Dragon Bird Out for the Rest of the Season The Catalans Dragons have been dealt a major blow with the loss of the inspirational Greg Bird for the rest of the season through suspension. Bird appeared before the disciplinary this evening a pleaded guilty to the Grade D charge for a dangerous throw against Halifax during Sunday's fixture at the New Shay. Bird appealed against the grading, but not the charge, but he was unsuccessful. READ MORE ON THIS STORY...

Dragon Bird Out for the Rest of the Season The Catalans Dragons have been dealt a major blow with the loss of the inspirational Greg Bird for the rest of the season through suspension. Bird appeared before the disciplinary this evening a pleaded guilty to the Grade D charge for a dangerous throw against Halifax during Sunday's fixture at the New Shay. Bird appealed against the grading, but not the charge, but he was unsuccessful. READ MORE ON THIS STORY...

And Fax lose out again....

Justice albeit belated the Ref bottled it.

Aye, but the system is all wrong. Catalans future opponents benefit but on the day we get nowt barring the penalty. And don't start quoting 'swings and roundabouts' because I don't believe in that.

lets hope for their future opponents they put a stong referee and experienced assistant referee team together for the remainder of their matches

He got sinbinned and in that 10 minutes we contrived to lose the game,i have no complaints.

Missed that, but should have been off!

The situation is not about what happened in the 10 minutes, it is the fact that Heaton could have been seriously injured and Kendall hadn't the guts to send him off.

Fair point.

One of the worst i've seen for a while. Just not good enough from Kendall that and it's highlighting the problem we've got in the refereeing department. It's almost as if he's not quite concentrating as he doesn't seem to acknowledge the first thuggish hit on Murrell. How he can deem that spear only 10 minutes though especially when we had a red for one going slightly over the horizontal a few weeks a go. Refs should be coming from the same page on something like spear tackle.

There's obviously something a miss under Gansons leadership. We're losing senior referees and having to fill the hole with referees who aren't ready. Ruck speeds and split second decisions i live with. You're never going to get consistent decisions with ruck speeds as players act differently in different games. They penalise messing about, we moan they're blowing the pea out of the whistle, they don't penalise it, we moan they let the opposition get away with murder (never of course our own teams) But something i've been concerned about is the referees not being strong enough on thuggery. What Catalans effectively got away with isn't good enough. We had the same against Dewsbury who's sole aim in that game was to be thugs. How did the referee handle our player being launched into metal railings? Sin-bin a man from each team. Someone is going to get seriously hurt if referees don't start clamping down on serious foul play.

Some very good points Bill Mania. Hidden agendas etc can spring to mind.

They don't pay bills

Exactly, player safety comes first everything else is a distant second.

It's not often I agree with a bulls fan......
....so I won't!

he's had his ban downgraded to 3 games

From the RFL's twitter
"Greg Bird pleaded guilty to the Dangerous Throw charge but challenged the grading. The Independent Operational Rules Tribunal agreed and changed to Grade C. The Ban was reduced from 4 games to 3. The £300 fine remains"

back for the MPG then

Would we expect any less? What an absolute joke the RFL are - a seriously unfunny one.

Joke deision

Nothing surprises me with the RFL, its way of working, and its CEO anymore. Great game, but has become a shambles.Making Sepp Blatter and his cronies look competent angels!!!

Unbelievable.....he should have got 6 games.

Utter bollox!

Disciplinary process not worth the paper it's written on.
Typical RFL total joke. Different rules for SL Clubs especially when they are in danger of relegation.

Hmm.. Let me have a think about that one.

There also appear to be different rules applying to different SL clubs.

Jamie Acton got [uNINE [/umatches for lifting up an apparently concussed Greg Bird (yes, the same one!) in Perpignan. I say 'apparently' concussed, because it turned out that he wasn't. Coincidentally, Leigh scrum half Ben Reynolds was injured (broken nose) in that seemingly reckless, high, late challenge by Bird, which had 'apparently' concussed Bird.

Acton deserved suspending, because Bird could have been injured, and his actions could have had serious consequences. But [uNINE [/u matches, when the player wasn't injured? Acton/Leigh appealed, and the ban was increased to [uFOUR MONTHS[/u (effectively [u ELEVEN [/umatches - including a potential £1 Million game, that he would have been available for, on the nine match ban!) Ironically, Bird's suspension for a highly dangerous challenge, is [uREDUCED[/u on appeal, so that he would be available for that £1 Million game.

By the way, I also have sympathy for your statement about Championship clubs receiving heavier suspensions. Obviously the RFL consider players from those clubs punch harder, tackle harder, trip more violently etc than SL players!!

It's a strange one, because you could argue that the 'misdemeanours' of SL players are seen by a wider audience, (by SKY & BBC viewers and larger crowds) than those of Championship clubs. Therefore the actions of SL players are bringing the game into greater disrepute, than those of Championship players. Of course, you also could argue that the actions of the RFL bring the Sport into greater disrepute, than the actions of any of those players, at any level!!

Depends if you are one of the favored clubs of course

It also depends whether the SL Team is in our illustrious CEO' s remit of expanding the game to whichever country can come up with the cash. The M62 corridor and it's teams do not mean much now unless you are one of the favoured few. Agree Acton was harshly punished. But why should Bird's suspension be reduced for what was potentially a very dangerous throw. The bottom line is that the RFL is not fit for purpose.