Congratulations on addressing none of the points made by bewareshadows. The irony of (some)Warrington fans trying to preach a morality lesson to St. Helens is off the scale. Seems a real victim culture at Warrington. Even tried to blame away fans for someone putting a brick through a coach window. Always someone else’s fault. Still I’m sure their dreadfully tacky marketing department will deflect it all, I expect they’ll have a booking ready to fly a plane over our patch soon.

Hicks made 6 (SIX) incredibly incorrect calls in the space of the first 20 minutes in favour of Warrington. These weren’t 5050s, they were just factually incorrect. The media have done a very good job in implying that McManus’ outburst was about the Knowles call (which was single handedly worse then every incorrect decision from last night combined), but just as wrong was the Grace “knock on” that blatantly hit a Warrington player first and ricocheted off Grace, which lead to the drop out which lead to Warringtons first try. I could go through all of them, but I have very deliberately avoided the whole topic for quite some time. Saints, as with the playoff game and final play by putting high pressure on their opponents and playing off the back of mistakes. For 20 minutes that day the pressure valve was let off time and again with these decisions. Of course Saints could and should have responded better, and we’re left rattled for the majority of the rest of the game and Warrington were well worth their win from there.

For those criticising Kendalls performances - I have only seen about 3 specific examples given, and I responded to 1 of them as evidencing why the correct decision was actually given (the Dudson knock on - which was the same as the LMS knock on on 79 minutes, the Inu knock on - which was just the correct decision and I’m not sure what the claim the decision should have been? And the ball steal which I absolutely accept was a wrong decision but gave an example of the ref getting something wrong the other way). Non of these decisions fall into the category above. What we’re the continuous decisions going in Saints favour to swing the match?

McManus (and others) have questioned the competency of the referees for a while. He hit the nuclear button in frustration as referees are not accountable for their actions as it currently stands, and referencing yet another incompetent reffing performance would be a simple fine and ignore situation, as so many coaches and other chairmen have experienced previously.

How this is being talked about in the context of Kendall’s performance I honestly don’t know. As fans we can sit and debate 5050s all day. It didn’t affect the result in any way and haven’t seen any argument so far to suggest otherwise.

I said at the time the timing of McManus' comments was poor. I think this thread demonstrates why it was poor timing.
Had he raised it with the RFL a few weeks later he would have got far more traction.

In fairness McManus has always been consistent on the issue as Ian Smith was dropped off the back of a complaint by him for attending a sportsmans dinner at the Huddersfield club. This was a couple of days before Saints were due to play Huddersfield.
In the aftermath of the CC cup final the obvious common sense in the point (it still surprises me any ref would have or want to have a twitter account) was lost by those who prioritise feeling over thought.
The small mindedness and petty vindictiveness has remained / returned in force after those comments by McManus, especially from victim club Warrington. Still as my mate Barry Ledger once said ‘if your name isn’t on the cup it means youve not won it...’

As has already been pointed out Warrington have double standard on this as the James Child's issue demonstates, but I would still rather McManus rose above that and raised his issues in a different manner.

When raising issues on deaf ears they remain issues...

Anyway until there’s anything more than “Salford kicked a 4020 but then they knocked it on, but despite the ref penalising Saints/LMS in exactly the same way, I wanted Salford to win so it’s all the refs fault” - the ref shouldn’t really need to be mentioned again.

Tommy Makinson playing with a dislocated shoulder for 38 minutes, Thompson playing 72 minutes like a madman, Hastings trying everything he knew, Coote joining the double winner club - how any of these are being ignored in favour of this ...

Wow. Some complete and utter juvenile nonsense being spouted on here from some Saints fans.

6 incredibly incorrect calls by Hicks in the first 20 mins? That’s just incredibly incorrect.

He only made 9 decisions in total in the first 20 mins of which only 1 was incredibly incorrect:
2 mins - Knowles No Try - should have gone to Video Ref
6 mins - Walmsley knock on
9 mins - Warrington penalty - Saints offside from last tackle kick
12 mins - Turnover - Warrington knock on challenging their own last tackle kick
15 mins - Zero tackle for Warrington - Saints knock on after inside ball from Lomax
16 mins - Percival knock on attempting you take Warrington kick
17 mins - Saints drop out - Coote knocks the ball dead
18 mins - Warrington knock on at the play the ball

It’s nonsense to say 6 of those are even incorrect let alone incredibly incorrect. The only 1 that is is the Knowles No Try and even then the decision that’s wrong was to not use the video ref. If there’d been no video ref I’d have entirely understood the No Try decision.

I’m just enjoying the BBC commentary on now where the ref has barely been mentioned. That and the clown on here who thought the Percival try was offside when it was Percival who kicked the ball. Its showed up the horrendous faux controversy.

can you lot of saints fans now feck off back to the little bubble called the vee now

Saints have been the best team all year (except of course at Wembley).Most RL fans accept that. It's sad however, that a magnificent season has been tarnished by the unsporting behaviour of McManus.

Only because certain small minds chose to bring it up, a predictable preprepared response to a Saints win. Same people trying to whip up faux controversy at the refereeing. Proud of the chairman. An outstanding corporate citizen.

As for the acknowledgment Saints have been the best team its hardly a gesture of magnanimity. A record 16 points clear of second infers its a statement of the obvious.