This isn't a court of law though, it'll be the officials word against McDonnells word and I imagine they'll back their official.

they have too.
unless of course leeds have proof

That`s precisely it.
If Leeds have footage that shows no punch was thrown then they are allowed to show that as evidence.

You can't prove something that didn't happen though. If there is a punch, they'll have video evidence of it and all of this debate goes away. If they don't, and have not only sent him off but further banned him on someone's word, that there is no other evidence to support, then the implications for the sport are far reaching.

They've made a rod for their own back here the disciplinary, if they'd charged him with running on and being overly aggressive and banned him for a match then I don't think anyone could have complained really, certainly couldn't have appealed the charge as there's ample evidence of it, but if you charge and convict him with punching and then there's zero evidence of a punch being thrown you've pretty much got to clear him on appeal.

Makes the whole sport look amateur when you do something basic like this.

The article from Peter Smith seems to confirm that there's no punch caught on any Sky camera angles, and they're going purely off the linesmans word - odd considering how many cameras Sky have at the game

Given that multiple charges have been dropped this season due to "inconclusive" video evidence, I'm really not sure how they've decided to ban McDonald for 2 games here

You can prove a negative in this sort of case. If there's continuous footage that shows no punch was thrown, you can prove no punch was thrown (I guess some logic expert will say you're proving a different positive but hey ho...).

That`s exactly the team I would go for pending any hidden injuries we don`t know about.
I was hoping Sinfield might get a game and maybe Ruan for Donaldson.

Is sinfield still in concussion protocol, smith seems to suggest he was kept out the other week because of exams too.

I think he's cleared the protocol but is still doing his exams so probably won't feature this week.