You couldn't be any further from the truth mate.

You with Jose Mourhino have massively got it all wrong.

Zak did what he did against Wire and was punished for it, whether the majority of people agree with that sort of action or not. He admitted it, he accepted his punishment, and did work in the community to pay something back.

From that he made a lot of changes to his life. One you will see in a few weeks. Another was to settle down, and from that he asked his on off partner who went to the USA earlier this year to return, and become a couple, and move in together. With regards Friday night he is absolutely adamant nothing at all was said from him to offend anyone. Furthermore it now transpires that the investigation taking place has also moved on regarding apparent comments made by Flanagan also.

Despite Zak's innocence, the RFL over reacted, and released his name to the media despite no charges. Because of this not only has Zak received a lot of incorrect critisism, but his parents and family have also received it. After Warrington it had died down and was yesterday's chip paper. This has reignited it and made it worse. All could have being avoided had the RFL just acted professionally. And this despite the lad putting in so much effort to change people's perception, hence the support from canalsiders.

I was highly critical of Silverwood yesterday, but now it appears he is just a pawn in this mess, and has been used poorly.

I've said elsewhere that I'm not interested in players personal lives and that's true. What people do with their personal lives is their own business.

However. He's a young sportsman with more money to spend than he's probably ever had in his life. He really, really, really doesn't need to be settling down at this age. Tying himself down to one woman, especially one who seems to have been on an exciting journey of her own, just seems really, really dumb to me.

Like I said. Not my business. It's his life. Settling down could be perfect for him and they could spend the next 60 years together. But I doubt it.



He can insist that off the record but both him and Leeds have actually fallen short of saying that publicly. Smells fishy to me.



Great, even more people to round up as witches.



Who made you the judge?



All the fans and the media knew his name already. There was already a storm brewing before he was named.



The RFL could have done better. So could Zak. So could Leeds.



So has he been proved not to be a witch, or is he a maybe right now? And are you certain of this or will it change tomorrow?

you calling gotcha a judge? you and others have already condemned him ffs.
the RFL have bungled this as much as it is possible to do.

Of course there was. But there was a reason that the press didn't report anything until after the RFL statement. The frothings were on the same forums, often from the same posters, who a few weeks ago were insisting that Hardaker be prosecuted for aggravated assault after a "clear gouge" on Chris Hill, thanks to Vines, slanted photographs and other instruments. They're not exactly the most reliable bunch of "witnesses". And what they were saying was slanderous, and if the press straight reported to that they'd be open to charges too.

It needed the RFL statement for any story to printed without risk to the press and the consequent oh-so-positive headlines and the snowballing of abuse towards Hardaker and the exposure of the story, which still seems a baseless accusation, to those that know little or nothing of Rugby League. This is the "duty of care" that GH talks about in his statement and that the RFL have failed in.

If you're looking for who's made mistakes in this saga, the RFL are top of the list and Hetherington's pretty much nowhere.

Because of how it's been allowed to pan out It won't stand up in any court

Hetherington's pretty much thrown Silverwood into the flames just as much as Zak was.

Silverwood might have made massive mistakes but he could also be utterly blameless in this.

Just as an example of how you can remember things after the event because you were distracted.

Me and my friend were talking in the break room one day and another colleague came in and made a comment that the drink he was holding was "compliments of the company". So he was basically admitting theft to us. But that comment was forgotten because we were then fully engaged with discussing pretty awesome and funny gossip about some other colleagues.

The next day I think we were sat in the car on the way to work when one of us said "Do you remember what **** said when he came in the room yesterday" and we both instantly recalled what the daft prick had said. We were both mad at him for bragging about theft to us, because by doing that we were complicit in it. So I had to warn the fool that if he wanted to steal that it was his own stupid decision but he shouldn't be telling us because we don't want to know.

So I can accept that maybe Silverwood did hear it and didn't recall it until later. Not ideal in the circumstances, but he should be able to explain how it occured if asked properly.

But Leeds seem to be calling him out before he even has a chance to explain.

Leeds are wrong for that and they should have treated Silverwood with the respect they wish Zak to be treated with.

That's a massive assumption you are making there!
The RFL has to be seen to address it IF he has done anything wrong. The fact that there was such a fuss made in the press, tv and social media about an allegation meant they had to be seen to investigate it. The complaints about him being named are laughable given if he hadn't been it would have little difference to Zak since everybody would know who they were investigating and could have made things worse for him and the RFL as they would be accused of covering for Leeds.
The fact is we don't know the TRUE facts about who has reported what or what evidence there may or not be. Making assumptions about guilt or lack of it is pointless.

[sizeRIGHT LET'S JUST PUT THIS INTO PERSPECTIVE... AND YES I'M SHOUTING.[/size

Zak hasn't done anything wrong... remember innocent until proven guilty.

Zak hasn't been proven guilty ergo he is innocent.

People saying that he has been silly, daft, stupid, homophobic (on this occasion) have absolutely no grounds to do so.

Whilst a delightful work based tale it's a completely ridiculous comparison. Are you employed to spot and hear all work colleagues crimes? Doesn't sound like it. Silverwood is paid and expected to spot all misdemeanours whether physical or verbal. That Child didn't act too at the time then the "they both just forgot at the time but remembered several hours after the game" is without doubt the most ridiculous claim I seen put forward about this whole saga and you're not the only one to come up with such stubborn daftness.

Blowing a kiss at an opponent less than a month after returning from a ban for a homophobic comment.

That's not silly, daft, stupid?

i've refereed for 20 years and never, ever recalled a comment that i'd forgotten earlier. in fact players can spout loads of swearwords at you and you remember every single one as you report it later

so if your employer announced to the national media that you were under investigation for homophobic abuse in the workplace and hadn't bothered to actually tell you or summoned you to any kind of disciplinary hearing you wouldnt consider that would do you any kind of professional or personal reputational harm?

That seems to be a case of grasping at straws. So after there is a big social media poo storm about homophobic abuse (allegedly) he suddenly remembers yes I did hear some?
Don't think the club have acted badly the RFL took the first shot Leeds are standing by their player

No.

As an employee I was under strict instructions to report any suspicions of theft to my employee, as we all were. By knowing of theft and refusing to report it I could have been found complicit about it.

Just as me and my friend heard him allude to stealing things, it was also possible that someone else could have overheard and reported the conversation.

Me and my friend could have also been sacked.



You've reffed many games of SL rugby?

I think refs see and hear tonnes of things that they quickly ignore because they are under such massive pressure. IMO refs will hear threats of violence all the time that they have to forget because someone else has made a break and is going to score.

I'm not a fan of Silverwood, or any ref. A ref's a ref and part of their job is to take about whenever they make a decision against my team. But Silverwood is one of the top refs in SL and deserves the benefit of the doubt as much as anyone.

If he's made an error in any way then he should be given a proper hearing, not the abuse he is getting.

If all the people throwing abuse at Silverwood can do better than they should STFU and take his job. I've never tried reffing, but I doubt if I put in ten years at it I'd come close to matching Silverwood. And I happen to think I know a fair amount about RL.

So I don't want Silverwood to be given mindless and incorrect abuse any more than I want Zak to receive it. We are all RL people, we should effing well act like it.