Marist Rugby League Club have decided to appeal last week's Whangarei and Districts Rugby League decision to punish them, after three of their players bunked off Bartercard Cup duty and played for their club. The club's senior team manager John Komene said they had fully investigated the matter and would nowtake their case to the New Zealand Rugby League. "We believe the guys were genuine in their reasons for not wanting to play Bartercard that weekend, so we've got them all to put that down in writing and we'll take it to the next level," he said. Komene did not want to discuss specifics of the appeal but said the club would appeal the entire ruling handed out by the WDRL's judicial committee, even though the main point of contention was the severity of the penalties handed out to the club's players. The club was docked two points for their win over Kaikohe on June 24 but Kaikohe did not receive the points. Instead Woody Maihi, Cruize Neho and James Harris - the players who took part in the game after earlier making themselves unavailable for the Northern Storm's match against Waicoa Bay the following day - received the brunt of the judiciary's displeasure. All three were all handed two-game suspensions from the WDRL competition but they were also banned from playing any representative rugby league for the rest of the season and it is the latter ruling that has caused Marist the most consternation. ``That's really what we want lifting, Woody (Maihi) has been very much in the minds of the New Zealand Maori selectors this year but at the moment he's right out of sight,' Komene said. NZ Rugby League competitions commissioner Kevin Bailey said the appeal could be heard within a week after arriving at Rugby League House, depending on which appeals committee it went to.
