Where does the 24 come from? Is it a fixed penalty, or does someone just pull a figure out of the air?

its universal I think, used to be 18-0

No idea why that is the figure, but it is standard for all levels of rugby league. Personally I think it should be more like 80-0, to reflect that they would presumably have taken a real battering if they had played with what was available.

Correct there mate. We could have raised a 17 by including academy players but 2 have tested positive and all the rest have to isolate. Unfortunately academy players don't count towards the 7 needed to cancel.