Cameron Smith on stripped Storm titles | The Matty Johns Podcast 

Not a Storm fan, and whilst they did cheat the cap so have many other teams, main difference, they didn't win a thing, the storm turned no name players into premiership winning players, seriously besides Cronk, Inglis and Folau (all Melbourne system juniors) what player has gone on to be a standout or even play anywhere as good as they did at Melbourne.

Not a Melbourne fan but attest they weren't going out and buy other clubs mega stars and hiding them under the cap, they were paying players that had been their from day dot, Inglis slayer folah cronk Smith Melbourne was their first nrl club, unlike the rosters of present who go out and buy other clubs stars and hide them under the cap

What amazes me most is that all of those players were still loyal to the club itself none chose to leave but were moved on to get under the cap,after all the hard work put in for years to be stripped from the records because your club managers were dirty cheats you think none of them would ever want to play for them again

"Winning minor Premierships are hard to do" well how hard do you think it makes it for the teams who are legally trying to win it!

The fact that the players stayed together is what made the fans stay together and they got 1 title back 2 years later

Where ever there's money, theres corruption.... dont ever forget that...whether its sports, government, education, pharmaceutical......stop being so naive ppl....

Even though they had some great players, they were the dirtiest team of the decade. Wrestling, chicken wing tackles, tackling the back of the knee to the point that they eventually crippled someone. They also cheated the salary cap. This Cameron Smith is not a good example for Rugby League.

The penalties handed to Melbourne were and still are a disgrace. Others have done salary cap breaches, taken performance enhancing drugs and received a slap on the wrist. It’s simply because it was Melbourne…nothing else. My wife and l went to the game the week they were penalised and they beat The Warriors by 40 odd points. They kept at it until the very end of that season. Nothing but admiration for that club and none for Gallop, the creep. South’s supporter.

You can get it from a players point of view, but where they weren't at was the keeping of two books and the planned cheating to have a team a million dollars over the salary cap play in the NRL...

Why was melbourne stripped of the titles, but the Sydney clubs before and after who were caught over the salary cap had no penalties. Sydney clubs were allowed to re negotiate there players salaries to keep them at the club, but Melbourne were not. I am not saying that they did nothing wrong, but why is the penalties so different between Melbourne and the clubs in Sydney

When you think of it, the people who still go on about the Storm salary cap are the same people who think Smithy influences the refs xD

Don’t cheat, then it won’t hurt, stiff

They wilfully and deliberately breached the salary cap from 2006-2010. To make it more convincing they had two seperate sets of books and two sets of contracts. I still think some of the players were in on it, most notably Slater, Smith etc. If you sign a contract for X amount but you were getting extra, wouldn't you say something?.

You cannot tell me Smith or even bellemy didn't have a slight thought that they were cheating. Acting like they didn't know getting a free boat was illegal

But that wasn't all! The Storm were then stripped of their Club Challenge Trophy, and Smith's Man of the Match award was also gone.

Rules are rules storm got screwed by there management

There's a reason why the wooden spoon team doesn't just sign the whole Australian team. It's called a salary cap. When you cheat the cap to the tune of the of Inglis, Slater or Smith's contract, you shouldn't get to keep the trophy. The next year when they were under the cap, Inglis was gone. Melbourne certainly were the better side and it's because if they played by the rules one of their best three wouldn't have been there. Pretty self explanatory.

If the Roosters and Sharks can keep theirs so can we. At least we developed our stars. Have no issues keeping them. Not like we went out and bought a premiership like the rooster a

The nrl should be more organised to make sure it doesn’t get to the stage of a team winning a comp then having to strip them Not a Cameron smith fan at all but none of this is his fault

People are jealousy and have no heart and like seriously it's the past. And now look at what the storm are doing. They are making nrl great again with great players and also setting a future team. And moving forward. It's not about the past it's about what they are doing now. And what they are bringing in the game today. Like great players

I don't care the Players Won thru Grit and Determination...They Won those Premierships and 10 years later We Still Are. I remember when they said The Melbourne Storm in 2010 are now a Washed Up Purple Rag...today they still are the Best of the Best The Mighty Melbourne Storm

G.I is my favourite player and as a souths supporter I wished G.I had the 2 other rings next to his name, but that team melbourne has was illegal as.

It's not the player's or coach's fault for the salary cap breach, it's the club's management. The player's and coaches would only be concerned with their own salary and no one else's. So from the player's and coach's point of view, they won those premierships but still legally had to have the titles stripped away.

Matty loves this stuff, Finch and Molly introduced Mattty of things that will strip you.

This is why I have no respect for the Melbourne Storm. The lack of contrition from the organisation and its players is utterly astonishing. As you can see in Smith's comments there's not a hint of regret, not a semblance of remorse. Even if we go along with the players line that individually they knew nothing, the fact remains that their club secretly spent over 1.7 million above the cap from 2006 to 2010. That money allowed the Storm to retain, at a minimum, 2 star players and a decent core of role players over that time that they otherwise wouldn't have been able to keep. From 2010 to the present I've yet to hear a single apology from anyone at the Storm. The club simply dumped all of the blame on Brian Waldron and contemptuously maintained the fiction that they were somehow victims. And after all of that their captain, as seen here, admits that he and the boys of 2007-2009 still view those Premierships as legitimately theirs..... Gross. Just gross.

They still played em & won them, no BS how much anyone was paid will ever change the score board. The players won those matches, end of.

