Brian Waldron has hit back at Nathan Brown's extraordinary outburst, with the Melbourne boss today angrily admitting he is infuriated by the comments of the Dragons coach and will consider legal action.
Brown yesterday slammed the Storm's wrestling tactics, and warned of an 'NRL bloodbath' unless the game's officials take immediate action.
His spray comes in the wake of the Dragons' fiery 26-0 loss to the Storm on Monday night, which saw three players sin-binned, Jason Ryles sent-off and Billy Slater suspended.
But Waldron insists Brown's comments are 'childish, disgraceful and unfounded'.
"He's made some accusations that are nothing short of disgraceful, as far as I'm concerned," a fired-up Waldron told Melbourne's SEN Radio.
"I think they are scurrilous and I don't know how he can make accusations in relation to our training methods unless he's part of our group - and he's not.
"He goes off and makes these accusations that are unfounded just on the back of the frustration of being beaten by the Storm.
"His frustrations at losing shouldn't be an excuse for him to make such outlandish accusations."
Brown yesterday called for the NRL to crack down on the Storm's 'illegal tactics', pointing the finger squarely at the Melbourne players as the worst offenders in the game.
"Melbourne have been very, very good at it (and have been) for a long time," Brown said.
"We're not good enough at it - they're better at ... half of it they invented, they'll tell you they didn't.
"It doesn't bother me they do it, but what bothers me is the officials in our game keep letting the system down.
"We went there the other night to ruffle their feathers.
"They keep letting it happen and my advice to other sides is the only chance you've got of beating Melbourne is to join in, you join in and get in and rip in a make the game a bloodbath.
"That's the only way you can win unless the officials want to change their approach to the game."
But Waldron was quick to defend the integrity of his club, admitting legal action could be sought against Brown.
"It's a very serious matter as far as we're concerned," said the Melbourne CEO.
"We're very disappointed. We have, and we will continue to seek council on this because Nathan's out of line and Nathan's gone too far.
"I'm not a lawyer but I do know we're having a look at the situation.
"He's certainly injured our reputation.
"We play hard, we play tough... but we play fair. To accuse us of practicing the type of things that he does at training is just a disgrace.
"We're not putting up with it.
"He's got no right to say this."
Waldron is also expecting the NRL to take action against Brown.
"What frustrates me is that he's criticising the authorities of the game.
"He's putting into question the capacity of the NRL referees to do their job.
"The NRL - and I spoke to (NRL boss) David Gallop last night - would be filthy on him because he's defamed them too."
"It's a childish comment to make."
