Yes, whilst unproven they SHOULD be given the benefit of the doubt .
But, I don't buy it .
Well run club stuff too .
With Mark Bouris ( Yellow Brick Road ) and Nicholas Politis ( Multi Millionaire also ) there are SOOO many ways to recruit a player , yet stay under the listed salary cap .
Jealous , YES , i'd find ways to bring in the Best for the Sharks too , IF I had the means .
Doesn't make it right .
Hang on, so your issue is that they’re chairman is a successful businessman? Do you know who our chairman Steve Mace is? Someone feel free to correct me if I’m wrong here but I believe he is founder of Multi Services Solutions Group Aus/NZ. A successful construction consultancy company, and he’s a director for Triple H Tech and Daily Press Group. Fair to say Steve is probably pretty well off cash wise himself.
Is it Nick’s and Mark’s influence on the game? The NRL so desperately wanted our CEO Dino Mezzatesta on the NSW Rugby League board that the Commission went to Court to fight to NSWRL to get him on that board. When they lost, Nick Politis himself along with George Peponis both resigned in protest to Dino’s exclusion and the ARLC withdrew funding to the NSWRL. Fair to say Dino has quite a bit of pull with the higher ups for them to go to that much trouble.
Uncle Nick might be powerful but he’s not the only powerful figure in the game so that argument doesn’t really wash with me.
Not tangible proof that they are cheating the system.
True but you can also say where there is smoke there is fire. I think most people approach the sombrero talk a bit tongue in cheek recognising they are good operators with a lot of influence but if news actually comes out you won't see a lot of shocked reactions.
Look at the info that came out recently about Mundine taking under the table payments from Brisbane when they were a powerhouse. Not a lot of shock around that one I don't think.
Personally I don't think they are cheating as in they probably aren't operating outside of what is allowed but they are probably stretching what is allowed to near breaking point.
For me that smoke has all been born out of innuendo and rivals jealousy. Nothing tangible. Would I be shocked if news came out that they were cheating? Probably not, but that would be the same for any club imo. I’m at the point where nothing would surprise me about this crazy arse game. If they’re stretching the rules to breaking point, so what? I’d like to hope we’re doing that as long as we follow the rules.