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http://www.theage.com.au/rugby-leagu...0427-tp7l.html

News Limited returns fire at Waldron
WILL BRODIE
April 27, 2010

Former Melbourne Storm CEO Brian Waldron is "disingenuous" with his call for a public inquiry into NRL rorts, a News Ltd spokesman says.

Greg Baxter, director of News Ltd corporate affairs, was speaking on SEN radio this morning in response to a report in The Age in which Mr Waldron said salary cap rorting has been widespread in the NRL for years.

"I think the real issue with Mr Waldron is that if he's got evidence of salary cap rorts at Melbourne Storm or at any other club he should put it on the table as quickly as possible.

"I mean we've already got two investigations underway in relation to the Storm, we'd love to hear from him if he's got anything he'd like to put his name to. I think the issue here is he needs to put up and put up immediately.

"Everybody in Australia that follows rugby league and sport in general wants to know what went on. If he's got information relevant to that, well let's hear it."

Melbourne Storm was stripped of two premierships last Thursday, and fined heavily,amongst many other sanctions, for cheating the NRL salary cap.

"He really needs to step forward today and go and talk to the Victorian fraud squad that have already been alerted to this matter, or he needs to go talk to some other independent authority where he feels that his evidence can be given without prejudicing his interests…

"We're happy if he names people today, either inside or outside our organisation and they will be investigated."

Waldron was CEO at Melbourne Storm from 2004 until last year, and had been appointed CEO of the new Melbourne Rebels rugby union franchise, before resigning on Friday morning. He broke his silence on the Storm debacle with The Age's Andrew Rule and Tom Reilly this morning, vowing to "tell everything I know" to a properly constituted inquiry.

News Limited owns the Melbourne Storm, and has a 25% stake in the NRL. Mr Baxter said his company was acting firmly over the salary cap embarrassment.

"As a company we don't tolerate this sort of behaviour in any of our subsidiaries at all or among any of our employees past or present obviously.

"Now the question is how did it go undetected for so long? We haven't got to the bottom of that. Clearly its unacceptable. What we do know at the moment is that there was a very well orchestrated deception. It was over a long period of time. It involved collusion among a number of people that were in a position to make sure that what they were doing wasn't detected and couldn't be detected by all of the sorts of normal checks and balances that exist in every legitimate company in Australia through accounting and auditing processes. That's very disturbing."

Mr Baxter said News Limited was conducting its own investigation of the matter via accounting firm Deloitte, and was supporting the NRL's inquiry.

Responding to Mr Waldron's claim that other NRL clubs had been guilty of salary cap cheating, Mr Baxter admitted "there could be more, and it could be very damaging, but the fact is, we have to find it, and we have to prosecute those responsible, and then we have to rebuild.

"And it it's a bigger problem than what we're aware of at the moment …if it's a bigger problem at the Storm, we stand ready to accept any additional penalties that may be handed out by the NRL and we stand ready to in fact put in place our own penalties on top of that if we think it's appropriate."

Mr Baxter also conceded the potential for News Limited to be involved in conflicts of interest, given its many roles in rugby league, as club owner, competition part-owner, and media organisation reporting the saga.

"There's no question that there's the potential for a range of conflicts that are very significant in this instance. We will support any process that allows us and others to get to the bottom of what's being going on in the most transparent way."

He said News Limited had unanimously supported the NRL's decision to punish Melbourne.

"In this instance it was important for the management of the NRL to take a decision and then inform the board, including News Limited of what it intended to do. So we weren't consulted about that decision, we were told what that decision would be and we've publicly accepted it.

"These penalties are undoubletdly extremely harsh, they're unprecedented, but from what we know, they're warranted."

Mr Waldron is clearly the focus of much of News Limited's ire.

"He's clearly been involved in the problems since he joined the club, in around 2004. That remarkably escaped any kind of serious serious scrutiny by the Fairfax press this morning. I think that's what most Melbourne fans are interested in – how the hell did this guy get involved in this sort of thing that's ended up robbing the club of two premierships?" Mr Baxter said.

In today's Age article Mr Waldron indicated he warned NRL chief David Gallop three years ago that systemic salary rorting was a "cancer", but Mr Baxter said that all clubs knew that amnestys for cheating were "off the table" following the punishments handed out to the Bulldogs club in 2002, when the Sydney team was stripped of all of its premiership points for salary cap breaches.

Mr Baxter said that he wanted the "full extent" of NRL cheating to become public.

"(We want to) clear those people that have had nothing to do with it who want to help us rebuild the club, and punish those who did."

Source: watoday.com.au