Castleford Tiger director of rugby and interim coach Chris Chester has spoken out against the Super League disciplinary system, admitting that he has become ‘disillusioned’.
He’s the latest high profile figure in Super League, from coaches to pundits, to speak out against the disciplinary system which was introduced at the start of this season.
Rather than players being immediately punished for their actions with bans, players are charged with each charge carrying penalty points. They accumulate before being wiped after 12 months, however, now that we’re at the business end of the season, a larger number of players are being banned.
Part of that could be because of a minor charge that they may have picked up in February or March with the most recent Super League disciplinary verdict seeing 23 charges handed down and ten players banned.
Of those ten players, only four received charges worth enough points for an immediate ban with the other six all banned on account of their points adding up on top of previous charges.
One of those was Castleford’s Jeremiah Simbiken, charged for a sixth time this year and banned for a fourth. Chester has since confirmed Simbiken, who suffered a broken arm against Wakefield, will leave the club at the end of the year.
Super League coach questions disciplinary process
Asked about Simbiken’s ban, Chester confirmed those six charges but then moved on to discuss the Grade B charge that captain Alex Mellor got and how he now reacts to such charges.
He explained: “Alex Mellor got a Grade B three points for making a tackle on a player and it’s just got to the point where I just stick my thumb up every time I get a message from them (RFL disciplinary).
“We’ve tried appealing stuff and we don’t get anywhere. We’ve gone to an independent tribunal, an independent tribunal that’s picked by the RFL, and I’ve just got to be careful with what I say with it all.”
Chester then admitted: “I’m just disillusioned a little bit with the suspensions that have been handed out lately.”
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Asked for his opinion on whether this system, which numerous Super League coaches including Willie Peters have spoken out against, will be around for 2026, Chester responded: “I think there’s a review at the end there seems to be a review every year but yeah, I’ll let the powers that be look after that.”
One of the players who the Tigers have reportedly signed, Jack Ashworth, was handed a seven-game ban in this most recent disciplinary ruling.
As such, he’ll be unavailable through the pre-season and for the start of next year, but he would also immediately be on a disciplinary tightrope with even a Grade A charge set to land him another multiple game ban.
