The salary cap in sport is one of the last remnants of Australian egalitarianism, and this is one of the reasons why the Melbourne Storm's behaviour is so offensive. The Storm's salary cap breach is much more than an accounting deception and a betrayal of the other clubs, players and the public. Because it is so systematic, and stretches back so long, it is an offence against one of the values that Australians hold so dear, especially at Anzac Day: a fair go.
As a nation that has historically used sport to punch above its political weight, Australians are acutely aware of the inherent advantages that larger, wealthier countries enjoy in sport. That awareness is expressed through the salary cap: let everyone have a chance based on skill, not money.
Almost alone among the world's great sporting societies, Australian domestic competitions accept the idea that there needs to be a limit to the amount of money clubs can pay to players. The NRL (league), AFL (Aussie Rules) and FFA (football) have accepted and prided themselves on this fairness principle. It allows different clubs to prosper, rewards innovative coaching, and helps the code stay less predictable — all crucial elements to credibility and popularity.
The salary cap is a regulation to keep the playing field as level as possible, a mechanism to promote competition and avoid the problem afflicting sport in Europe and America: in the northern hemisphere a rich businessman or consortium buys a club as a trophy and uses their fortune to buy all the good players, such as Russian oil tycoon Roman Abramovich has done with Chelsea football club in England.
The Storm may weather the financial fallout from this scandal. It may survive and continue within the NRL, although it faces enormous hurdles with a new stadium almost finished and little prospect of filling it for the rest of this season.
The greater problem is the moral stain, which will be exacerbated by the fact that it's in Victoria, the Aussie Rules heartland. It took several years for Melbourne Storm to build up a following; every fan who walks through a turnstile has been weaned away from Australian football. All the more so because Rugby League is a Sydney game, which makes it the game of the enemy to most Victorians.
Those supporters will now reassess what the club actually means to them as Victorians. Will they