More to the point, how have Salford successfully appealed Briely’s ban? Direct contact to the head with a swinging arm, but now it’s not.

It's all bollox

Most worrying times I can remember for the game. I get the current climate, but spectacle getting lower and lower….

Honestly, the pearl clutching over this is a bit OTT.
The WCC will be played under international rules, contact with the head is still illegal, and the NRL have have been cracking down on head contact for years now, so it likely won't make any difference to game anyway.

As for the cards and bans, how many of them wouldn't have resulted in a ban or a card last season?

Agree on the NRL stance on head height tackles. However, it has also said it has no intention of following suit with regard to RFL tackle height changes, so clearly their insurers are ok with their current stance. Same with WCC. We're told RFL insurers have demanded the changes the RFL has instigated. No idea if this is right or wrong but clearly there are other insurance options. Are they affordable for the game here? Again, I dont know, but to say that the only option was for these changes to be made or there would be no game is wrong. Also bizarre that players weren't involved in any of the discussions. They clearly feel that way too.

It's not wrong. Insurers costs have doubled in the last few years, and there is talk of premiums tripling or quadrupling in price again if changes aren't made. Perhaps if we had the money the NRL and their clubs have we could take the hit, but we don't.
In the NFL, they have a dozen doctors at every game and a billion dollar annual fund which they use to compensate players with brain injuries. If RL was forced was forced to do something similar then there's no way it could survive financially.

Personally, I think the changes will have a positive impact in the long-term. Sure, it's annoying at the moment, but over time, it will reduce the wrestling and speed the game up, and increase the number of offloads in the game.

Nobody has summed it up more succinctly.
I once again question the integrity of the RFL and the disciplinary panel, including ex players who sit on it whoever they may be. I’ve had my say on the Harry Smith conspiracy, but equally worrying is the RFL’s overt disinterest in the punch thrown by Franklin Pele in the melee following his head shot on Minchella. I’ve just watched it again to make sure I’m not going mad, and there he is throwing a punch into a player with his back turned. It’s not subtle, it’s not open to debate, he throws a massive raking punch. No charge !! Compare this to James McDonell being charged late last season when Saint Johnny Of Lomax told an official he had been punched by McDonell who was subsequently sent off and charged. Yes he was found not guilty by the disciplinary, but he was sent off and charged on the say so of another player with absolutely no evidence whatsoever. There was no punch, there was nothing to see, there was no offence. Compare and contrast that with someone throwing the most obvious punch you will ever see, that is then totally ignored like it never happened. Something is rotten at the RFL, and the worrying thing for me is that they aren’t even trying to hide it. They say that sport mirrors life, and I’ve got to say Rugby League is mirroring the corruption we see in everyday life better than any other sport at the moment.

So Pele reduced and Watts upheld. Wouldnt blame Watts for jacking it in. Hes copped some justified suspensions but this is not the first time hes been harshly treated compared to others. It is indeed bollox

Watts has a terrible disciplinary record and he challenged the charge, and the grading. Pele pleaded guilty and doesn't have a bad disciplinary record (over here, at least). So the punishments given were never going to be identical.

I’m not sure that Pele gets a reduced penalty because he’s just landed on these shores. It’s a bit like saying a home grown criminal that’s racked up a couple of previous convictions deserves a tougher sentence than an immigrant who maybe has fled his homeland having murdered people ? I’m not saying Pele has like


I would say only the current season’s offences could or should be taken into account .

Another game marred by a pointless red card. Fortunately I've got a good book I can read instead.

Wouldn’t be surprised to see Donno get a match or two ban after HKR. At least we’ll have to pick a prop at prop then.