Off the Wall

As the initial dust settles from the Storm salary cap disgrace - and that is what it clearly is - one question must be addressed by the NRL with urgency.

Isn't it time to have a thorough, independent audit of every NRL club's arrangements with its players, and coaches?

The most troubling aspect of yesterday's revelation is that it has taken four or five years to be uncovered...and even then apparently with the help of a whistleblower in the form of a former employee.

While the Storm board, and News, have admitted to the appalling rorting of the salary cap - and they had little choice in the end - serious questions must be asked about just how effective the administration of the salary cap is, or isn't!

A salary cap only works if it is not the subject of serious rorting and abuse.

The salary cap has been proven to have been seriously rorted by one team - but does it end there?

In today's media the former Storm CEO - who News have fingered for being responsible - alludes to a payment to a former Storm player by the club that poached him. And he alleges there was a $200,000 payment that has not been declared under the salary cap.

That must surely be investigated today.

But it cannot stop there.

If we are to have a salary cap, then its integrity must be ruthlessly enforced. There must be no cover up for the so-called "good of the game".

Perhaps the NRL can consider a penalties amnesty for salary cap breaches that are below a certain figure to help facilitate a total clean out?

What has been generally missed in the coverage of the issue is that David Gallop did not say the rorting amounted to $1,700,000 over five years - he said it was at least that amount!

We need to know how much higher.

And we also need to know whether or not this is just the tip of a large iceberg!