Here we go again.

Just when we all got used the fact that rugby league might actually be played on a field, we have just had news that once more - like tennis and volleyball - it is to be decided in an arena called a "court''.

The decision of the non-News Limited Melbourne directors to take legal action against the NRL in the Victorian Supreme Court will get very different reactions from different people.

If you are a Storm supporter, player or coach you will be punching the air. Despite your club being owned by News Limited and Uncle Rupert having one half of the NRL, someone is fighting in your corner.

And if you have only a passing interest in rugby league but hate News Limited, you'll not so much be punching the air as trying to knock it unconscious.

LOL! News completely owns a sports club, and owns half of the sport's governing body but still cannot stop the joint it completely owns from suing the joint it half owns. Sucked in, Rupert!

But for those of us who just like a game of footy, this is yet another sad episode in a sad, sorry saga.

The statement on Friday afternoon says the fans, players, staff and sponsors of the Storm are "the spiritual and emotional owners of the club".

That's a laudable sentiment. But the release from Rob Moodie, Petra Fawcett, Peter Maher and Gerry Ryan goes onto explain that if the NRL was to convene a proper independent tribunal and still find that the Storm should be stripped of their 2009 and 2007 premierships and prevented from earning points this year "the club will abide by the outcome...

"And they will also encourage the Melbourne Storm stakeholders to do likewise."

(It's interesting that while his supporters want the Storm to play for points this year, coach Craig Bellamy doesn't think that would be right. He says in the Sydney Morning Herald he would much prefer the titles back).

Now I know the salary cap breaches for 2007 may turn out to be not much more than those of the Sydney Roosters when they won the 2002 premiership.

But, according to what is on the public record so far anyway, the level of deceit in Melbourne in '07 far outstrips the illegalities regarding Craig Wing in '02.

So you would have to assume that even if the Supreme Court orders the NRL to put together a hearing, and the independent tribunal convenes, there is a more-than-fair chance the outcome will be exactly the same!

Allowing a team to keep ill-gotten premierships, after all, is tantamount to openly encouraging other sides to cheat in future.

And then Moodie, Fawcett, Maher and Ryan - according to their statement - will urge everyone to just accept it! The only people with smiles on their faces will be those in the legal profession!

No, there is more to this new mess than meets the eye. For a start, the independents are daring Holt Street to simply sack them. If they don't, there's more high-stakes brinkmanship ahead - a belief on both sides that the other will be embarrassed by information that surfaces in court.

Meanwhile, a certain 115-year-old game, born in Yorkshire pub out of bitter political dissent, continues to observe its single oldest and most defining tradition.

That is, invoking "fairness", "justice" and "the people" to cannibalise itself over and over  ...  and over.