In refusing to grant the appeal president of the NRL appeals committee, Sir Laurence Street, said in a statement: ''This application for leave to appeal falls within a small compass although I recognise that the outcome is of great importance to the Bulldogs.

''The application has been well and thoroughly argued by senior counsel for the Bulldogs and the NRL but in my view an appeal to the tribunal does not have good prospects of success and it follows that leave to appeal must be refused.

''The undisputed fact is that the Bulldogs had 14 players on the field when they scored the winning try.

''The presence of the 14th player was due to an error by a Bulldogs official.

''The prohibition against 14 players is clear and specific and a club that breaches the rule must expect to receive a significant penalty.''

NRL chief executive David Gallop said given the scope of legal submissions which required adjudication, clubs needed to rethink their attitudes towards the appeals process.

''This has been drawn out more than it should and I think there is a real danger of clubs becoming 'over-lawyered' in their approach to appeals,'' he said.

''We provide an appeal process so that clubs can test whether our decisions are within the scope of our rules, without having to go to the expense and the time delays of the court system.''

Bulldogs chief executive Todd Greenberg said the club accepted the decision.

''We are disappointed not to receive leave to appeal but have received a fair hearing.

''We are now happy to move on,'' he said. AAP