The Disciplinary Match Review Panel has come in for some criticism this season with the clampdown in Super League taking its toll in terms of suspensions.
In total, almost 50 yellow and red cards have been handed out since the season began and a number of former players, as Eddie Hemmings an Mike ‘Stevo’ Stephenson explain, have been outspoken on the issue.
But, for Match Review Panel chief Paul Cullen, it’s those players speaking out that are wrong.
“I think they are wrong,” Cullen told the Eddie and Stevo podcast.
“The whole process isn’t wrong; are the three elements – match officials during game time, Match Review Panel cold light of day Monday morning, the judge and jury Tuesday night – 100% perfect in every decision we have made so far this season? – no we are not.
“There are six or seven full-time match officials, there are six or seven full-time judges who work on the Operational Rules Tribunal and there are a dozen side members.
“The Match Review Panel only has four people looking at every incident every single week.”
Cullen also led a defiant stance on those decisions that have been charged throughout the season so far.
“Only two, three, four sin bins in a game that have affected the flow of a game we haven’t charged on a Monday morning.
“The match officials have been honest but no one has been sent from the field and not being charged.”
