The Melbourne Storm’s salary cap breaches in 2010 shook the NRL and Australian sport to its foundations. But what happened to the players left to fend for themselves after leaving the club?
In 2010, the Melbourne Storm were found guilty of breaching the NRL’s salary cap for several years, during which they concealed payments and exceeded the cap by a significant amount.
As a result, the team faced severe sanctions, including the loss of their 2007 and 2009 premierships and the minor premierships of 2006, 2007 and 2008.
They were also fined $1.7 million and had to repay $1.1 million in prize money.
In addition to that, the team was banned from accumulating premiership points for the remainder of the 2010 season, effectively nullifying its competitive position for that year.
This scandal had a profound impact on the club’s reputation and required a complete restructuring of its financial operations to comply with league regulations.
While the club showed a united front in the face of the scandal and widespread allegations of cheating, players like Ben Cross were forced to deal with it in isolation.
Ben Cross played for the Melbourne Storm during the 2006 and 2007 seasons that have been erased from the history books.
Cross was at the club for the 2006 grand final loss to the Brisbane Broncos and the 2007 title win over the Manly Sea Eagles, but has since left to play for Newcastle.
The way she found out the news was almost as devastating as the scandal itself.
“I had just dropped my wife off at the airport and was flying back to Newcastle and I got a phone call from a journalist in Newcastle telling me everything that had happened,” Cross told the Andy Raymond Unfiltered Podcast.
‘There were a couple of players who had left the club, Garret Crossman was in England, Matty King was in England and I was at Newcastle.
“But most of the players in the team who had played were still in Melbourne. So I was there doing all this on my own. Going through all that on my own in Newcastle.”
While Storm coach Craig Bellamy appeared before the media in Melbourne with his players behind him, Cross was greeted with questions and cameras without any support.
He revealed that there were even confrontational questions asked by members of the Knights staff.
“Then I arrive at Newcastle training and I find loads of journalists and photographers and stuff like that,” he said.
‘I’m being asked questions within my organisation. Wait a minute, I know a few things about what happens in football clubs, so don’t throw stones at me.
“So you had to go back through all those questions and interviews all the time and just give the information you knew at the time as well.”
While the Melbourne Storm formed a united front at home, players who had left the club were left to fend for themselves.
Salary cap breaches attracted the largest penalties ever imposed in Australian sport.
Cross said he had to deal with being called a cheater without any communication or support from Storm.
“I didn’t get any information from Melbourne Storm. They were hunkered down and had to do their own thing.
‘It wasn’t until I had a conversation with Craig maybe a couple of years after that, not too long after that, that he probably really realised the impact he had on us players who were outside of Melbourne at the time.
‘I remember playing a game at Cronulla that year and getting sworn at and stuff like that.
“I thought: What am I going to do about it? Why the fuck are you doing this to me?”
Despite all that adversity, Cross has learned to put the past behind him, but he also told players to accept that they hadn’t won those titles fairly.
“We knew how hard we were working. It was very hard work,” he said.
‘Those things that happened outside of our control, we had no control over them.
‘Like most players at most NRL clubs, there are a lot of things that go on behind closed doors that they have no control over.
‘It was kind of like, just worrying a little bit about yourself and taking stock before you think about throwing stones at others.
“No, it doesn’t burn me out. We’re back to working hard, I remember all the conditioning sessions we did and how hard we played.
‘Put an asterisk next to it or delete it, it doesn’t really bother me.
‘It’s the memories and the bonds we created with those people at that time that let us know we had made it.
‘I think there are still some aspirations to fight and recover those titles.
“And since then, fewer penalties have been imposed for more violations. Imagine that.”
