If that is correct then the poor guy has been done because he has been too honest for his own good.
Not like this country punishes the easy targets - 5 Crusaders players and the UK border Agency springs to mind.
He does seem to have offered a good deal of assistance to the RFL - far more than the Sun comic produced - and he seems to have been punished further for this.
It does seem to send out a certain signal - but not generally a good one for the sport moving forward,as they say.

There has never been a doubt over Shaun's commitment to Doncaster Rugby league club in every single match he has played in. He has been one of the hardest working servants the club has ever had and stayed with the club through at least 2 periods of turmoil despite having the chance to move on.

The ban to me seems disproportionate considering the assistance he has offered, and the roll the Sun seems to have played in this leaves a particularly bad taste.

To highlight the fact the Dons fans have all the faith in Shaun and his attitude to the games in which he has played, there was a collection at last weeks game, and there will be one at this weekends game too, to pay his fine

Very true, and I'm sure there are others in others sports who do too on their own sport. They manage to get away with it, or its swept under the carpet. Leaf shouldn't have done what he did, but was stitched up by a newspaper and is paying the price. The motivations of said newspaper need to be questioned here as well as those of the player. Exposing a semi-pro having a bet, while wrong, is hardly 'the darkest day in the sport' or whatever crap they published.

Player gives almost a decades excellent service to an unfashionable lower league rugby league club and then makes a foolish mistake ,and gets hammered by the RFL with a ban totally disproportionate to the 'crime'.
He was club captain and sponsered by the supporters trust. Once again the little man gets hammered with full force to be made an example of. If he had been a star of SL the outcome would have been different.
Is there any wonder people walk away from RL?
There will be another collection at the Keepmoat on Sunday to contribute to Shaun fine payment.
Come on you Dons!

Just don't let him be photographed in a Quins shirt again!

Workington player Weldon Saayman was banned for 12 months and fined £750 in 2006 for betting on games. He was out with a long term injury at the time and didn't play in any of them. On that basis I'd say Leaf's ban is perfectly reasonable under the circumstances.

You won't be putting a pound in the bucket on sunday then?

Bit difficult, as I won't be there. But if I was then no I wouldn't because I think his ban is justified based on previous precedences. Mark Cass at Oldham got a 12 month ban from the game in 2010 for betting on games and he was not even a registered player anymore, just an assistant coach.

I see an ill thought out throw away comment to provoke a response-got it

Now if he'd been betting on Doncaster to win , it would have been time for the men in white coats !!

Booooo! Get off!

This really is a very simple case. Leaf broke the rules of betting on a match on the club he was employed for, morally wrong and against the rules of the game, he's been caught and convicted and is now serving a punishment, I have little problem with this.

Of course what's amazing about Rugby League is the unreal inconsistensy of how they operate, everything from fines to this offense, to lengths of bans for high takles, dangerous play and illegal substance misuse gets a seemingly different length of ban every time, many on this thread deem the 18 month ban fair, perhaps it is, but then surely you must admit Gleeson and Long got away with proverbial murder...one could argue Leaf (and im not defending him) was simply betting on what he though would happen, where Long and Gleeson knew Saints were playing a week side in that Sanits Bulls game which i'd argue is worse if anything. Also people are quoting different cases over the years...the one constant is all the fines and bans are different lenghts...crazy!...for me its also very funny this made the front page of the Scum 'newspaper' and its one of the lengthy banes every given out by the RFL....if indeed they even had any say in it seen as the Scum knew it would be 18 months before the case concluded

Any accusations that he has 'not tried' or 'thrown matches' before are not true and Leaf has always giv 100% in the best part of a decade I have watched him playing for the Dons.

Silly boy yes...but to receive 'everything he deserves' Is to be ignorant about the case and the wider picture in general