Hoops: Can we cut the fairytales, Cam? The Storm cheated and got caught. The End.

[Vlasnik]

Cameron Smith will be remembered as one of the greatest players in history but he’ll never be in danger of winning a popularity contest.
The champion hooker’s refusal to concede the Storm deserved to be stripped of two premierships is as delusional as it is misguided.

Talk about a poor attempt at re-writing history.


Rival clubs have long sneered at the Storm for continuing to celebrate the 2007 and 2009 premierships irrespective of being caught rorting the salary cap to the tune of $3.78 million over five seasons.

It is the height of arrogance.

It’s also a huge part of why the Storm as a club is so widely disliked.

From the replica trophies the club has sported at Storm headquarters to the premierships being listed on commemorative jerseys and t-shirts, none of it means anything.

The reality is the Storm made four consecutive grand finals from 2006 to 2009 with a team running two sets of books - one which was a red manila folder of secret payments to star players kept off the club premises


It doesn’t matter if the players didn’t know. Although there is an argument most people know exactly where every dollar in their pay packet is coming from.

It doesn’t matter if every other club in the NRL supposedly does the same thing.

The club was rorting the system deluxe and got caught. The end.


Neither the 2020 grand final or the last time Melbourne won a premiership in 2017 are likely to appear on too many highlights reels in years to come.

As far as classic grand finals go, with the exception of a Ryan Papenhuyzen flash of genius they were bludgers of games.

The 2012 grand final is probably best remembered for when James Graham went Hannibal Lecter on Billy Slater’s nose.

Taking nothing away from the Storm for these three premierships though.

Cameron Smith's The Storm Within book.Source: Supplied
They earned them through sweat, hard yakka and talent. They were deserved.

But let’s get some context here.

The 2009, 2007 and 2006 grand finals was when we saw some of the Storm’s most entertaining football.

It was also when the club had systematically acquired a hugely unfair advantage over other clubs.

Just because other clubs who’ve been caught rorting the system in recent years – Parramatta and Cronulla - haven’t been punished as hard doesn’t mean you get to keep the Provan Summons trophies.

Take that one up with Todd Greenberg.

It’s certainly not David Gallop’s fault. That’s just shooting the messenger.

Hoops: Can we cut the fairytales, Cam? The Storm cheated and got caught. The End.

Hoops: Can we cut the fairytales, Cam? Storm cheated and got caught. The End.

www.foxsports.com.au

 

[maroondog72]

Great way to publicise the book. fuck off cam

 

[Malla]

Hoops can suck me off but I am loving the way he's going at Smith lol

Cam Smith is such a money hungry dog ****. Held the retirement shit close to his chest all year so he can put this shitty book out to ramp up sales.

Get absolute fucked your bald flog, come home and get rid of the spaghetti strings off ya head dead set ya got nothing insecure flop

 

[Vlasnik]

I'm an avid reader and I appreciate a good book but Cam's autobiography I would use as toilet paper. Having his book released at a time where we are coping with COVID 19 makes sense. Toilet paper is in high demand these days boys

 

[Moedogg]

Does he talk about the secret payments he received to renovate his home? If you're not going to talk about the controversial stuff than there's no point writing the book.... nobody cares about you and Cronks relationship....

 

[Vlasnik]

Caption this......



My SHITe Doesn't Stink!!!

 

[Psycho Doggie]

Held the retirement shit close to his chest all year so he can put this shitty book out to ramp up sales.

Came here to point out exactly the same thing.

 

[Malla]

Came here to point out exactly the same thing.

Everything is calculated from this flog. The media attention and negativity if great for him because he knows it will lead to more book sales. Any publicity is good publicity. If Hooper had a brain (he doesnt) he would not even write about this shit and just ignore it.

 

[TABOO]

The thing that makes me laugh is that all the Melbourne fans that defend their premierships say we only hate them because they are in Melbourne but if they were a Sydney club, we wouldn't criticise them so much.

