What's your thoughts on the RFL overturning Knowles ban so he can play Saturday?

I personally am not surprised, is anyone , really? It was just what we all knew would happen and there's absolutely no sense, fair play and decency left in that particular element of RL. This has turned a lot of people and I would be surprised if the viewing figures for the final are atrocious, such is the disgust expressed by many. I honestly see the sport being dropped by SKY in the not too distant future, the NRL might be the only live RL shown and then clubs revert to part time status, as it used to be until SKY, when a benefactor dictated for the most part how successful clubs could be.

No surprise at all and just shows the lack of any transparency or integrity in the game within the RFL and the Disciplinary. The RFL have a major problem as the poor and often shambolic performances of the officials both on and off the field is a big concern along with the kangaroo court disciplinary.
The sport employs professional officials but we are seeing less than amateur standard of officiating, the early season farce seeing record numbers of players being banned for nothing more than breaking wind which they had to then re evaluate so teams still had players to put in 17 the following week. All this along with the big inconsistency that the panel seem to view incidents and the punishments handed out is just a total farce.

A lack of integrity sums it up perfectly Chris. There's a petition doing the rounds about the inadequecies of the Disciplinary panel which I have signed. Its decisions like that after a ridiculous 2 appeals that makes our game a laughing stock across sport in this country. All season that panel has been so full of its own importance to such an extent that many clubs didn't bother appealing even when they had a good case because some who dared to appeal got an additional game. It seems they let off many of the most deserving cases and penalised the least important ones. Why? Well Just because they could. To anyone looking in on that Saints decision the whole thing is bent but as you all say why are we not surprised.

They just frustrate players , coaches and fans alike with bizarre decisions that look that there plucked from thin air . The whole process needs looking at with the current incumbents removing .

The Barrow Chairman has just about summed it up for me.

“What we would like to ask is why we appear to be the only sport whereby the disciplinary committee seems to scrutinise every single minute of action, every single week and gives the impression that they are determined to suspend as many players as possible? Every single week there appears to be an enormous list of players who have a case to answer, and fans are being robbed of seeing the best players in action whilst the clubs are being heavily penalised in terms of having to bring extra players into their squad.”

They’ve been draconian all year, then crumble at the seasons end to a club who made repeated appeals. I didn’t even know you could appeal more than once.

That with naming Bateman in the Knights squad in order to serve a suspension, shows up the sport for what it is.

Lions led by donkeys.

In fairness to the RFL, it was an independent tribunal and they were pretty eager to point that out - suggesting to me that they weren’t thrilled either.

Was the tribunal made up of Paul Wellens, Eamon McManus and Jonny Vegas

Stevie Wonder…

From a pretty reliable source within a SL club, IMG pushing for big changes in the disciplinary system going forward, may not fully come into affect until 2024 but changes are on the horizon. 2024 seems the year we could see some serious changes for the sport. From what I have heard (to be taken with a pinch of salt) they are positive steps for the sport. IMG sound pretty ruthless if what has been told in confidence is to be believed.

Let’s hope this is true.

Needs to happen, and there needs to be changes next season before more fans switch off, I have never seen RL fans so united in their negative comments as I have this week.

Id start with getting video refs at every game, and every Try checked like the NRL. This would mean more Cameras at games but bonus is that means better quality highlights.

Id then introduce a standard ban for a Red, say 2 games, and only increase via a panel for very specific serious offenses. And then also a ban for number of Yellow cards say 1 game after 3 Yellows. If the Ref missed something on the field then we say i has been missed and draw a line under it.

Finally Club and International games are different competitions. It is madness that we are risking the games biggest stars missing the World Cup and laughable that we have Bateman playing for England Knights to reduce his ban.

Totally agree with that! referees could refer incidents they were not sure about by a simple hand signal to the 4th official and let the game flow but the panel watching whole games to just try and find something wrong has to stop.