Photo: © 2010 AAP/BRETT CROCKFORD

The NRL last week uncovered documents revealing the club had been systemically rorting the salary cap – designed to keep the competition even - for years.

In the biggest punishment in Australian sporting history, the league stripped the club of its two recent premierships, slugged it with penalties totalling $1.6 million and forced it to play out the rest of the season for no premiership points.

While it will walk away from 2010 with nothing but the wooden spoon, Melbourne proved it is still the league's powerhouse team, even when it is playing only for pride.

In front of 24,000 devoted fans, it rubbished claims they would be a shell of a team, thrashing the New Zealand Warriors 40-6.

"I think to a man it's probably the proudest moment of all our careers," captain Cameron Smith said after the match.

"I guess for an occasion that's built up so highly as tonight, I don't think we've gotten over a bigger hurdle.

"There was a lot of adversity we had to get through this week, not only to be able to show up tonight, sitting around home not knowing how we were going to feel today, how we were going to feel next week."

Only time will tell if it can keep playing at the same level for the rest of the year.