To keep this on track, Bailey's pushed the ref in my eyes this is him following a line of stupid behaviour as a player.

Agreed I've seen worse however you can't push the ref, now I've not seen the CC semi-final 2010 so I cant vouch for his performance. However I am constantly surprised to see him still in the Leeds Squad considering the quality of players around him. I can't remember a "great" game from him personally (again from my memory).

Perhaps the coaches see something I don't, maybe he's a good player and I'm blinkered?

Again I go back to Brown incident, I don't see how Brown getting high shotted is Browns fault. Bailey picks him up and smacks him one for no reason, he goes looking for it against a smaller player. Thats how I personally see Bailey every game, which is very different to how I look at players like Peacock and Leuleui.

Again my thoughts, my opinion, stupid play from what could be a good player.

Indeed. He might have got away with a lighter punishment, with a different attitude:

Say excuse me, sir? Nah, his [ionly[/i choice was to push the referee in the back.

Have you even seen the incident?

It was an absolute non incident. He shouldnt have been charged with anything let alone a 3 game ban! What is he supposed to do. It was just the same as when you brush past somebody walking down the street. The person who should have been charged was Silverwood for incompetent refereeing. Also why was Westwood not banned for a cheap shot on Webb that bizarrely ended up in a penalty to Wire!

Think it was very harsh to ban Bails for an incident like this. Although it is setting a standard now.

Main problem is, we see this week in, week out. So will we see consistency, or just every incident similar to this dismissed?

I expect it to be the latter.

The standard for pushing referees was set ages ago. There have been other bans for interfering with the ref. I think it has its own minimum ban doesn't it? They are the officials and whether we hate them or despise them, they are to be respected and Bailey wouldn't recognise the word 'respect' if it hit him around the ears.

I think the word 'petulance' used in the quote taken from the Panel feedback was interesting. Petulance is usually used to describe childish behaviour. That about sums up Bailey. He got what he deserved. He knows the rules and he knows that referees are untouchable, as they should be. The game will be 100% better without him in it.

Nail on head

I have no problem with the ban. You can't deliberately push a ref, even if they are stopping you from tackling someone. If Bailey's attitude post incident added to his ban, sobeit.

As for the rest, the anti Bailey hysteria is indeed classic Bailey. Probably the funniest are those posts that start out attempting to sound rational, then simply fall into the "Why I hate Bailey" tosh. SaintsFan above being a classic example.

BTW another game Bailey did very well in was the 2009 GF against Sts - he and Burgess did a fantastic job from the bench that day. Would I swap him for James Graham? In an instant. Would I swap him for any 2nd/3rd/4th choice prop at any other SL side? Never.

I wonder what it is abvout Ryan Bailey that makes people dislike him so much?

I've never understood why Saints fans make this comparison. Is Bailey there to compete with Graham? No. It'd be like comparing Paul Clough to Jamie Peacock.