Two of Melbourne's better players should be forced to stand down from the side every week.
As heavy as the punishments meted out to the Melbourne Storm for their systematic cheating of the NRL salary cap are, another penalty should be handed down.
They should be forced to play without two of Cameron Smith, Billy Slater, Greg Inglis, Cooper Cronk and Brett White every week for
the rest of the season.
It has been revealed the Storm are cheating the cap by A$700,000 this season, which is somewhere close to the salary of two high-profile players (the game's best legally command about A$400,000 annually).
For that reason, two of their better players should be forced to stand down from the Melbourne side every week.
Although they can't accumulate points this season, they can influence the make-up of the top eight. Is it fair Melbourne can continue to play with a squad so obviously better than it should be?
What if they beat the Warriors in Melbourne today thanks largely to one of their stars and the Warriors miss out on the playoffs by two points, or even points differential?
Smith, Inglis and Slater, in particular, are three of the most celebrated players in the game and, with Cronk and White, have played a total of 46 tests and 46 Origin matches.
Admittedly, they might struggle to remain motivated in 2010 but you can bet they will be fired up today.
There will be few outside Melbourne - and many aligned to rival codes in the Victorian capital - who will shed a tear for the Storm's predicament. It is entirely a situation of their own making.
There will be others, however, who will sleep a little uneasily when they think about their own situation.
Other clubs cheat the system and there are numerous rumours swirling around.
Brian Waldrom, the man fingered with hatching the Storm's plan and who resigned as Melbourne Rebels boss amid the scandal, reportedly replied when asked why he did it, "because everyone does".
The salaries of NRL players are often the subject of speculation and media talk and a simple tally of a playing roster makes it hard to see how some balance the books.
Other NRL clubs are discreetly trying to offload players in the hope of reducing their wage bill and avoiding the scrutiny of NRL auditor Ian Schubert. They know they are rorting the system and are trying to correct their books without drawing attention to themselves.
It can only be hoped that Melbourne's scandal will finally shake clubs out of their arrogance and make them change their ways.
The penalties imposed on the Storm have, hopefully, shown it's just not worth it.
Melbourne will be subjected to considerable scorn and humiliation, not to mention an investigation into how they cheated the system.
It's what the Warriors faced up to in 2006. They made a choice then to clean up their act and now declare, rather proudly, they genuinely operate within the confines of the cap.
But playing by the rules doesn't help the Warriors' title ambitions. It's hard enough for clubs like the Warriors and Raiders to attract players to Auckland or Canberra without adding a couple of cherries into a contract.
Quite often they have to pay over the odds to entice a player here, which limits the amount they have to spend on others.
The Warriors have money to recruit top talent for next season, and they might even train their sights on Melbourne who will have to offload players to fit under the cap next season.
But they will face stiff opposition from rival clubs also looking for a prized scalp. The question is: will that process be a fair one? Or will a few more brown paper bags be used?
NEW ZEALAND FOOTBALL have got it all wrong with their anthem for the World Cup.
They commissioned Australian Idol winner Stan Walker to sing The Feelers' Stand Up and Be Counted. It's a decent song. But it's a cover.
Football anthems are supposed to be written specifically for the side.
In 1982, the All Whites were decked out in their short shorts and comedy moustaches and larked about with Ray Woolf on the training pitch for their song Heading for the Top. It was dreadful, but memorable.
England put out one every World Cup. Many have put the corn into corny but others have been reasonably good, like New Order's World In Motion in 1990 that also featured John Barnes doing a rap.
People look forward to the song's release and bands see it as an honour to be commissioned to write a World Cup song.
NZF have missed a trick with this soulless ditty.
Miles Davis' low-budget One Shot For Glory, released on the eve of last November's World Cup qualifier with Bahrain, might have been ordinary but he at least went to more effort than NZF.
At the very least, NZF could have commissioned Stan Walker to write his own song rather than opt for his glorified karaoke.