I couldn't give a flying fuck where they are from, I hate them because they are cheats and they are arrogant and delusional enough to deny their cheating ways. They can all fuck off the lot of them starting with C Smith.

 

[Psycho Doggie]

Everything is calculated from this flog. The media attention and negativity if great for him because he knows it will lead to more book sales. Any publicity is good publicity. If Hooper had a brain (he doesnt) he would not even write about this shit and just ignore it.

He milks everything he can on the field, should anyone be surprised that he does so off the field as well?

 

[Nate DAWG]

I can't stand the Storm or Cam Smith and believe that Melboune deserved to have their premierships stripped. But....i can never understand how Cronulla kept their premiership for doing the same thing.

 

[Malla]

I can't stand the Storm or Cam Smith and believe that Melboune deserved to have their premierships stripped. But....i can never understand how Cronulla kept their premiership for doing the same thing.

Because different CEO and management of NRL I would say. Gallop was hard on that shit at the time.. clearly the stance softened when Greenburg took over and when 2016 wasn't stripped from Sharks thats when Storm starting harping on about their premierships, got the replica trophies made and those shirts including this titles.

Pretty fucking sooky

 

[Alan79]

If there was a salary cap on arrogance it would be broken by having Smith and Bellamy at the club. Back when they had Slater it was even worse. I don't hate them for the success they've had. I hate them for the arrogance. I hate them for the continuous invention of tackling techniques that risk injuring opposition players. Smith personally took out my scumbag of the century award with his behaviour around the Alex Mckinnon injury.

I hope Smith's biography cost him more to print than it earns him. Good player, but an absolute **** of a human.

 

[KambahOne]

Caption this......

View attachment 18561

My SHITe Doesn't Stink!!!

400 games, 3 premierships, 8 SOO Series, 1 World Cup, 2 Contracts.

 

[MatstaDogg]

One of the biggest flogs to play the game. Hate the prick with a passion, and i don't hate many people.

 

[TwinTurbo]

2 Contracts.

That's the true story right there, he signed 2 contracts one that was registered by the NRL, another that was kept secret, off sight and that's the one that he was paid under. The process is the player ands the club sign the contract then send it to the NRL, they then enforce it and send the signed copy back to the player and the club. In the book he says he was paid monthly, 1/12th of the contract value, so it wasn't hard for him to to work out that he was being paid more than his NRL registered contract.

They were ~$3.75m over the Cap, for 3 years, that's $1.25m per year, which was enough back then to pay for Cronk, Inglis and half of Hoffman. Take those 3 players out and I doubt anyone would say they would have won the comp.

Go Dogs

 

[Cujo]

One of the biggest flogs to play the game. Hate the prick with a passion, and i don't hate many people.

Yep 100% GRUB!

 

[BELMORE]

I can't stand the Storm or Cam Smith and believe that Melboune deserved to have their premierships stripped. But....i can never understand how Cronulla kept their premiership for doing the same thing.

Mate as todd Greenberg said: the sharks were over the cap the season before, and during the season of their premiership, and the season after their premiership, but on grand final day, they were not over the cap...........

 

[BELMORE]

That's the true story right there, he signed 2 contracts one that was registered by the NRL, another that was kept secret, off sight and that's the one that he was paid under. The process is the player ands the club sign the contract then send it to the NRL, they then enforce it and send the signed copy back to the player and the club. In the book he says he was paid monthly, 1/12th of the contract value, so it wasn't hard for him to to work out that he was being paid more than his NRL registered contract.

They were ~$3.75m over the Cap, for 3 years, that's $1.25m per year, which was enough back then to pay for Cronk, Inglis and half of Hoffman. Take those 3 players out and I doubt anyone would say they would have won the comp.

Go Dogs

I think it would of been two separate payments. 1 on the books and the dodgy one. This bloke would of known they were cheating for sure.

 

[c-b-b]

Who's going to buy this book in reality. Some die hard Qld supporters, a couple of hundred Melbourne storm supporters and maybe some people interested in rugby league in general.

Give it a few weeks and it'll be in the $5 bin at Big W.