Too bad so sad. Shame the other clubs that cheat won’t be found out. Yes you Brisbane

Teams that cheat in the way the storm dogs and parra did should have to play the next 5 years with whatever the amount they cheated off their cap. So if the cap is 10 mil and u cheated and paid players 1 mil under the table u have to play for 5 years with a 9 mil cap and your highest paid player has to move on to another club by the following season. Make it so risky and so painful to cheat that no club would ever want to

When you have several sets of books , and Ducati's and speed boats landing in your garage, then you're cheating. Best to just employ the daughter/ dad/ wife/ fiancee etc on a ridiculous wage for 15 hours a week like other clubs. I remember two clubs embroiled in a deal years ago , where the footy players were buying blocks of land in a development in Long Beach, Batemans Bay for WAAY under the price of what the blocks were worth. Story on one is a bunch of players and a manager went there for an overnight stay on a mini bus to look at blocks that were worth $100K at the time, but could buy a block for $20K each. Somebody in the journalism world ( I won't mention her name ) got hold of the story , and it made the papers, but nothing... The Storm didn't cover their tracks and it was like following the crumbs to the empty pack of biscuits under a 5 year old's bed.

The amount of work that the players put in! AND the cheating

Salary Cap... makes guys stronger and run faster?🤔🤣 I still dont get it!!!!

What is meant by "thats just the way it is"? I feel for the MELB players, 100%. However, through no fault of their own, the club cheated... thus the titles are void. They can have the memories and celebrate as much as they like... but they unfortunately cheated. No point if Melbourne think they won it, if no one else does. It isn't recognised by the Rugby League community. Great teams, and great performances, so the whole thing is a shame.... but a spade is a spade surely.

As a parra supporter I genuinely think they still would have won be it at most would have been closer.

in my opinion it should count for a players personal achievements however it shouldnt count for a clubs achievements. if that makes sense

(THERE NEEDS TO BE AN INVESTIGATION!)

All these Sydney Grubs thinking that their clubs are squeaky clean. If Storm had a leagues club I doubt any of this would’ve come to light. Nevertheless, their squad gets gutted 13 great players including GI they still win the minor premiership in 11 then the Grand Final in 12 and 17. Runners up in 16 and 18. Haven’t missed a finals, would’ve played finals anyway had they been a Sydney club in 10. Despite providing the league with most of the nrl coaches and top players they will always be hated. Because they’ve been the best for so long.

"we were there at 6:45am with a million dollars worth of extra talent more than any other team"

Did he sign 2 contracts? If so he must have known it was cheating

If your that good at cheating, why don't you become a ref. That's right,you already are.

PARRAMATTA havent won a premiership since

Mr Cameron Smith after retirement come back to Parliament house sir god bless you sir

For once - the protected species got caught ...

Yes you put in the work like every other team did. But you played manly and parra in 07/09 with an extra top tier player possibly 2 on the field that wouldn't have been there had you not cheated. That gave you a HUGE advantage over the teams you played. And if you don't agree look at 08 you lost 40 nil without yourself playing. Which in retrospect just evened the field in terms of players under the cap. For the people without good memories go back and look at the team the storm had in those years. Take out just one of their top 5 players and the difference would have been significant. Pick one out of Inglis Falou Smith Slater Cronk. losing anyone of these players would make a difference or keep them all but have a crappy low skill 12 players around them and again it makes a big difference. And never forget they knew what was going on they signed 2 contracts they had boats and caravans "given" to them so they cheated with full knowledge. And the argument that they all started at the storm is invalid as every team loses players they trained up and started with them once they can get more money to play elsewhere. The storm got to keep all of them instead of losing 1 or 2 possibly 3 as remember after that players stayed for less to prove some point and win another GF and the NRL changed the rule so it couldn't happen again. Unfortunately for the storm their incredible desire to win has made them outright cheat break rules bend rules introduce unsportsman like maneuvers/tackles into the game. No other club has forced so many rules to be introduced and changed just to keep the game being played in a sportsman like manner . They are a great club with some champions and bellamy is a great coach they have proved many people wrong time and time again but they will always carry a stain from their behavior which is a shame because they probably still would have been successful and won GF without such tactics. But for 07/09 They should hang their heads in shame as they stole other teams hardwork away from them by cheating .

The consequences of cheating I guess. You can blame all the management as much as you like, but the players must have known that all the perks they and their families were getting were not kosher. Personally, I think players who were brought up by a club from their own lower grades, through their own academies and talent nurturing systems to play first grade, should not count as part of the salary cap as for long as they stay with the club.

Cheating is cheating

"That's just the way it is" (I understand your oppiniion but i have zero regard for it.) Mate every other team was running hills as well only you took an unfair advantage that other teams weren't therefore you lost your reward. it's pretty simple minus the bs.

And at that meeting... none of the players didn’t realise the fact they were receiving cash bonuses? They knew in a individual basis in what they got .. cam smith as well

When he signed 2 contracts and got his fucking boat this guys a filthy grub

What a scam----Winners never the less same amount of opposition on each team and they won fair and square---i suppose they gave the trophy to the losers i repeat losers

It was blatant cheating. The Eels and manly were majorly disadvantaged. Eels could have bought players like Thurston or Lockyer with the extra money storm had.

That Gallop is a goose ,he penalized everyone , except the main perpetrators , thank God he went to soccer !!!😢😢😢😢👎👎👎

"they're ours" Interesting comment. Proves that even the "smartest" of players have completely missed the point and the penalty was insufficient. Hand the ring back you cheats!

what an honset grub what he did in 09 and what he did to poor Alex is a dog act

Cheats putting in a lot of work….disguising payments