I guess what I meant is that yes, the club have the option of disciplining the player for circumstances that were outside of their control but they have no obligation to do so.

The law is there to punish people for criminal offences. If the club want to take further action - cool. If they don't - cool.

Professional comparisons are a little bit twee. If you hold an accreditation (for example I'm a chartered accountant) and get convicted of a crime, it casts doubt on your character and trustworthiness to the extent that you may not be considered suitable to fulfil your role. The same sort of level of trust and duty of care don't apply to RL players.

Sure I wouldn't want Leon Pryce as my accountant/lawyer/local policeman. Good job he's a RL player and a bloody good one.

Read him only after a game, the column you are adressing really is a case of much of a muchness and is merly tabloid fluff to fill up a page in the YEP that cats up trees"stories" and YEP reader holiday offers cant.

Community service should be scrubbing graffiti off walls or some other ball breaking menial task etc , His last 120 hours was coaching kids at his former club a role which he has since taken up again a few months ago ( conveniently ) as his son plays there now.

I'd much rather Leon Pryce was coaching my kid to play RL than scrubbing walls.

Real deterent that



Most players do that cause they WANT to not cause they HAVE to

I think he was compairing Walker and Baileys incident to the Cockayne incident. And after watching the online vidoe footage of what Cockayne did i was pretty shocked.

That is an excellent article. Best thing Smith has written in some time. Have the Saints knee jerkers on this thread actually read it? There's no anti-Saints or Pryce agenda in it at all.

He does bring up the Bailey and Walker incidents and isn't simply ranting for leon to be banned. He asks some interesting questions and I agree wholeheartedly with his conclusion.

Its' time the RFL introdcued a policy on off field behaviour and enforced it.

The NFL are doing it, the NRL are doing it. We should be whether it affects Leeds, Saints or any players.

Indeed he does. I knew the knee jerk reaction it would get and it's made me laugh. Maybe it was my thread title...

Should a governing body be able to decide on behalf of a commercial organisation who they can and cannot employ based on their conduct outside the workplace?

If I pass my ATT exams and subsequently get convicted of a violent criminal offence, should the ATT or CIOT be able to prevent me from earning a living in tax for as long as they think is appropriate?

Yeah he obviously has an anti-Saints agenda:

"Unlike many in the sport, this writer has no problem with Pryce and Reardon avoiding jail time. There are far more dangerous characters out there and it's doubtful if locking either of them up would have served any useful purpose."

But yeah he is calling for them to be 'strung up'.

Also its not very clear why he brings up the Bailey/Walker incident but while that was obviously more severe they were both young and also (IIRC) it was their first offence, unlike Pryce where we all know his history.

Agree, most of the negative comments are probs from people who havnt read the full article.

He does'nt keep the Bailey and Walker incident out of it. He brings it up. The facts are the Pryce and Reardon incident was all over the radio station i listen to. Non rugby leaguie followers would have heard that and would be put off Rugby League by it.

Do the RFL want to sit back and let these type of headlines overwrite the positive things that happen every week in Rugby League? Because that has happened over the last few weeks.