Quote: Bullseye "Storm in a teacup'"
Not so sure. RL as a game is utterly dependent on all players, no matter how pumped up or angry, absolutely respecting the referee's right to make the decisions without fear. You might think he's a blind/biased/incompetent git, and you can swear about him to your mates behind the sticks or in the dressing room, but you cannot ever threaten him verbally or physically. Cross that line and the game is done for. It's bad enough having soccer players running in to surround and try to physically intimidate their refs, but in RL, with our hyper-aggressive blokes who are paid to bash each other ? Very, very dangerous. That's why Graham's ban in Oz is quite right, and why Hock's bans were correct too.
I thought Gale should have been given a ban for that, even if Thaler was willing to pretend he thought it wasn't deliberate (it clearly was - I'm a lot less agile than Gale, but I could have avoided walking into Thaler in the same position). Certainly if an amateur player deliberately walked into me like that in a game, I'd send him straight off. Otherwise, you really are inviting much worse to come.