Contributed by: Brett Northey Thursday, April 22 2010 @ 11:21 pm ACST
We don't normally have commentary on Australia's National Rugby League (NRL), but current events are worth a mention. Despite the rising presence of a third code, soccer, the NRL is still clearly the AFL's biggest rival in terms of sponsorship dollars, media coverage and television ratings.
So it came as quite a shock to the sporting landscape today as the NRL announced its Victorian beach head, the Melbourne Storm, had been caught cheating the salary cap and had been penalised in an unprecedented way. Let me emphasise, this is Rugby League, not Australian (Rules) Football. For the Storm having been found to have systematically rorted the system for 5 years, the NRL has:
The ramifications are enormous. The premierships will now be officially considered not awarded in 2007 and 2009. In an AFL context, it would be like Geelong being stripped of their titles from the past 3 years. Or if Sydney or Brisbane, AFL footholds in traditionally less strong Aussie Rules markets, were stripped of their titles and consigned to almost certainly spend time at the bottom of the ladder. Questions as yet unanswered: