Saddened! wrote:
Hopefully this incident and the process with the appeals will highlight the deficiencies in the system and be the driver for it all to be improved.
Imagine it was Warrington and you were hired to replace Karl Fitzpatrick. You can medically prove the arm wasn't outside the natural range of motion and you have video and MRP notes from previous incidents that were very similar this season that were judged to be 'no further action'. Would you appeal?
No matter how flimsy an argument I had, if I was a saints official I would appeal absolutely every ban that was received to any of our players, knowing that the disciplinary panel have an obvious reluctance to punish saints players in line with the way those of other clubs are treated. Going back to (and beyond) lineham getting a 7 match ban and makinson 3 for a squirrel grip when makinsons was blatant and caught by sky cameras and linehams wasn't.
Why wouldn't saints players try their luck with dangerous tackles? I wouldn't be surprised if eamon received a written apology for the issuing of a yellow card in this incident.
To be fair the world Cup and Knowles being an England player probably helped saints cause in this instance. It shouldn't have at all, but to uphold the 2 game ban, they have set a precedent that frivolous appeals result in a ban extension which would have meant that an England player would be unavailable for 2 World Cup games in this instance.
The disciplinary panel and procedure needs a total overhaul as well as the penalty try guidelines.