Storm scandal: Nikau 'disturbed' by revelations

Former New Zealand test star and current selector Tawera Nikau said he was "shocked and disturbed" by the salary cap scandal which has rocked the Melbourne Storm to its foundations.

The NRL revealed yesterday that it had found the Storm cheated on its salary cap rules and retained top players through elaborate clandestine funding schemes.

The team has been stripped of two championships and penalised NZ$2 million, partly in fines and partly to pay back prize money.

"Obviously this is a very, very serious breach," Nikau told RadioLIVE.

"Everybody has to play by the same rules."

Nikau, who joined the Storm for their inaugural 1998 season and who was a pivotal member of the club's premiership-winning side in 1999, said that the scandal could provide the sport with a catalyst for change.

He pointed to the possibility of a new governing body as an instrument of change for the embattled code, and said that players deserved to be paid more for what he felt was the toughest contact sport in the world.

"I feel sorry for the players," he said. "They should be duly compensated for their services."

However Nikau suggested money would be the last thing on the players' minds at the moment.

"The players won't be feeling very good at all," he said.

"Don't worry about money. It's the hard yakka, the hard graft. It's playing together and training as a team."

"They're virtually playing for nothing on Sunday but pride in the Melbourne Storm jumper, because none of these points are worth anything for them," he said.

Meanwhile experts are predicting the salary cap scandal could lead to the demise of the Storm.

Speaking on Channel Nine's Footy Show, commentator and two-time premiership coach Phil Gould said the Storm has been dealt a further blow in its bid to survive in the AFL heartland of Victoria.

"They are still struggling to get a foothold in Melbourne down there," he said.

"They have now got a new stadium and with this news it just undoes all the good work that has been done down there over the past decade.

"I don't think they can they can survive. I really think this could end up being, when it all comes out, the death of Melbourne."

The scandal is still in its early days and more people in the organisation will likely be implicated, says former Warriors and Kiwis coach Frank Endacott.

Endacott, who now works as a player manager and recruiter, is currently visiting Melbourne and will watch the Warriors-Storm game on Sunday.

"We've landed straight into it ... It's unbelievable, really. It's the biggest scandal that has hit our sport. I'm absolutely shocked like all members of rugby league are," he said.

Administrators and even players' managers could be involved in the cheating, he said.

"Once you're caught you're caught and there's no getting away with it. I think there will be more implications to come. It's just early days yet."

He said the players would not have been involved.

"[Administrators] knew what they were doing, obviously, but I think the players are the innocent party once again.

"That's the unfortunate thing. The stigma sticks to the whole club."

It would be hard for the players to play through the scandal and respond in their upcoming games, he said.

"It's going to be interesting, the approach the Melbourne players are going to take. Every game they win they don't get the points. From the players' point of view it would be absolutely demoralising.

"But the players here are a resilient bunch anyway - they could band together and win as many games as they can just to prove the point."

Meanwhile, the Mad Butcher Peter Leich, arguably New Zealand's biggest league fan, said the scandal was "gut wrenching".

"As a league fan I'm gutted, mate. You feel betrayed. You know, it's a shock to the system," Mr Leich said.

That the Storm had breached the salary cap was not entirely surprising, given all the high profile players they had retained, he said.

For the NRL to get hard evidence to back up suspicions would have been extremely difficult, he said.

The game was in a difficult situation where a salary cap was necessary to keep the league fair but players needed to be offered enough money to them in it, he said.

"I'm a fan of 40 years ... who's never looked to get anything out of it and I can tell you it's disappointing. But the game is a great game and we will have to get over this."

- additional reporting from Radio Australia