I presumed it was awarded to him for being the dumbest player in Super League.

If not, my bad.

I appreciate that referees get it wrong and are often found by the disciplinary to have overreacted. However I'd prefer to witness a few miscarriages of justice than have referees ducking out of tough decisions.

The laws of the game state that the referee's power to temporarily dismiss a player should not be used as an excuse for not sending off a player for conduct warranting dismissal. It seems as though these days it would be appropriate to also include the 'on-report' process to this instruction. It's a total cop-out.

Using your example, of what benefit was Carl Ablett's 3 match ban to Wigan? Imagine Tomkins had suffered a broken jaw and was out for the season, and that Leeds had gone on to win that game. Do you think that Wigan would feel sufficiently recompensed by Ablett receiving an enforced rest before the CC final?

Double post.

ablett should have walked but tompkins brother should have gone too. But i suppose if you don't get carded for kicking a player who's defenceless on the floor you are pretty much immune

Agreed. He got quite a rep last year for being a dirty git Mr J Tompkins, granted to the main he did back it up but this year im sure a few players will have thier eyes open for him.

Would you? We will have to agree to differ on that one in that case. I want to see a contest between 13 players as much as is humanly possible, even if that means iffy challenges (which will invariably happen both ways over the course of eighty minutes anyway) being referred after the event.



In what sense is it a total cop out? It is used where the officials are unsure regarding the absolute nature of the challenge in question. In a high impact, high speed sport that would be most of the time. Ganson often reacts to a iffy/bad challenge after being advised to do so by the video referee. The instance you refer to (Morley at the JJB) being a prime example of such a case. Left to his own devices it often goes on report, the same as the rest of the referees.



That would have been unfortunate but injuries are a part of the game and you have to suck it up when they happen and get on with it.

It was used as a fairly recent and obvious example of Steve Ganson's unwillingness to send off a player to counter the argument that he relishes the prospect to do so.

The game has never been more professional and the days of the serial hatchet man are long gone.

When the comical antics of Ryan Bailey are about as bad as it gets you know the game doesn't have a problem with discipline that requires games to be decided by referees over-reacting to mis-timed challenges.

That's not to say I believe there is never a need to send off. Leon Pryce's cowardly attack from behind on Kevin Sinfield (CC - 2002) being an example of thuggery that has no place in the game. Ironically he wasn't although that time it was Russell Smith who again had a reputation for getting the red card out.

First competitive club game for over 4 months.
Local derby against Dulls.
New coach.
Injuries to key players.
Opponents have 10 new faces.

And somehow Ganson manages to take over the thread.

Well, he'll be delighted, he always wants to be the centre of attention.

It's this fact as to why I think we've got the hardest match!!

When the MM fixtures were announced, the Dulls were complaining because their match was "statistically harder than any other" given that they were playing a team that finished 6 places above them, and everybody else is 2 or 3 places. But I'd like to argue that we have the harder task. They've got 3 or 4 years worth of footage to study of pretty much the same team. We've got nothing!

10 new players AND a new coach... how the hell are we supposed to prepare for that?!

There all journeymen, rejects, or "hasbeens". I'm sure the club would have seen enough of them over the years to not be too concerned.

For example playing Crusaders first game of last season was a much harder situation, as they had all new players that had come from other countries.

And we struggled to beat them.
As long as we play our own game and play to our strengths we should not have to worry what team the Dulls put out.
But like what has already been said.
It is not as if we don`t know the majority of their players anyway.

I know what you are saying but I would still take an established squad over a team which could well take a while to gel.

As a realistic Bulls fan I am expecting for it to take a while to get the players up to speed, hopefully we can still give you a good game on Sunday though.

Quotes:

There all journeymen, rejects, or "hasbeens". I'm sure the club would have seen enough of them over the years to not be too concerned.

As long as we play our own game and play to our strengths we should not have to worry what team the Dulls put out.

Wow, it sounds like you guys already have this one in the bag.

Not all of us think that. I certainly dont anyway. Its never straight forward against Bulls and Sunday will be no different. Could go either way imo. I just hope Leeds are reborn, ruthless and a really solid outfit under McD.

It's exciting times for both clubs and I don't think there could be a better start to the season. Hopefully the game will be allowed to flow and it will be a cracker.