Just watching the Wakey, Catalan game, interesting that when Justin Pore was injured and Wakey wanted to make a substitution, they were stopped by the officials as Pore was still on the pitch. So, simple question, what were the officials doing last week in our game against Cas. Not an excuse, just an observation/question

I can accept that Salford were also at fault but surely there has to be some responsibility and blame attributed to the touchline official, otherwise what's the point employing them to do a job if they are above criticism when something like this goes wrong. I would be very surprised if the officials error doesn't get conveniently swept under the carpet by Steve Ganson. It will interesting to see if the RFL put all the blame on us without mention of the touchline official.

Until the investigation,we don't know whether it was the officials fault.
It's possible that our substitution bypassed the 4th official,by us not following the accepted procedure correctly.
I hope not , but it is possible .

For me what it does show is that there is a joint responsibility between the club and the match officials. Clearly at the Wakefield game the officials were being extra vigilant. I am not trying to absolve Salford of blame, just pointing out that others also have a "touch line management" role.

It will be interesting to see what the punishment is. It will need to be closely thought through, as a points deduction is achievable in a league game, but what about knock out cup competitions? You could not deduct points, so the punishment would need to be different. Would you then award the tie to the other team? Talk about opening a can of worms.

One problem now out of the way - [url=http://www.therfl.co.uk/the-rfl/disciplinary/item?4405No charge - Griffin[/url

Just the 14 players issue for tomorrrow.

£10k fine apparently. Could be worse I suppose.

Bit steep I think. How come Saints only got 100 quid ?...

It wasn't at a critical point in the game. Saints were already well in the lead.

Do agree though, the difference in the fines is pretty staggering even with that.

Imagine how many jester hats you could get with £10k.

Do you think the RFL know we have a little cash now? www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/22450831 Didn't expect it to be a fine this hefty. Good job the Doc had a winner today.

Do you think the RFL know we have a little cash now? www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/22450831 Didn't expect it to be a fine this hefty. Good job the Doc had a winner today.

Saints actually lost the game. Given when we had the extra player on the pitch and the position in which Castleford were, we can't really argue with it. Just glad we didn't lose the points.

I wonder how Koukash will afford to pay it. Oh yeah he won £70k at the races today didn't he...

Surely we would prefer to pay the fine and take the two points

What good are the points going to do us? I thought the same originally, but we aren't going to make the top 8 and we aren't going to get relegated, so....?

Agreed, we're not going to make the top 8 but I still want to finish as high up the table as we can. Kind of a pride thing really, don't want to see us bottom of the pile.

A good point. We do at least have pride to play for. However, we are supposed to be witnessing the dawn of a new era in which we are going to become a successful club, which means a successful business. Pride doesn't pay the bills.

But it is still a good point.

It's ok saying we have nothing to plays for because we ain't going to finish in top 8 or get relegated but if the players take that attitude then we will get hampered every week like last week and as a fan that ain't good enough

I think we all knew this season would be the 'laying of the foundations' and we wouldn't be making the playoffs or seeing much short term success.

I think I'd be more annoyed/worried about the fine if we didn't have the financial backing that we have now. Some of the comments I've seen on Twitter saying that £10k is a nothing punishment because we have a rich owner make me think that certain people would be perfectly fine with that punishment if we were in the sort of financial position we faced last season.

I'd imagine the aggravating circumstances for the fine would have been (like I said before) the fact we won and that Castleford were attacking our goal line late in the game but the punishment would have probably been mitigated by the situation being unintentional, meaning we weren't docked points. I read that when Canterbury were docked 2 points in the NRL for the same thing, the player was explicitly told not to go on the field before his team mate had come off. My guess would be that we were just told that we could make the interchange.

Where does the 10k go? Seems crazy dishing out big fines when the games on it's ar$e and potentially heading for a return to amateur status when Sky pull out or negotiate a much smaller deal in the future. More quality players inevitability leaving our sport will only weaken our broadcasting appeal.

Personally I would rather take a points deduction.

For what it's worth I think you've got the ty end of the stick!

A few years ago Hornets played Oldham and at half time the Biffos made a substitution. Unfortunately the lad who got subbed was taking a leak at the time and when he came back nobody mentioned it and he ran out with the rest of the team.

Only when Hornets' bench did a count about 3 mins into the second half did it get sorted.

Oldham didn't even get a reprimand!!!

Pugwash.

My mistake. Still underlying point re it wasn't a critical point in the game is correct.

In fairness, Pugwash, knowing both clubs as well as I do, a fine of this proportion would harm either club very seriously and potentially crush either.
But thanks

The thing is everyone is looking at the outcome instead of the actual crime. If we only have a fine, then I assume we have been found guilty of unwittingly playing 14 (for a short time). Had it been intentional then, as I understand it, we would of had a points deduction. So the crime is exactly the same as that of Saints. The period in the game, or outcome of the game therefore, becomes irrelevant. On that basis the fine is draconian.

I think we should look for positives and motivation from each and every experience.
As it took 3 hours of deliberation a lot more information should be forthcoming shortly.Would an appeal,like Castleford did after their homophobic chanting/disorder v Catalans,result in half the fine being taken and half suspended ?
With both our club and Cas appointing new head coaches the task of finishing the highest in the Super League ladder will intensify this year,and most certainly next year.
If there is one precedent I would like Salford to emulate it would be St Helens in 2006.Not only fined for the same offence but by being voted team of the year by the BBC viewers.Think Saints did the treble that year.Best we can do is the double,so no pressure on the players starting Sunday then....
As for the one person in the stadium who saw the extra man on the field....

Does seem to be an excessive penalty - I wonder if perhaps we are paying the price of a few injudicious comments regarding ways around the salary cap?
Have some feathers been ruffled in the RL higher echelons?