That is the message from AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou in the wake of the extraordinary punishment handed out to the Melbourne Storm by the NRL on Thursday.
The Storm were stripped of the two premierships they won in 2007 and 2009, three minor premierships and can amass no premiership points for the 2010 season after the club was found to have systemically breached salary cap provisions over the last five years.
A fine of $1.6 million was also imposed.
"We wouldn't hesitate in stripping clubs of points or for that matter - if it was very serious - of stripping a club of a premiership," Demetriou said after stepping out of a meeting with AFL club chief executives.
"All of the clubs are aware that those punishments and those sanctions are available to us in our code and to the NRL and they've used it."
Although Demetriou said he was not privy to all the details, he indicated that a similarly serious scenario would be met punitively by the AFL.
"Obviously it is a very serious matter", he said. "As someone who works in a code, I congratulate the NRL for the position they have taken - they must have obviously done some extensive work in the area to come up with these findings.
"All supporters want to know is: is the code being run with the highest integrity? And issues that relate to salary cap rorting are issues that all codes take very, very seriously."
Demetriou applauded the NRL for its stance and said all sporting codes were right to show zero tolerance on major breaches of the salary cap.
"I think it sends a strong message to everyone to all people involved in the industry", he said.
Demetriou would not be drawn on the implications of the controversy for rugby league in Melbourne, saying only that it was incumbent on all sporting administrations to uphold the integrity of their games.
