PORT Macquarie Sharks are headed to a higher level of authority as they aim to have some of their points returned by Group 3 before the first grade semi-finals.
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Group 3 chairman Wayne Bridge confirmed on Friday the Sharks’ six-point penalty for a code of conduct breach would stand and the matter was closed.
But Sharks president Jamie Dowse could be headed to an eventual meeting with the National Rugby League.
“The group said in an email on Friday that that’s the end of the story and it’s dead and buried now, but it’s far from dead and buried,” Dowse said.
“It’s only just started as far as I’m concerned.
“I think the group’s waiting for us to throw our hands in the air and say ‘you’ve won’, but while I’m in charge of this club that’ll never happen.
“I’m waiting to hear back from Country Rugby League about how we take it further.
“But I would think that it would go to the CRL and if that falls through again we’ll take it higher to the NRL.”
Dowse was mostly frustrated by the lack of consistency in punishments handed down by the group across the competition.
“I’m not denying that we’ve broken a rule, but clubs are breaking rules in the by-laws of the group and it’s swept under the carpet,” he said.
“The original breach notice is that we’ve broken the code of conduct, but in the appeal, they couldn’t tell me what rule we’ve broken.”
He believes the six-point penalty is too heavy after other clubs in the competition had avoided any sort of punishment for code of conduct issues so far this season.
“A player from an opposition side went on a rant on social media about the ref,” Dowse said.
“I’ve questioned the group on that and they said they can’t do anything about it because the player is registered under a different name apart from his social media name.
“At the season launch, an opposition coach was referring to ladies body parts when there were sponsors and ladies in the room.
“We’re trying to attract people to the games here, not only playing the game, but in administration.”
As part of Group 3 by-laws, clubs are also expected to have security personnel on the gate at home games.
“Yes, we’ve done something wrong, but there’s no consistency in the laws,” Dowse said.
“In the by-laws, it says clubs have to have security and I’ve been to every game and haven’t seen security, so every club has broken a by-law and the group haven’t done anything about it.
“The group has got more problems at the moment than worrying about our poor quality of footage.
“Is it an agenda from the group against our club?”
He was disappointed to know their footage from the Macleay Valley match in round two was not adequate enough.
“We’ve done the wrong thing, but we’ve tried to rectify it and now they’re telling us the quality is poor,” he said.
“There’s nowhere in the by-laws on good quality video footage, we’re not Fox Sports.”
Group 3 chairman Wayne Bridge said they had no other choice but to hold firm on their original decision.
“We’ve got to have some deterrents in place to stop it from happening again, we thought the points penalty was the correct decision to make,” he said.
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