Steve Deane: Sinning Storm - They aren't the only ones at it

Cheats. There's no other word for it.

The Melbourne Storm have achieved all they have in recent years by cheating.

But anyone thinking the stinging punishment handed down to the club is the end of something rather than the beginning would be badly mistaken.

The Storm have most definitely been cheating the system - but does anyone with an interest in league believe they are the only club?

Certainly they aren't the first, as the Bulldogs and Warriors can attest. And they won't be the last. They are merely the latest to be caught.

The fact is that extra-contract payments and benefits are rife in any sport with a salary cap. The temptation to gain an advantage is just too great.

I know of one former NRL player who accepted a contract with a Super League club that was, on the face of it, worth a quarter of the value offered by another club.

Why would anyone do that? And talk to many former pros and they will - off the record - tell you about brown paper bags stuffed full of cash.

No, the Storm aren't the only cheats. But they are cheats with an uncomfortable ownership structure.

Formed out of league's drive to gain a bridgehead in AFL-mad Victoria, the Storm are owned by the media company, News Ltd.

This is the same News Ltd with 50 per cent ownership interest in the NRL.

If reports of a hidden file detailing ex-salary cap payments are true, the question has to be asked - who knew?

Was it the actions of a couple of isolated club officials? Or did the conspiracy to cheat go deeper?

How deep does News Ltd's involvement go? Was the company so desperate to crack the Victoria market that it either turned a blind eye - or even wilfully encouraged its club to cheat in order to guarantee success?

Given the length of time over which the offences occurred, another question is why it took the NRL so long to investigate - and so long to uncover the breaches.

There wouldn't be a league fan out there who hasn't looked at Melbourne's talent-laden squad, its ability to retain that talent and its ability to continue to recruit big names, and wondered how they did all that under the cap.

Now the answer is clear. But it brings only more questions.

The biggest of which is: who else is looking over their shoulder?