Former Melbourne Storm director Peter Maher admits he and his fellow former independent board members may have to abandon their legal challenge of the NRL's heavy penalties for the club's salary-cap cheating.
Speaking hours after News Limited had claimed the club's rorting of the cap stretched to as much as $3.17 million over the five years from 2006, and dumped Maher and the other three independent directors, Maher was highly critical of the Storm's owner.
According to Maher, he, now former chairman Rob Moodie, Gerry Ryan and Petra Fawcett were considering their options following their removal from the board and would be able to make a decision on their action within two to three days following advice from their legal advisers.
"We've obviously asked our legal representation this morning for advice on that matter," Maher said on Thursday afternoon.
"As to where that will go in the future quite frankly in our own hearts we know what we would love to see happen, whether that's possible or not that's something that we'd really have to take some legal advice before we comment on that."
"We persevered with the court case for one obvious reason: the support base wants that."
"The support base is adamant, the one thing they want out of all this is to find out exactly what our history was, they don't want this lopsided transaction."
"And even today we've been inundated again with very upset supporters who are so disappointed this court action may not continue."
"Whether it does or it does not I'm not in a position to answer that at this stage."
Maher was scathing of News Limited and the NRL's handling of the matter since the Storm's cap cheating was made public in late April, suggesting an independent commission needs to be established to run the game.
The four former directors and all players both current and past refused to participate in the Deloitte investigation for fear that News Limited and the NRL's assurances of privacy and confidentiality could not be trusted.
Maher also believes that such an independent commission should have appointed an auditor to investigate the club's books rather than allowing News Limited - which not only owns the Storm but also a 50 percent stake in the NRL - to set up such a probe.
"If there's one thing that this exercise has shown more than anything else is that the sooner this code gets an independent commission the better because to compare it to the other major code here in Melbourne (the AFL), it's just embarrassing, it seriously is, and that can't continue," he said.
"If it (the report) had been commissioned by the NRL and it was the independent commission commissioned by the NRL, we would have been more than happy to contribute to it."
"But the fact is when we went to that fateful day in Sydney on April 22, there were certain things that we were assured of as far as legal representation which was not the case so as a result we became very wary of anything to do with the NRL on that matter."
"We'd have been more than happy to contribute and to be involved in any independent investigation that was NRL-sanctioned."
'Shattered' to no longer be able to contribute to the running of a club that he loves, Maher accepted that he, Moodie, Ryan and Fawcett have to accept