CASTLEFORD TIGERS managing director Mark Grattan has apologised for a data mistake that saw the West Yorkshire club end up 13th in the IMG provisional grading score, but has called out the RFL for a lack of communication and their own mistake.
Castleford would have been cut off from Super League had the provisional scores been the real thing, with the Tigers being given 12.16 points.
However, Grattan has talked through the process of what went wrong and why.
“Go back to 13th September, we got a spreadsheet that needed filling in that needed complex data, primarily around the financial side of things,” Grattan told the COYFCast Podcast.
“We submitted the data, with a lot of backwards and forwards and then on Monday 10am, I received a phone call from Tony Sutton that the gradings would be coming out.
“I apologised about any potential response because we were dealing with the flooding and all the servers had gone as well which made it difficult to access the data.
“1pm, had a quick look on my phone and the grade that came gave us 12.66 and put us at 11th. It was roundabout where we thought it would be.
“Fandom included cumulative total engagements and website visits, so we improved on that but we had lost some of our points on finance because it was an updated finance plan.
“1.15pm, I sent a message to Tony Sutton asking when would we get the detail behind each individual score – and I didn’t get a reply at all.
“I dealt with the flooding outside and went home that night, didn’t think any more of the grading. On the Tuesday morning, we came in and it got to dinner time with the 1pm deadline for any changes passed.
“We had nothing from the RFL so we assumed we were in 11th on 12.66 points. We drafted a statement to go out after the grading was announced about where we were and where we thought we could get to in 12 months. Everything was positive and we knew a couple of clubs had appealed.”
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Further lack of communication from the RFL and RL Commercial was cited by Grattan.
“3.30pm, we were planning to put our draft in the media database to go out at 10.15am. I rang Tony Sutton to check there was no changes, he didn’t answer the phone.
“I sent a text to Rhodri Jones – managing director of RL Commercial – to ask if there were any changes. I didn’t get a reply so I presumed there was nothing to concern myself about.
“Later on, I had a missed call from Tony at 6.30pm who said that the RFL had a mistake on the grading. Tony said they had given us 0.5 points more on finance and that the club had moved from 11th to 13th.
“We said it was correct and the finance category was correct. I told him I did ask him for the detail on Monday and he said he did reply but it never sent. We didn’t get the detail so I got sidetracked by the floods.
“We went through all the finance details, the RFL had made a mistake but then I realised I had missed one data point out on our turnover for two of the years. I told Tony that’s where the mistake was.
“I sent him all the statutory accounts over to show where the mistake had been made, so I was fully expecting that we had 0.75 points to come and that our score would be 12.91.
“I was expecting that to be sorted, but Tony said that he needed to have a look at it and said he had spoken to someone from the RFL and we could appeal but that they would be releasing the information with us in 13th.
“I spoke to Simon Johnson (Chair of the RFL) and suggested their mistake masked our mistake. If they had not got their bit wrong in the first place, we would have realised our mistake and rectified it before the deadline.”
Grattan apologised for his error, but feels that the RFL’s ability to change their mistake but not Castleford’s was wrong.
“I wanted them to delay the grading or change the grading to where it should be. I put my hands up, I missed that data line but it’s the embarrassment of 13th.
“I’m not sure why they would be able to change their mistake at 7.30pm but not look at ours – that doesn’t sit right with me. I think the RFL statement was really poor and didn’t mention that they had made a mistake.
“I made the mistake with the data line and apologise. Our true score is 12.91 which puts us at 11th. With the work we have got planned next year, it looks positive for us.”
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