SUSPENDED Cronulla five-eighth Greg Bird is confident his extensive presentation before the Sharks football club board on Thursday night may win him a reprieve and he is hopeful of continuing to play for the club.

There were expectations before the meeting that Bird may be sacked but the board members decided to defer their decision. The board will meet again on December 16. The Sharks directors, already under significant financial pressure from the global economic downturn, want to fully understand the legal ramifications of any decision.

Bird, 24, his manager Gavin Orr and his legal counsel presented a detailed list of facts in relation to the case and urged the board members to judge the issue on the facts at hand, not on newspaper reports.

It is understood the board was shown examples of the treatment of other wayward footballers facing serious court charges.

Orr said yesterday: "All we did was present the facts and nothing but the facts, and it may be that some of the board members are now reconsidering what they had previously thought may have happened."

Bird, who is signed to the Sharks for another four years, has been stood down from the club since August when he was charged with maliciously inflicting grievous bodily harm in relation to an incident with his girlfriend Katie Milligan. The charge has been downgraded to reckless wounding.

Bird also faces another assault charge and two charges of lying to police when he faces court on April 27.