The best way out of this sorry mess is to go with a middle 12 of 13 next season and relegate an extra club, the RFL have messed up, they should bear the brunt of it, and do right by both clubs.

Equally, they should pay sheffield the extra prize money out of central funds.

The reason why the appeals panel overturned the ruling was based on precedent, saying other teams in previous seasons who had done the same thing had not had a points deduction.

Well what punishment did they receive?

If these latest clubs in question receive no punishment then that changes the precedent allowing teams to break these rules with no jeopardy.

They would say " Batley did it, Doncaster did it and were not held to account so how can you hold us to account for doing the same thing."

It's another farce that sums up just where the sport is leadership wise, Disney Land, if fact the joke is Mickey Mouse was seen wearing a RFL watch.

I'm not sure Sheffield lost out on prize money. But - hey - if you feel bad about it, feel free to send a cheque.

13 next season ? Well, six extra fixture dates - where will those fit in ? And, of course, what's going to happen to the Summer Bash ? Not insurmountable, I suppose, but certainly a consideration.

In my opinion, this was completely flawed. It's akin to going to court for a speeding offence with the defence "Well, my mate was speeding last week but he didn't get fined [sizebecause nobody caught him[/size so I shouldn't get fined either."

Maybe more like, my mate did get caught speeding but wasn't fined so why am I even in here.

This time though an innocent party gets hurt and still no punishment.!!

How this problem this season will pan out is anyones idea.
Surely the way forward for next season is for the RFL to say from now on!

Or scrap DR and it won't be an issue going forward.
I always knew it would end in tears.

Problem is HJ the RFL did say "from now on" when they made the rules and backed that up when they made their decision.

Then the independent appeals overturned the decision, to stop that it would mean doing away with the appeals process.

From "now on" applies to the innocent party as well, they will be in a division lower with the implications that brings, are they not being penalised most out of all those involved, can that be right?

The punishment should fit the offense or where the club involved benefitted from.

In this case the club who broke the rules benefitted most on the field, they picked this player to give them the best team for the day to give them the best chance of winning, which they did.
That being the case out of all the punishment options available the win should be overturned, the clubs knew the rules and knew what breaking them could mean but for whatever reason failed to follow them.

The RFL have a history of making new rules without properly doing due diligence on how they could be abused and penalties if they are

They introduced the salary cap into the NL s ( Championships ) in 2004 by basically using the SL rules with the figures altered, at the following meeting to discus it ,the whole thing was pulled apart by the various club representatives

Clueless

That's true - but had there been no breaches of rules, we'd've needed to both pick up the two points against Batley and Dons would've had to lose their bonus point. Both possible - but, really, we ought to be looking at other games during the season to see why we lost that money.

For me - the killer to the 13 team division is the Summer Bash.

It does beg the question - what evidence was presented ?

If Batley said "these clubs broke the rules and didn't get punished because the RFL didn't notice" that's one thing.

If they said "these clubs broke the rules and didn't get punished" but leave the Tribunal to assume the RFL noticed, I think they lose the moral high ground. Truth, whole truth etc etc.

Any more comments like that and I`ll have a chip on my shoulder.