Brian Waldron resigns from Chief Executive role at Melbourne Rebels

The Melbourne Rebels have announced that Brian Waldron has resigned as Chief Executive of the new Super 15 rugby union franchise.

Rebels Chairman, Harold Mitchell told Melbourne's SEN radio this morning that he had met Waldron, who had "offered his resignation on the spot and the board has accepted that".

Mitchell said he had spoken with Waldron on Thursday evening and admitted he was concerned for his former Chief Executive in the wake of the Melbourne Storm's salary cap scandal, stating âhe was pretty shaken, no surprises there

"I (am) certainly worried about individuals - they've got families and people around them and great pressures on them."

While expressing concern for Waldron's well-being, Mitchell was adamant about the standards necessary in business and sport.

"In life (and) in sport, you do the right thing, there are rules, there are regulations; you follow all those but you do the right thing.

"I'm not judging Brian - I'm only worried about us. I'd say 99% of sports and sporting people do the right thing."

Mitchell believes rugby league, News Ltd and Melbourne Storm will continue and rebuild.

The Rebels Chairman also announced that the Clubâs Board had determined to appoint Pat Wilson as Acting Chief Executive while it considers a replacement for Waldron.

Currently Director of Commercial Operations with Moore Sports, and a consultant to the Melbourne Rebels, Wilson has worked in senior management roles with both the NSW Waratahs and the Australian Rugby Union.

More recently he was General Manager of High Performance for the ARU.

Meanwhile it has emerged that prior to yesterdayâs NRL announcement that Melbourne Storm's would lose all its 2010 competition points, as well as any points accrued during the rest of the 2010 season, bookmakers had received an unusual number of bets on Melbourne to take out the NRL wooden spoon.

Early on yesterday morning, leading bookmaker Sportingbet shut down its wooden spoon market after fielding several bets at 250-1, with three punters standing to win $10,000 each.

As Sportingbet Australia spokesman Bill Richmond explained "we took three bets to win $10,000 and another to win $8,000 for the Storm to win the wooden spoon all within 10 minutes of each other this morning.

"You don't take a series of bets like that unless someone knows something."

SportsAlive and sportsbet.com.au followed suit shortly after while TAB Sportsbet left its market open, but wound the Storm into 20-1 for the spoon after taking a bet with a potential collect of $40,000.

By midday speculation was rife that the Storm, then title favourites, could be in danger of losing competition points for a salary cap breach.

Then the NRL made its announcement guaranteed that Melbourne Storm would finish the season with the wooden spoon.

It has also emerged that Storm sponsor Host Plus are likely to end its links with the Club.

22nd April 2010 - MELBOURNE STORM SCANDAL STUNS RUGBY LEAGUE

13th January 2010 - STORM’S WALDRON JOINS MELBOURNE’S REBELS