Barrow Raiders have claimed the Rugby Football League have “dug themselves in a hole” and called for a “complete change of direction” in their disciplinary process following the Morgan Knowles saga. The 25-year-old St Helens forward was involved in a controversial an incident with Salford’s Chris Atkin during last Saturday’s play-off semi-final victory, after which he was sin-binned by referee Chris Kendall.
But Saints launched a second appeal on Wednesday which proved successful – freeing to him to play against Leeds in this weekend’s Grand Final – provoking an angry response by many Rhinos supporters and disbelief in some quarters. The defending champions claimed the original conclusion by a Rugby Football League tribunal was “unreasonable” based on the evidence presented.
Knowles was born in Barrow and the Raiders said in a club statement posted on their official Facebook page: “The RFL seem to have dug themselves in a hole and there needs to be a complete change of direction if clubs and fans aren’t going to be alienated. Lots of debate around our local player Morgan Knowles who has won his appeal against suspension and is free to play in the Grand Final.
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“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.”
Barrow cited examples this season where their own players have copped lengthy suspensions, adding: “Did Jarrod Sammut really deserve more than a yellow? Did Hakim Miloudi really deserve 8 matches? Can we learn from other sports like football whereby only red cards pick up a ban or a certain number of yellows? If the referee has completely missed an act of thuggery, then maybe fair enough but if he’s seen the incident, made his judgement, then who are the disciplinary to start imposing lengthy bans?
“The RFL seem to have dug themselves in a hole and there needs to be a complete change of direction if clubs and fans aren’t going to be alienated. It never used to be like this, sometimes things don’t change for better.”
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