The comment from Dave Woods sums it up perfectly:

"Dave Woods
@DaveWoodsSport
·
15h
There’s never, ever been a golden age of refereeing. Though I think we’re in a golden era of bitter, wearisome, boring carping about referees"

Yep words on a page worth 36 points.

Violence in the crowd worth no action.

Death threat to a referee, set up a meeting.

Shows were our values are.

That Warrington were deserved winners isn’t in doubt and doesn’t contradict his piece about Hicks not being impartial. The two are not mutually exclusive.

Snap shots that support their views? Do you disagree that McManus has questioned whether Hicks was impartial in that statement?

McManus clearly states that Hicks wasn’t impartial due to him preferring Warrington.

The fact Saints fans are defending this or trying to p words in a clear statement is just as daft as the statement itself.

I think you'll find we all agreed it was a bad call. Its hard to moan when you agree it was a terrible call.

Words on a page - from the club chairman is the key point. Saints or any other club aren’t getting fined or punished because of words their fans use.

Stop desperately defending the indefensible.

He does not say hicks was not impartial. At any point.
He write about the perception of impartiality.

For me it was the wrong time to write it, he should have saved it for a few weeks. But I also don't disagree about refs not being on twitter. Twitter is a hole for trolls to spout vile abuse. Why would refs go on twitter.

They have to be impartial, so going on twitter is going to make that far more difficult.

I'm not defending it, I'm saying it was the wrong time to publish it.

Please pick out the words that you disagree with in the statement and I'll say whether I think they are worth defending or not.

Those bits are then followed by the word ‘however’.

He doesn't mention the penalty count which was 4-2 in saints favour. Hicks made a couple of bad calls, as will ALL refs in ALL games. If saints had actually played better than wire and won, would McManus have written this article?
NO!!!!!!

You can't 'pick out the words' as it's the piece as a whole that is disgraceful. As regards his 'acknowledgment' of Wire's achievement, whenever anyone makes a statement like '[iI'd like to congraulate X on winning, however....[/i' it's clearly negating the congratulations and pointing to something other than the excellence of the opponent that caused the result.

He also says saints were full of errors and we have lessons to learn if we wish to win a grand final.

there are no values anymore in rugby league it has become bitter between fans and clubs