News Limited vs News Limited

Today on DailyTelegraph.com.au, a very interesting article. Rugby League's favourite newspaper is calling on all Sydneysiders to "Boo the cheating Storm" when they are in Sydney to play Parramatta this Friday night.

It's the first time the Storm are playing in Sydney since the club had its 2007 and 2009 premierships stripped from them for cheating the salary cap. And the Daily Telegraph is hell-bent on making sure they remember it:

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/nrl/after-42-days-the-storm-should-hand-the-nrl-trophy-back/story-e6frexnr-1225875113015

A "Give back the Trophy" poster will appear in tomorrow's Daily Telegraph which fans are being encouraged to take to the game. Which all sounds like a bit of good fun to poke at the club whose management deceived us all by deliberately hiding player payments to stay at the top.

But the MOST INTERESTING thing of all about this, is that the Daily Telegraph and the Melbourne Storm both have the same employer -News Limited. The media giant has thrown too much money at the Storm to let its recent monumental troubles bring about its demise.

Could the Daily Telegraph's campaign be a stroke of brilliance?

Think of it this way. On a bigger scale, what is one of the greatest rivalries in our fair country, and I am not just talking about sport?

Sydney vs Melbourne. Or Melbourne vs Sydney, depending in which city you live.

The Storm risked alienating and losing their Melbourne support base after their salary cap rorting was outed. Indeed in this very blog I predicted the team would wither and die. But News Limited aren't a successful multinational company for nothing. There's a bunch of smart fellas (and lasses) making things tick along and they've caught a sniff of something that can save the Storm.

There's an undercurrent within the Melbourne public that the severity of the Storm's punishment was a Sydney vs Melbourne thing.

In the weeks following the metering out of the club's punishment, attendance at their new home ground AAMI Park has been in defiance of post-rort predictions. The reason? They want to show up the Sydneysiders that took away their premierships and points. They want to stick their middle finger up at the Sydney-based NRL.

That considered, what better way to get Melburnians behind the Storm? You guessed it. Keep 'em under siege. Demand they return the silverware. Call them cheats at every game they play up here. Never let them forget that us Sydneysiders hate their cheating team.

That will rile them up. And that will get them behind the Storm. And perhaps after all the club with weather its own Storm, and Rugby League will have a future in Victoria yet.