Derek Beaumont critical of RFL disciplinary process

Tuesday night Leigh Leopards appealed the ban for Tom Amone after the defeat to Wigan Warriors.

In trouble for a crusher tackle on Toby King, Amone was set to miss the play off clash away at Hull KR.

However, the Leopards were able to have the ban overturned last night but speaking on BBC Radio Lancashire, Derek Beaumont voiced his frustration at the system:

“Yeah, so today was a big day. It’s always challenging when you get those because one of my main roles in the business is dealing with that.

“I didn’t quite finish a law degree back in the day but I’m quite good at putting forward an argument in persuasive ways, so I always deal with writing the submissions for that and then presenting them to the tribunal.

“You get very little notice, you literally find out on a Monday afternoon if you’ve got any charges. Obviously I’m running a business as well as involvement at the club so I can’t just drop things, but unfortunately sometimes you have to because it was that important to us to have Tom Amone available.

“Now I don’t pick teams but he’s played every game this year so I’d be pretty confident he’ll play with how Adrian was hellbent on me getting that one there.

“So we had two charges and once we got the success on the first one, I decided not to hedge our bets on the second one because if you appeal a decision and it’s found to be frivolous, I don’t think it would have been, but it could have been and nothing’s guaranteed, even in law, so in a tribunal situation, definitely not.

“There would have been a slight risk of having got a £250 fine and a ban, getting rid of the £250 fine meant the ban became the 250 fine. If I’d have chanced it and lost, apart from the penalty £500, it could have changed to a ban.

“So we settled at 1-1, not normally a rugby score, but a real positive piece of news for the club.”

He added:

“He’s fit and well, like I say, he’s played in every game, he’s in the dream team. We want the best players playing the game, but we all accept that there’s got to be rules and consequences for foul play.

“I think the decision was right on what we got and I think it would have been so hard for him because he’s such a nice, humble guy.

“He’s the top metre maker in Super League, I don’t know of any time, Mike’s our statistician and historian, so he may tell me differently but that is, in my opinion, the first time a middle or prop forward has ever been the highest metre maker in Super League.

“It’s normally a fullback, a winger, a centre, who can go the length of a field. He’s done that in the middle and he’s played every game in the two years he’s been here, in all competitions, remarkable.”