This is an old article I wrote for The Big Tip. Written on 16/09/11

The story earlier on in the week was that David Gallop apparently called Melbourne Storm fans terrorists.

“I never really go for that whole passion line. I mean, terrorists are passionate about what they do and, you know, that doesn’t make it right” Gallop said.

“I obviously didn’t enjoy it, but I’m absolutely confident we made the right decision. “They were involved in large systematic cheating and those people who booed me, well, they obviously support the cheating that was going on.”

After many of the things that has happened to the Storm, it begs the question; Do the NRL and NRL Fans really want the Melbourne Storm in the competition?

They were formed by a fusion of the now defunct Perth Reds and the Hunter Mariners from the Super League. The ARL at the time didn’t want a team from the second biggest city in the country, but Super League boss John Ribot pushed for it and when they merged in 1998, the now NRL finally gave in.

Ribot later became CEO of the Storm. Read that again; the ARL didn’t want the Storm in the competition but the Super League pushed for it.

Rugby League fans and former players have said a number of times that “those Mexicans down there don’t need nor deserve a team”. Paraphrasing off course.

If the soon-to-be biggest city in Australia does not have a team, would it still be worthy to have the title of the National Rugby League. It would only be played in 2 states, 1 territory and New Zealand.

Barely a national competition.

I’m going on to a touchy subject now, but what about the Salary Cap Breach. I don’t necessarily disagree with the penalty, but I think some consistency with the penalties would be good.

The Melbourne Storm breached the cap by $3.17 million over 4 years.

St George, Wests Tigers, Gold Coast, Parramatta & Canberra also breached the cap, but it doesn’t really matter about the amount of money. A salary cap breach is a salary cap breach. Why didn’t these clubs get a bigger penalty such as the $187,140 that the Tigers got?

What I’m seeing now is that Melbourne is being used by the NRL to get more money and that they don’t really want the team in the league and that they are under pressure to keep their title as the National Rugby League, as they wouldn’t have it without Melbourne