in Sydney: "The Storm had a long term system of effectively two sets of books, and the elaborate lengths they have gone through to cover this up has been extraordinary.
"It was through this system that they were able to attract and retain some of the biggest names in rugby league.
"In doing so, they have let down the game, the players and the fans of the Melbourne Storm."
John Hartigan, chairman and chief executive of the Storm's owner News Limited, said the company had referred the matter to police and installed respected rugby league administrator Frank Stanton as caretaker chief executive of the Storm.
"This club has had a couple of rats in its ranks," he said, adding the deception had been concealed from News Ltd.
Neither Manly nor Parramatta, the beaten grand finalists in 2007 and 2009 respectively, will assume the titles, meaning those championships will remain blank in the history books.
Melbourne's deception came eight years after Canterbury, who were on top of the ladder at the time, finished last after having 37 competition points stripped over the same issue of salary cap breaches.
News of Thursday's scandal started seeping out when several bookmakers suspended betting on the NRL wooden spoon following a stream of bets for Melbourne, the fourth-placed defending premiers, to finish last.
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