Bellamy at the Dally M coach of the year speech said he thought the Storm deserved those wins that they were stripped off.
That's hardly an endorsement for taking your medicine and moving on.
Sorry daniel that's not what he said. The word fair was never ever mentioned.
He was asked despite the NRL striping the Storm of the premierships if he felt his teams were still the premiers
He answered that depsite what the record books say they still felt they won those flags because of the all the hard work they players, staff & coaches put in, they went out an played to the best of their ability and won the game. He certainly wasn't bitter and at no stage mentioned the word fair. He was simply asked a question by the host on the night. A question that everyone knew was provocative. Lets be honest it doesn't matter how he answered the media were going to jump on it
Let me finish by saying that I don't condone what the Storm did and to a point I agree with the penalities handed out. The NRL had made it clear years before that you cheat the salary cap then the punishment will be swift and severe, just ask the Bulldogs who heading towards GF glory and a few weeks out from the finals had all the points striped off them. It's a pity the AFL didn't have the same courage about taking away premierships when the Blues cheated
However, dont lose sight of the fact that the cheating was done in the front office not by the players or the coach but the enitre Club (rightly) was punished. With the most innocent people being the fans who were the ones who lost the most.. their crime in this was simply following a club
What is most the most pathetic part of this whole mess is the fact that other parties who were most likely involved in this sordid mees and are who are yet to be bought to account are the player managers. 12 months after the event they are still being investigated. That's in indictment on the NRL IMHO
