FOR some reason League Express has always sold a lot of copies in the city of Sheffield.
And on Sunday I was deluged with emails from Sheffield Eagles supporters who are absolutely livid about the decision of a Rugby League tribunal to suspend their coach Mark Aston from having any coaching function for 18 months.
This follows the allegation that Matty Marsh played for the Eagles in a Challenge Cup tie against Wigan in March without being properly signed off by a doctor before he returned to action, after suffering a concussion 13 days earlier in a match against Swinton.
I feel uneasy about this decision for several reasons, although I don’t dispute that technically the decision to find fault with the Eagles is the right one.
It’s the punishment that appears to me to be wholly excessive in this case and it isn’t based on any precedent.
It made no reference to Aston’s long history of dedication to Rugby League over virtually the whole of his life.
There was no dispute that on the day before the match he was told by the club physiotherapist that Marsh would be okay to play but that later on the physio backtracked on that advice, although it’s not clear what conversations took place.
The club doctor appeared not to have spoken directly to Aston but, as I understand it, she did email the RFL on the morning of the match, which was on a Friday night, to say that she had not signed the player off.
In that case I struggle to understand why the RFL didn’t intervene at that point.
And that concern is magnified by the RFL not revealing the email trail subsequent to being given that information by the club doctor.
In a similar vein, the investigator who interviewed the coach apparently couldn’t produce his notes of that meeting.
In my view the correct punishment should have been a reprimand for the club and for Aston himself, with a warning about the dire consequences for any repeat infringement.
I hope that this decision can be overturned, ideally if the case goes to the Sport Resolutions arbitration service.
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