Rugby League-NRL clubs face fines for ball-squirting trainers
SYDNEY (Reuters) -Two National Rugby League teams are facing A$10,000 ($6,431) fines as punishment for on-pitch trainers dousing the ball with water from drinks bottles to make it harder to catch during a match in Townsville last weekend.
Reigning champions Penrith Panthers and North Queensland Cowboys were locked up at 30-30 last Saturday after the regulation 80 minutes, sending the game into "golden point" extra time.
Panthers trainer Shane Elford, who also serves as the club's general manager of football, was spotted by the referee squirting the ball with liquid from a drinks bottle before his team kicked off the first extra period.
Another ball was brought onto the field but it later transpired that home trainer Mitch Dunn had been spotted by officials doing the same thing before another kickoff during extra time.
The NRL on Friday served the clubs breach notices, giving them five days to respond or accept the fines along with two-game bans for the offending trainers.
"During the match, trainers from both clubs were observed squirting liquid onto the football prior to kick restarts of play, in contravention of the NRL Rules," the league said in a statement.
"The NRL has ... reminded all clubs about the limitations of the roles of trainers on match days."
In the event, neither team was able to score during the additional 10 minutes and the match finished in a draw, a relative rarity in the league since sudden-death extra time was introduced in 2003.
($1 = 1.5550 Australian dollars)
(Reporting by Nick Mulvenney, editing by Peter Rutherford)
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