If someone makes contact with the head, they are the agressor. In reality it'd be 10 mins in the bin each I would have said. In the real world, that equates to a night in the cells

Once again a certain poster with an opinion so wide of the mark it's unbelievable. Slater the aggressor? Give over.

Very poor attempt at a wind up from Gotcha

If I had pushed / slapped / punched (or whatever term you wise to attach to it) someone in the side of the head, I wouldn't be surprised to get a dig back.

I meaning 'non-aggressive' before the shove/slap and Slater punching him. No the police would have done the same with any other bloke.

Gotcha, are you being serious?

I have been quite clear on that. I would have acted the same way had I been Slater, but I would also have punched Slater for putting in his hands on me also the way he did. I certainly wouldn't have shoved him back.

For me the lads actions were one of retaliation to Slater putting his hands on him first, and Slaters aggressive behaviour of the punch were down to the other guy shoving him.

I do not see any self defence in what Slater did, he was the cause of the problem, both in pushing in, in arguing with the guy, in putting his hands on the guy first, and then in punching the guy smack in the face.

In SL 2013 - I'd suggest relatively few clear-cut punches to the head (retaliatory or not) were dealt with so leniently. Even fewer if thrown at a player looking the other way. It was a rather flippant point though - hopefully after the sanitised World Cup is over we can have our game back - warts an all.

It's the first punch up I've seen involving an NRL player in years where a decent punch actually connects.

Still a long to go till he gets to Gordon Tallis levels

Except Lee Briers

I guess that would have to be classed as one of the few of the relatively few - Ablett does appear to have one of those faces.

So Slater tries to go back in a Club for his Coat. Some Clown thinks "Holy Wonderwall! This guy is Queue Jumping, I think I'm hard so I'll slap his Face." Slater feels the side Slap and takes his jaw clean off. I think this is standard for doylems starting trouble. RFL Rules and UK Law aren't the same and this was self-defense. Believe me, if Slater had ignored him, he would have done summat else.

There's a great post on the TOTALRL forum - someone commented if the Aussies were stopping in Newcastle, Slater would have got a slap for having a coat !

This.

The first aggression seems to come from the other guy. I am struggling a bit to see where the ongoing threat to Slater is that he feels the need to defend himself from, and whether it was necessary to defend himself in that way.

Which in no way amounts to any sympathy for the mystery assailant. Any kind of slap to the head in that situation counts as picking a fight where I come from. From his point of view don't start nothing, won't be nothing.