NRL: Storm owner rules out appeal

Storm fans are sticking by their embattled club. Photos / Getty Images

The Melbourne Storm will not appeal against the penalties handed to them by the NRL for rorting the salary cap, the club's owner has said.

John Hartigan, CEO of News Ltd, told a press conference this afternoon that the company would not contest the punishment, nor would it support any players who wished to lodge their own appeals.

Last week the club had indicated that it would accept the penalties levelled against them, which included the loss of the 2007 and 2009 NRL premierships and three minor premierships from the 2006, 2007 and 2008 seasons, over NZ$2 million in financial penalties and no competition points to be accrued in 2010.

After the Storm thrashed the Warriors 40-6 at Etihad Stadium on Sunday night, coach Craig Bellamy told reporters that he considered his side to be the rightful winners of the 2007 and 2009 grand finals, where they defeated Manly and Parramatta respectively.

"They can cross our names out of the record books but we know in our hearts we deserve those grand finals," he said.

"This is a penalty that has taken such a deep cut into the club's psyche," club chairman Rob Moodie said in the Melbourne Age. "Obviously coming to terms with this has been really, really tough."

In the Sydney Morning Herald a Storm insider said that the decision to strip the club of two of the three premierships it has earned was a "scandal" in its own right.

"You have to consider that back then most of our superstars were at the beginning of their careers," the official said.

"Melbourne Storm isn't a club that went out and bought its success. Players like Greg Inglis, Cameron Smith and Greg Inglis were all homegrown."

Gallop refutes disgraced CEO's amnesty claim

NRL chief David Gallop has strongly denied ruling out a salary cap amnesty because of concerns that the rorts revealed would damage the game's reputation.

That claim reportedly came from embattled former Melbourne Storm chief executive Brian Waldron, who says he told Gallop in 2007 of widespread salary cap cheating and suggested an amnesty.

"At no stage would I have ever told him that it was not possible to grant an amnesty because of 'concerns about the sport's reputation'," Gallop said today in a statement.

"That is rejected totally and the statement would be at complete odds with the actions we have taken in relation to the enforcement of the salary cap and the penalties that we have enforced.

Gallop noted those included over 50 breaches totalling about NZ$4.58 million prior to the toughest sanctions of them all against Melbourne last week.

Waldron's successor, Matt Hanson, worked desperately to reduce the level at which the club was breaching the cap when he took over leadership at the club in January.

The Daily Telegraph reports that Hanson, who replaced Waldron after he left to take up the CEO position at the Melbourne Rebels Super 15 rugby franchise, trimmed almost $A500,000 from the Storm's 2011 salary budget.

Both Waldron and Hanson resigned from their posts in the wake of the scandal.

- NZ HERALD ONLINE, AAP