Graham Lowe: Taniwha least of fears

Back in the tumultuous days when Tainui were majority owners of the Warriors, their charismatic fix-it man Jeff Green brought in what he described as the tribe's ghost busters to change the ill-fortune that seemed to be dogging the club.

In a much-publicised move, they straightened the tongue on the face of the club's jersey logo and seemed satisfied then that the spirits would be sufficiently pleased to grant the club good fortune.

From the perspective of a soon-to-be-fired minor shareholder, it didn't appear to be the most logical or successful strategy the football club had engaged in its troubled history.

But with the benefit of hindsight it now seems to have been an insignificant interlude in the ongoing drama that seems to continually surround the Auckland-based club.

In fact, as a result of this week's events, Warriors supporters could be excused for thinking there's a giant taniwha lurking in the Ericsson swamp, intent on devouring the reputations of anyone associated with the outfit.

The truth is, on what we are hearing about the management of the Warriors, the taniwha may well be redundant.

Here's a few points to consider relating to the awful news of potential salary cap discrepancies surrounding the Warriors this week.

1. Salary cap discrepancies is a Remuera-phrase for the good old Otahuhu word cheating. And as the old saying goes: cheats, in sport and in life, (should) never prosper. I know how it feels from bitter personal experience, when the salary cap-rorting Canberra Raiders beat my Manly side in the 1991 major semifinal and went on to win the premiership and A$1 million ($1.12 million).

They were subsequently found to have exceeded the cap by A$1 million but were fined only A$500,000 and kept the premiership trophy.

The day that happened I can honestly say was one of the few times I have hated the game.

2. Beware the expert with no history, but by his own measure, all the answers. Mick Watson made much of forgetting the past and creating a new future. Seems that new future may have been based on his own set of rules.

3. It's a short step from disloyalty to cheating. The lack of loyalty the Watson-regime showed to contracted Warriors players when it took over was shameful. Why is anyone therefore surprised by this week's salary cap revelations?

4. Regarding the above, one man doesn't run a professional football club. So it beggars belief that Maurice Kidd and John Hart should only have found out about the salary cap goings-on (according to the club's official press statement) during preparations for a standard pre-season follow-up audit by the NRL.

Kidd was chairman and Hart a director of Cullen Sport. And it was Kidd who admitted, in the infamous IRB conference call videotape, that Cullen Sport ran the Warriors on a day-to-day basis.

That Hart was appointed to the new management team only late last year is irrelevant.

5. The player contracts and payments schedule is the MVP (Most Important Paper) in any professional footy club. Knowing what you are paying, to whom and for how long is the engine room of the club. Are we seriously expected to believe this was information held to the chests of only one or two management people and kept from the board?

6. Warriors supporters should prepare for the worst. Word coming out of Australia is that this breach is of Canterbury Bulldogs proportions. (The Bulldogs were stripped of 37 points and fined A$500,000 for their cap rort in 2002.) If the NRL acts as tough as it is posturing, the Warriors' contention that they will remain a force in the 2006 season and beyond is fantasy. During the week the NRL warned it had the power to suspend or de-register players if it found indisputable evidence they had knowingly taken part in the Warriors' rorting of the salary cap.

Would you buy a ticket for the first three or four games knowing the result before you got to the ground?

If you remember when the Bulldogs were stripped of their points - which gave the Warriors their saloon passage into the Grand Final - little sympathy was given to the Dogs from this side of the Tasman. If rumours are to be believed and the NRL takes 6 points from them before they even start, don't expect any sympathy in Sydney.

7. The players are innocent pawns in this game. Yeah right. Players aren't stupid, particularly when it comes to how much they're being paid and where their money is coming from. As soon as a payment is made from or through an unusual or out of the ordinary channel, the players antennae should tell him (if his manager/agent hasn't already) that this is off-the-books stuff.

8. The big question arising from all this: Has Eric Watson got the appetite to see it through? With other pressing investment issues at the moment, the last thing he needs is a football club in the colonies costing him big money while their season is going backwards big-time before a ball is kicked. Will he hold 'em or fold 'em?

The shame of all this is that the fantastic work done by Brian McClennan and his Kiwis in the Tri-Series late last year is now consigned to the backwater of history. While McClennan's light continues to shine brightly, this week has cast a real gloom once again over New Zealand Rugby League.

Perhaps it's time to give Bluey the Kangaroo Killer a taiaha and send him into the Ericsson swamp to once-and-for-all kill that troublesome taniwha.