Don't get me wrong, I have every sympathy with Siddall - absolutely. They made the right stand in most peoples eyes, mine too, They won fair and square according to the referee and that should have been enough for the NC Management. The referee probably made some inaccurate decisions during the game, the odd forward pass, knock on or ball steal but these decisions were accepted by both sides. The mistake he made over the golden point should have been accepted too by both Clubs and the NC Management.

Siddal should not be punished, they had a valid reason for not accepting a replay purely on player welfare; three games in eight days at the end of the season is ridiculous. The NCL management should have had the balls to accept that Siddal won the game played by the rules agreed at the time, West Hull's appeal should have been thrown out.

But it wasn’t, and they were told when they had to replay the game and refused, precedent was set and they should be punished in the same way as East was.

"OP1.23 Any Club failing to fulfil a League or Grand Final Series Play Off fixture =#FF0000without an explanation which satisfies the Management Committee may, in addition to being relegated from its respective division at the conclusion of the playing season, be fined up to £500."

The highlighted area gives the NCL their Get Out Of Jail Card, they can accept that Siddal, considering the welfare of their players after a long hard season, thought it unreasonable to be expected to play three games in 8 days. If they don't accept it then they are not fit for purpose. This situation is nothing like the self inflicted Leigh East one.

Seems to me as it was a playoff game the only losers here are Siddal as they declined the offer of a replay. That was their decision and should be the end of the matter.

No other teams have been prejudiced by Siddal's decision.

Must admit I don't follow the amateur game as closely as maybe I should, but isn't 3 games in 8 days quite a common thing when teams are trying to catch up with postponed games and the like?

I'm sure Keith will put me right but I think when Leigh East won the league and the Grand Final in 2010 they played the European Challenge in France and got to the final of the BARLA National Cup final too so I think at some points in the season they often had a daft run of games.

Siddal fined £500 and remain in Premier Division.

A bit of common sense imo as it would have cost them something similar to pay their transport to Hull for the replay.

£500 Fine - sounds reasonable in view of the circumstances, I wonder how much the referee was fined for the 'bollock' he dropped that caused all the problems.