Quote: Fantastic Mr Catpiss "They were always off bounds, it's just that players actually respected thst, I've been watching the game nearly 30 years and prior to 2010 I could count on one hand the amount of times I've seen a collision between player and ref. Over the last 9 years players seem to have simply lost respect, poor Phil bentham is having to retire after his second bump in 12 months with the same player, he reportedly has a herniated disc in his neck.
It needs cutting out.'"
I’ve seen numerous incidents like the Sammut one in my 30+ years watching the game and nobody batted an eyelid as I say. There used to be full on punch ups in the game where the refs would get in the middle of rucks of players going at it and nobody can tell me they wouldn’t get walked in to at points. It was just part of the job and people wouldn’t even focus on it.
Fully agree with incidents like the Houston ones. They were out of order and totally different to this one. The Hock incident for us years ago was again different and not right. There’s a difference IMO.
**Edited** I’ve just watched the famous Farrell fight vs Sculthorpe at Knowsley road and Barry the flag runs on. Firstly Saints No21 grabs him by the shoulder and pulls him, Terry Newton grabs his arm as he’s trying to split him and Wilkin up and he then gets buffeted all over the place in an absolute melee. Not a single ban handed out for any contact with him.