An RFL Operational Rule Tribunal has imposed a two-month suspension on Keighley Cougars player-coach Paul March for verbally abusing match officials.

Under the terms of the suspension, March is prohibited from entering any stadium in which Keighley Cougars are playing until July 8, 2014.

The sanction was handed down after March was found guilty of improper conduct and breaching the game’s Respect Policy following comments made to the match referee at the end of the Keighley Cougars v Leigh Centurions Kingston Press Championship fixture on March 9 2014.

March pleaded not guilty.

The offence took place whilst March was serving a four-match suspension as a player for questioning the integrity of a match official following a Championship fixture against Doncaster in February.

O dear that's a big shame, S'pose he must have said something to deserve it. Was gutting to lose the Leigh match in the last minute after a ref decision went against us. Wonder if Marchy will try to watch home games from the top of a van in the car park behind the terracing?

...or he could just follow the games on twitter, of course he can watch the cup game on sky, or could he wear a beard and spectacles and help on the scoreboard or serve some pies. I wonder if the RFL have some sort of secret tag or bug? Presumably he doesnt think he did anything wrong, but we have to assume he did. Dont know whether to laugh or cry. Out with the knives.....

All,

No doubt you will have heard the news concerning the two month stadium ban for Paul March.  The sanction means that he cannot be present in the stadium 90 minutes before the kick off at any first or second team Keighley Cougars game and only return to the stadium 30 minutes after the full time whistle.

I personally represented Paul at the disciplinary hearing last night at Red Hall because I believed Paul was innocent of the allegations he faced.  I also took along 2 witnesses who believed the same.  The disciplinary panel decided otherwise and imposed a sanction which is, I believe, without precedent in the history of rugby league for an offence such as this.

I am shocked at the extent of the ban and so is Paul. The reactions so far on Twitter appear to be the same.  Paul maintains his innocence regarding the allegation and is taking advice from GMB Union regarding an appeal.

The club will stand by Paul and his family during this time and I sincerely hope everyone at the club, and all within rugby league, do likewise.  I am sure that in the face of adversity, and Keighley Cougars has experienced plenty of adversity over the past 20 years, we will be strong and use this negative as an empowering positive for the rest of the season.  We are not beaten, nor broken, and I am sure our team will want do their talking on the pitch and support their Head Coach by delivering results for him, so he can walk back into the stadium at around 5.15pm with a big grin on his face.

The journey to success is never smooth.  If it was everyone would be successful.  This is a bump in the road we will manage and I ask everyone at the club and rugby league everywhere to give Paul their full support.

Gary Fawcett - Chairman

Very bad news at this stage in the season. Id say it seems perhaps unfair to leave us without a coach for two months.

Everyone has mixed views on Marchy, I personally think he's a good asset and is proving a good coach. Sadly he's been hung drawn and quartered, Im guessing he is not innocent and he probably deserves it.

Unfortunately this leaves us without a coach and we need one. Verdict is for me he probably should get the sack. Gross misconduct for leaving the club in the sh*t

Read Gary's statement in full , the Club took two witnesses to the hearing who were present at the time of the alleged incident and spoke up for Marchy.

There's no doubt that his ,shall we say colourful, past has counted against him but in this instance he's been royally screwed by the RFL.

Ridiculous, unprecedented, spiteful and very typical. I hope this will give the team every reason to go out and make sure we show those who must be obeyed that they can't keep Cougars down and I hope we will all support Marchy through this period. C'mon Cougars!

FFS all we needed. What a crazy decision at this stage of the season.

Can we appeal this?

The puishment is ridiculous, but in terms of the offence presumably the official(s) believed they were abused and the RFL found in their favour? Sounds a bit like 'plebgate'.

As Gary states we are in talks with GMB and their Legal representation.

Can he go in the tower outside the stadium and use a radio? Maybe stand on the garage roof? Well if the club are standing by him then fair enough I just hope there's a good match day coach

I won't comment on whether the offences are right or wrong because all the information seen is 2nd hand
What I do know , and was taught when playing any sport, is the match official is right.
Yes they make mistakes, welcome to being a human being, but the skill is to accept this happens and will continue to happen.
There are official ways of "complaining".

