Broncos play ball as salary probe begins

Six-time premier Brisbane has thrown open its books to the National Rugby League following the disclosure of salary cap irregularities during the past three seasons.

The Broncos swung into damage control yesterday with chief executive Paul White admitting the amount involved during seasons 2012-13-14 was around $450,000.

However White stressed the allegations were “unsubstantiated” at this time.

He refused be drawn into a connection between the salary cap irregularities and the shock departure on Tuesday of former player and long-serving administrator Andrew Gee.

If the NRL investigations confirm any salary cap rorting, Brisbane could be heavily fined and even

NRL:

stripped of premiership points for this season.

Individual action could also be taken against anyone found guilty of any salary cap breaches.

White alerted the NRL to the irregularities last week after an unnamed player allegedly told the club he was not receiving his third party payments.

It is unclear whether this triggered Brisbane to go over its books and discover other payment irregularities. White said he had assured NRL chief executive Dave Smith and chief operating officer Jim Doyle the club would fully co-operate with any investigation and provide total access to its entire organisation, including its staff and private reports.

“We’re very confident and comfortable in that process and we look forward to working with them in their independent investigation to bring this to a conclu- sion,” White told a media scrum at Red Hill. “From our club’s point of view I want to place on the record that we received some information from an external source regarding possible salary cap irregularities.

“We initiated an investigation and passed that information on to the NRL in full, who will now conduct a full independent investigation with our full cooperation and we look forward to bringing that to a timely resolution and being in a position to report on final outcomes. I don’t want to speak specifics, but I can tell you the period of time we’re going to look to investigate relates to 2012, 2013 and 2014.”

Melbourne Storm was stripped of two premierships and all their points in 2010 after being found guilty of running two sets of books and rorting the salary cap by $3.78 million between 2006 and 2009.