I remember the match and there was a Saints player who tackled Deacon in goal. There was nothing mentioned about it at the time, similar to how Burgess stiff arm on Frodsham was deemed a great tackle, that knocked the lad out.

I'm not in favour of players getting penalize by the nnumber of matches missed by the player injured. Very unassuming tackles can cause injury.

Hard to see much of anything from the Vine feed. He went in fast and with seeing in greater detail it's hard to see where the initial impact was. Anyone who can see more than a blur is not telling the truth. It could be very dirty or bounced up off the ball, I'm assuming the penalty of 3 matches means it did not slip up off the ball.

I defo remember the Vagana one as pretty cheap & nasty. Deacon had his arms locked in a tackle with Vagana coming over the top. Deacons face was a real mess after, although he did walk off the field if I remembered right.

It was Wilkin ....believe me 100%

Hard to tell if it was intentional off that little clip. Looks high and obviously hit the jaw but hard to tell off that little shot if it was deliberate.

Quote: Sunshine state "And who trained John Wilkin when he rearranged Paul Deacons mouth when he played for Bradford and was out for 6 months, don't remember that do you?'" Do you mean this one? www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/rugbyl ... njury.html www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyl ... rgery.html

Quote: Sunshine state "And who trained John Wilkin when he rearranged Paul Deacons mouth when he played for Bradford and was out for 6 months, don't remember that do you?'" Do you mean this one? www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/rugbyl ... njury.html www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyl ... rgery.html

The one I'm on about was at Bradford but tell you what just ask his mum and his Aunty they know who it was....stop making out Saints play with halos round their necks

If the only example you can come up with is from 10 years ago, you're really scraping the barrell... You're comparing one incident from 10 years ago to a string of incidents involving McIlorum.

Have you ever wished you didn't get yourself involved in a conversation?

Why should he? Wilkin nearly finished Deacons career. Paul Forber, Sunny Nickle, Paul Davidson all thugs. Loved by Saints fans.

Enforcers are lived by their own fans hated by opposition. Most if us are drawn to the game because if the gladiatorial element of it. Every now and again it spills over. It happens. Move on.

Go watch t & p or football if you don't want to watch players push it to the limit, and pushing it sometimes means you step over it. It is part of what gets the passion flowing.

Terry Newton was a great example, loved by Wigan hated by everyone else, signs for Bradford, loved by Bradford and Wigan. Signs for Wakefield loved by fans of all 3 clubs. Lesson to be learned? Most fans are fickle blinkered morons.

McIllorum an enforcer He's the typical Maguire/Wane grunt. An average player and a thug lacking in basic intelligence. Newton was the same, utterly pathetic in the 'enforcer' role, never playing his cards at the right time and just becoming an utter liability.

Wilkin ... An enforcer? Really? ... Really? Wilkin is a great many things (and was prone to acts of stupidity when he was younger) an "enforcer" was never one!

Like Wilkin, mm is drawn to these moments of stupidity, however, as time went on, Wilkin grew out of them, where as if anything mm seems caught up in these incidents more and more.

Enforcers are good for the game, I agree, but nothing in that 12 second clip was to do with enforcing, or being tough or any other positive spin. Stupid at best, reckless at most probable, and thuggish at worst

There is a fine line between enforcers and thugs, historically the goons do encourage the stepping over of the line on a regular basis.
Newton for example could have broken the jaws of Gardener, Gilmour and Long in just one match, luckily he only managed to do it with the one player who now has facial problems for life.
Smith the forward was another example who was warned in the NRL about his raising of the knees, goons came along and signed him so he could carry on his thuggery, the end result was a career ending injury to the shoulder sockets of John Stankevitch had to stop plaing the game 5 years before his time.
Finally we had the goons signing up Madge for his dirty techniques campaign, up to then we never heard of the "chicken wing" and "cannon ball" tackles which can put a player out for a season or career.

An average player with lesser skills will use effort/aggression to compensate. Fans will like them for always putting in the effort for their team.

I would not confuse this with enforcers. Enforcers can be thugs but can be decent players. The best enforcers will dominate by presence. Thugs take cheap shots.

An enforcer will stand his ground and fists will fly. A thug makes a cheap shot during a tackle. Enforcers wwould be nickle

Damn pressed send mid flow.