A 2 month stadium ban seems very severe considering it is comments made to an official. Especially if there were two witnesses supporting him. I think clearly unlike a legal court he is guilty until proved innocent... and his past indiscretions have been allowed to affect judgement. It feels there's been a recent surge of comments by coaches against the officials, so to me this feels like an unfair statement by the rfl that they don't want the referees to be criticised... I hope this ban gets shortened, it just feels very unjustified.

A player could physically kill another and receive less

This is not good

Yes I have read Garys statement and think that's good on him for backing marchy, he either had to go out and do that or wash his hands with him

But Im telling you now as a former referee that has had plenty of verbal abuse too- There is no way they would make this kind of thing up, they certainly have nothing to gain from it. There has to be substance end of or that ban would not have come.

This is gonna make or break not just marchys season but the club as a whole with the whole relegation thing

We must win this weekend

Let's face it. All true supporters know that the RFL have never been able to organise a 'booze-up-in-a-brewery' (to put it in polite terms) and they never respond to queries raised by supporters.

Although I have had concerns about Paul March in the past, everyone needs to stand up for their beliefs, and Paul has.

Even MICKY 1920's video of the Leigh game showed that the final pass, from which they scored their winning try, was forward, so why can't a cheating referee be criticised?

CORRUPTION REIGNS AT RED HALL!

Without knowing the specifics of the incident, I wouldn't suggest the referee would make up something against Marchy, but two human beings can remember identical events very differently. When there are preconceptions, perhaps caused by the fact Marchy was already banned for comments to the officials, it makes it easier to think something different to what is actually said. I'm not saying that is the case, just that referees are human and they are slaves to human psychology....

Guilty or innocent, 2 months is a long ban. In my opinion where there has been no precedent I'm aware of and there's been no mention of any guidelines for this type offence that has been mentioned.
All that said C'mon Cougars, let's raise our game even more and keep on winning!

As Marchy is also a player the RFL are, in effect, restricting him plying his trade as a professional player and leaves us one player down for the two month period. They may be doing us a favour and we will lift our game, as I am sure we can, and give some teams a right bending.

I entirely agree with this.

However, referee and RFL bashing has been on the rise from SL coaches and directors, some of it bordering on libel, and it makes you wonder if the RFL are using this incident as a warning to others. Let's face it, they would not dare do this to a SL club in the same circumstances.

It's a bit like arguing against the Police, the courts will nearly always believe the official.

Makes this critical season very difficult now.

The news article was top of the BBC news on the BBC Rugby League site prior to the Friday night matches. I hope the RFL are happy that a clear message has been sent and would be prepared to shorten it.... Being banned from the stadium is a step up from the playing ban he received, which makes sense given he was purely coaching at the time, but the ban being 2 months rather than 1 months screams to me disproportionate justice at the hands of judge, jury and executioner: the RFL.

I agree with Lawkholme Len, I think are squad can still play really well without Marchy present at games, but they need to be switched on, committed and focused. We can get through this, let's kick off with a good win tomorrow!
C'mon Cougars!

Paul March has been one of our better players and has been able to up the tempo when coming in off the bench. However, we have a number of quality players on the injury list who must be close to returning.

We will need to feed off this ban for motivation but stay focused. It's all too easy to fall into the "they've all got it in for us" trap.

I think I would be banging on the door of a stand-in pitchside coach on match days only such as Paul Moses or Keith Dixon just for the two moths.

IMHO we've players experienced enough in Tiger ,Buster ,Shick ,White and Lindsay that should be able to play coach-less on a match day, plus a highly experienced heads in Adam Mitchell and Paul Royston on the sidelines

Fully agree, unless Brian Noble would volunteer to help Marchy as well for a couple of months.

The players mentioned are just that, players, and sometimes when involved in the rough a tough of the game cannot see things that someone in the gantry, or on the sidelines can see. Good players don't necessarily make good coaches as we all know. I agree with Len, budget allowing is there scope to get someone in short term. This is a crucial season and 2 months is a long time.

Whilst Adam and Paul have their merits, both are qualified fitness coaches. I know Adam played the game and coached one of the Bradford teams at ammeter level, but does he really have the qualification/experience at this level on his own?

Football tends to have the finances to screen matches to the suspended coach who can be in contact with his staff on match days. I'm not sure we have that same luxury. Given the severity of the penalty it wouldn't surprise me in the RFL policed this very intrusively.