Yeah but a few Warrington fans behaved like idiots in Catalans so, weirdly, this makes McManus' embarrassing comments null and void.

ALL he had to say was - 'Well done Warrington, however I have concerns over the standard of refereeing in SL currently and we as a sport need to look at how to address this......etc'. I would imagine he'd have had virtually 100% support from all supporters.

What's quite telling, is that no at Saints had the ability to say, "I'm not sure this is a good idea Mr McM…" In the time it took to be written, edited, proofed and sent to the printers, no one could persuade him it wasn't a good idea?

It's almost Trumpian, without the excuse of it being bashed out quickly on Twitter whilst taking a dump.

He owns the club, so basically he can say what he wants.
Personally I would not have players on twitter as it is a sewar, but they don't have to be even handed a player can be as biased as they wish.

I've said all along the timing was wrong and the points could have been made a few weeks after to disassociate the points made about referees and the perception of impartiality from the result of the game.

No saints fan thinks the result of the game was down to the errors made by the officials. That was completely down to saints errors and unfit players and a lack of finals game management.

If he has let a couple of weeks pass and then wrote on reflect that Saints would like the operational rules updated to removed referees from social media and to prevent referees being involved with clubs in the week prior to a match to prevent any perceptions being formed by fans. It would have been far more effective.

No it wouldn't - it would still have been sour grapes, angry old man shouting at the sky, nonsense; he has no right to dictate the social media policy of the RFL, and he certainly has no right to "say what he wants," - without facing censure if what he wants to say violates the operational rules of the contest he chooses to participate in, or libels another individual.

No amount of spin about timing, perception or context can annul this; your Chairman has gone from respected elder statesman of the game, to Marwan Koukash levels of mental, overnight.

No they cant, the RFL has a social media policy that all clubs and players have to adhere to.

Also, McManus can't say what he wants either, as he and the club are signed up to various RFL rules and guidelines too.

To say that you can say what you want be cause you own a club is a bit weird. It's a bit like saying you can say what you want as a business owner or CEO. I've got money so I'll say/do what i want. There's always going to be rules and guidelines around what you can/cant say, be they legal or just social.

I guess technically he can say whatever he wants, in the same way that i can say what i want at work, but i'd expect to be in trouble for it I just said whatever i felt like. As should McManus

If by 'more effective' you mean slightly less mental and dictatorial yet still completely wrong then yes.

There is only one issue: was the referee biased? If he wasn't, because he behaves professionally and impartially, there is no need to say anything or do anything. McManus has shown himself up.

For instance, I could comment that, by all accounts, Scott Mikalauskas is a devoted Wigan fan, who had friends and family on the terraces yesterday, and whose mistake put Wakey's survival at risk and ensured his beloved Wigan went second, and I *perhaps* mentioned it whilst ranting around the house last night. But I wouldn't expect Michael Carter to devote his programme notes to it at the next home game.

As a Wire fan pre Final my thought was "oh great, a ref that one of our fans issued a death threat to, he is bound to be biased in our favour...or not".
If McManus feared prejudice (or the appearance of bias) he should have put in a formal complaint before the match.
The "well done Wire" comments are the same as someone you are debating with saying "with respect" everyone knows they mean the opposite.

Surely if he (McAnus) had big concerns about the Ref appointment prior to the fixture...he could have voiced those concerns using something called 'Social media'....its all the rage. A simple little tweet like "Can't believe the RFL have appointed Hick to ref the final"...something like that. Strange how his concerns surface after Saints bottle job....very strange. Anyway, the cup is now in the cabinet. Carry on Eamonn....dragging your club into disrepute...losing respect...all the good stuff.

Surely a man of his stature at a club of that ilk would have been advised against writing that you would think, it comes across as nothing more than sour grapes and akin to what a fan would write on a facebook 'banter' page. shocking behaviour from a chairman of one of the sports flagship clubs, god knows what he was thinking but it certainly has done him or his club no favours whatsoever.
Any saints (or any supporter) defending or agreeing with him has certainly not got the interest of the sport at heart.
Blatantly calling a Referee a cheat and that he purposefully did it should see the removal of people with those sentiments removed entirely from the game !!

Lots of people jumping up and down and being all dramatic about this. But this would have happened whoever the team was that copped that decision in those circumstances. Had it been a controversial one against Warrington, it would have been the same, but the other way, saying he did it as revenge for the death threats. Lets not forget Wigan weren't exactly pleased with the ref after their 2014 Grand Final defeat to Saints, or Wire when they lost to Wigan last year.

A lot of sanctimonious people on here who would royally kick off if their team had the same happen to them.

Also amazing that the RL press have pathetically (And they are all a snivelling bunch of pathetic losers) focused on this on Twitter and in the press rather than any positive news stories or the real important issues. This incident has commanded all the Twitter traffic and a lot of the internet news and published press inches, but the biggest issue in RL this week? Bradford under the guidance of the RFL losing their historic home ground. That is such an enormous blow to the sport, yet they're just spewing anti-McManus stuff out instead. Also interesting to see a picture of Myler on the front of League Express this week and not Saints getting the LLS or Odsal's wake? Petty much?

Isn't it therefore a shame that the esteemed Mr McManus didn't think of that before publishing not one, but two incendiary pieces, effectively saying that Mr Hicks is corrupt? A man of his intelligence and standing would, surely, have known that it would be sufficiently controversial to attract a lot of attention?

Utter .

Bit rich to accuse the RFL of being snail-paced, it's taken McManus neck end of a fortnight to make his concerns known.

Yeah, I've said as much earlier. He should have done it privately. I'm sure his aim in going public is to ensure Hicks isn't given the semi final(s) or possible final involving Saints and I'm sure he will succeed in that.

The sport as a whole needs a long review of the officiating. They aren't paid well enough, the current pool or referees is too small and they are not held to account for their errors in any way. Hicks, fresh from an absolute horror show in the final (Whether you agree with what McManus has said, he had a really poor game) and is given a relegation battle in London v Leeds, arguably one of the biggest games of the season? Again in that game he seems to have struggled, go figure, who saw that coming after the weekend he had last week?