Salary cheats

[ossie85]

Should teams be stripped of premierships if the cheat the salary cap?

I can't think of a decent argument to say that they shouldn't be. There are rules, and you follow them.

Given that, should Essendon's 1993 flag and Carlton's 1995 flag be taken away? The NRL had the balls to do it.

I'm trying to create some serious discussion! This isn't a shot at Essendon or Carlton, I'm not being deliberately antagonistic.

[Justin Bieber]

If they were almost double the cap, I would say so. If they were only over a little (1 or 2 players salary) stripping a premiership would be too harsh in my opinion.

Storm went overboard with 3rd party agreements, so reckon they deserved it. Do the AFL allow 3rd party agreements (advertisement deals for the players, etc)?

Stripping premierships will affect the players even if they were unknowingly overpaid. It would rob them of their hard work. Would rather the board/owners cop the heat rather than the honest and hardworking players.

[Master Q]

Going over the salary cap simply gives you the best team, on paper. That''s it. You can't buy players with the spirit like Hodge. Storm went way over, plus NRL is a different game to the AFL's.

[bunyip]

It is too harsh. The board members who planned the over payments should either have to give the amount overpaid to charity, or go to jail, go directly to jail, do not pass..............

[ossie85]

Seriously? You guys think cheating a little bit is ok? They're intent was to gain an illegal advantage over another team, it isn't very hard to look at your players salaries for the year and add them all up, it would be impossible to accidentally go over it.

Surely it has to be harshly punished

[Justin Bieber]

I don't think its right, but don't punish the innocent players. Punish the board and chairman. They were the guys pulling the strings with players nonethewiser. Why should the players get penalised for doing their jobs? They were asked to play. They have managers for their contracts and business. Maybe the managers should cop the heat and not the players?

[bunyip]

If they were not consulted before hand. If he (the player) new he was getting overpaid before he signed the contract he should be sanctioned like the tribunal. Not all the Melbourne Storm players were overpaid, and they are being punished with the culprits. That is not fair. And lets face it, who cares about the premierships now, people only really care about the next one.

[ossie85]

It does suck for the players - but how is it fair to the players on the opposition teams? Why are we punishing them when they followed the rules? Nathan Buckley, Robert Harvey, Scott West, etc all deserve a fair chance of the flag and that could be taken away from them. The players would still be able to keep any individual accolades, but team accolades they can't keep if the team won them unfairly.

Unlucky, but not unfair.

And bunyip, I don't think you really believe that past premierships don't matter! Would be no point in following a club otherwise.

[bunyip]

Only in the context of once they are won they are won. If you came second to a team and found out 10 years later that they cheated, it wouldn't be the same. You can't just forget the emotions of the day.
This issue is too hard. I'm going to the Carlton thread to console them.