Dominance wrote:We cannot say with an certainty that Batley only won the game because of Fairbank's try. If he wasn't in the team how do we know they would not have won anyway, we don't so that's all if's and buts and people IMO need to move on. The argument is that we have been penalised and suffered relegation because rules were broken whether innocent or not. Those rule breakers have not been punished causing Keighley to be relegated. Had the rules not been broken we would be relegated fair and square so we have not been relegated because of Batley. We got relegated because over the course of the season we didn't finish high enough, nor did we play well enough consistently. That is fact.
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You can never predict the outcome of any match with 100% certainty! But you can say that on paper player "x" is better than player "y". You can say that a team using player "x" is doing so to have more chance of winning. If player "x" scores you can say he has influenced the game and given his team more chance of winning. Fact.
If a team using player x does so when they are short of players, at a critical part of a season in which 5 teams are relegated, you can make a pretty certain assumption that it was an attempt to win a match they might otherwise loose.
If player "x" is actually ineligible to play in that game, by the rules laid down by the governing body, then you would expect that body to impose fair punishment. It is not unreasonable to expect that punishment to be the value of a match win - 3 points. This is the value of the original sanction imposed by the RFL.
This can be spun in any direction you want, but a team cheated to help win a match in a unique season with 5 relegation places with them in the mix to go down. Fact
The team were let off under appeal by claiming the RFL should follow a precedent that is in fact not valid for this unique season. Fact
If they had been penalised by the original and fair penalty imposed by the RFL then Keighley would not have been demoted. Fact
But I do agree wholeheartedly that we should have put the matter to bed on the pitch by winning, and that is purely down to the coach and players, and they know it.
The RFL have now engineered themselves into a hole and will try and bluff their way out of it, as they have many times in the past. I think only legal action, or the threat of it will make them change their mind. Keighley shouldn't accept any argument or fobbing off. If the consequences are difficult to handle for the RFL then tough. As the saying goes "they made their bed ...."
