Lowrie was a reluctant victim of salary-cap pressures,

the pressures Melbourne had found a release from they

thought.

Now he had been picked up by the Storm, the defending

premiers who, until a week ago, were hot favourites for

the 2010 title.

Brett Finch had already won the lottery.

He had metaphorically presented his ticket

and spent the winnings.

Finch had been offered the door by Eels coach Daniel

Anderson early last season and welcomed by the Storm.

More than that, they had given him a share of the 2009 title after beating the Eels in the grand final.

Now Lowrie can't win anything this year and Finch

finds his lottery win was a sham, with the proceeds

returned.

Parramatta cry in sympathy. Perhaps.

Eels chief executive Paul Osborne has already been

close to tears.

``I could have cried,'' Osborne said of having to let

game-breaking bench dummy-half Kevin Kingston

go in the off-season because of those salary-cap pressures.

``The players were willing to take pay cuts to keep him.''

At least for now Kingston has found a home among

winners at Penrith, as has another reluctant Eels depar

tee, Joe Gualavo at Manly.

There is no suggestion either club has done a Storm

and rorted the cap.

Nor has it been suggested of Parramatta, whose salary cap battles continue.

``We'll have to let some players go,'' Osborne said.

He said a significant amount of the cap had

already been spent retaining Jarryd Hayne, Daniel Mortimer and Fuifui Moimoi.

It's unconfirmed but accepted a Parramatta junior

like Krisnan Inu a New Zealand international will be a

victim.

Still, Osborne said, should the 2010 premiers be Parramatta, their win wouldn't be devalued by the Storm's ineligibility.

``I don't think so,'' he said.

``When Newcastle won the premiership in 2007 during

the Super League war, no one said it was devalued

because Brisbane and the others didn't play in the ARL

competition.''

Osborne and Eels co-captain Nathan Hindmarsh

have already said if the Storm's ill-gotten 2009

premiership was awarded to them now it would hold little

meaning as it wasn't earned on the field.

Perhaps suffering from relevance deprivation syndrome, Wentworthville MP, and former premier Nathan Rees, has called for Parramatta to be given the title.