
SUPER LEAGUE could face a devastating absence of its top stars at the business-end of the season if the new points-based disciplinary rules aren’t amended before the new campaign begins.
That’s the view of Catalans Dragons’ coach Steve McNamara, who is concerned that some of his best players could miss out on play-offs and finals with heavy bans for innocuous offences because of disciplinary points tallied up from earlier rounds in the competition under the proposed new system by the RFL.
The longest-serving coach in the competition told League Express: “My fear is that there will be a glut of players missing hugely important games at the end of the season due to potentially very, very minor offences because of the points added up in previous rounds.
“The concept is good and I understand what they are trying to do but there are things that need more thought and discussion before it is fully implemented.
“I’m concerned that players will battle through the season to reach semi-finals and play-offs and pick up a really big ban for the most minor infringement.
“Imagine you’re three or four weeks away from a Grand Final and you have to miss it because of the slightest of mistakes or errors of judgement. That’s going to be a problem.”
The RFL has already indicated that the new points system will be reviewed again before implementation and McNamara added: “There’s never a perfect solution to all of this but we’ll see how we get on over the next couple of weeks.
“We probably need to take a deeper look at its potential effect.”
Meanwhile, McNamara refused to be drawn on speculation that Salford centre Nene McDonald could be heading to Perpignan during the Red Devils’ fire sale to raise revenue to avoid facing financial collapse before the season starts.
He said, “There’s a lot of sympathy for the players and staff at Salford but the reality is we are a professional sport and if players become available other clubs will look to try and strengthen their own squad.
“It’s the same scenario in the off–season or at any stage.”
McNamara has turned on the floodlights for his latest training sessions at Stade Gilbert Brutus with late night practice to try to emulate conditions in the UK during the early stages of the new season.
“We’ve had a few night sessions against our reserve grade. The new season is almost upon us and the conditions in England will be challenging, so we’re trying to get used to cooler conditions over the last two weeks.
“It has been cold in Perpignan recently but it’s back to its sunny best right now.
“Training is going through a different phase now as we’re getting close to the start date and we are bang on schedule.
“Young French players have joined our training group from the reserves and they are making a really big impression. It’s a careful balancing act but I want to test them out against the first team while they are still playing in the French Championship.
“Unfortunately Guillermo Aispuro-Bichet has broken his scaphoid (a small bone close to the thumb) a couple of weeks back playing for the reserves but that can happen in training too so we just have to manage the situation as best we can.”