I thought so; you see the problem is it seems you have never listened TO ANYONE but yourself.

Hopefully this will be a wake up call hes turned into a bit of a sh*thouse since Wane came in and I dont mean the good type Im talking like Newton was dirty hes not done anything as bad yet but hes getting there.

I might be the first to say this but

Honestly, it was a red card but only just.

Its a Wigan v Saints game. Supposedly the biggest most brutal derby in world RL.

So what if one of our players starts the ruff stuff?. You take the risk when you chuck a late one like that but its not the end of the world.

it wasn't even that bad a challenge. Some people need to get of there soapboxes.

Part of MM's game to play play it close to the wire, sometimes he is going to go a bit over the top. whoop de woo, he got a red.

There were much worse things happening all the time (including on Friday night). Kelvin Skerrett, Les Boyd, Sonny Nickle, Barrie Mac, Gordon Tallis, Adrian Morley, Kurt Sorenson, Alex Murphy, Gaz Hock, Bobbie Goulding, Noel Cleal, Des Drumond Tez Newton, Andy Greg etc etc etc all had a bit of this in them and the majority (Nickle obviously excluded) are held in legendary status as hard men of the game.

Dont give me any rubbish about any of the above playing hard but fair. ALL of them had a nasty streak and were more than capable of chinning someone of the ball.

Rugby is intimidation and there are players who enjoy rattling and hurting an opponent both legally and illegally.

If they go to far, they miss a game or two. It is not the end of the world.

Having watched it a few times again, definite sending off but only because it was reckless. The initial contact was on the shoulder so it wasn't a pre-meditated attack at all.

1 game ban.

A sending off is better than an injury. At least he'll come back fit as a fiddle.

That's most definitely the glass half full argument!

Any videos anywhere of it yet?
I have seen it but have family without Sky who still haven't seen it.

It certainly is.... lol... Love it!!

Thank you. One of the few sensible posts on this ridiculous thread.

Personally I think it was a red card. But then many offences would be a red card if the rules were actually enforced correctly. Dropping an elbow onto the head of an already tackled player on the floor is at least as dangerous and cowardly as MM's late and high shot to the head of a standing player.

As for the rules, I'm not sure where in the Laws it allows a referee to be given instructions through his earpiece on what punishment to give (many people were asking who sent him off, the ref on the pitch or the one in the stands) nor where in the Laws it allows a referee to view TV footage of the incident on the screen (as he appeared to on Friday night before dismissing MM).

The standard of officiating in the SL this season has been poor. What is worse is that Wigan players and MM in particular seem to be being held to a stricter interpretation and application of the rules than those of other clubs. Many people around me were expressing the view that things are now out of hand. The different approach taken in the CC Final was being widely compared to that taken with MM.

When you add to this the apparent intervention of the fourth official and what seemed to be viewing of the TV footage by the referee, there is clearly an issue here and Wigan should call for an explanation from the RL.

One final point is that it would be nice if for once a significant proportion of Wigan fans could manage not to jump on the bandwagon of Wigan player bashing. Yes MM has been stupid on occasion this season but the lynch mob that is forming need to calm down.

Given he's lost us two games this season and not a single player in the whole of the competition has given away more penalties, I'd say he's got off pretty lightly. As my mate said to me today, he's Marmite - it's one extreme or the other with him, he either great or a complete and utter liability. Unfortunately coming into the business end of the season and there are far too many of the latter.

At the moment I don't trust him not to do it again in the play-offs or Grand Final so hope the ban is long enough to take him out of the equation.

He has helped us to win a few though.

I ain't that bothered. He has looked frazzled recently and 1 or two games rest will do him no harm. Now whilst i would be massively peed off if he received another red in any of our remaining games, i would much prefer to have him in the team.

Agreed he has helped us to win games, but not singlehanded in the way he has singlehandedly lost us two games. That's the most galling thing, I can accept players making playing errors that might cost us games, but his indiscipline has cost us two games.

In the tight play-off games the team that loses their discipline is more than likely going to lose the game and two loose cannons in McIlorum and Hock is an accident I'm hoping isn't going to happen.

Then allow me to correct that glaring oversight.

Can someone clarify when a video ref can intervene in general play.
I suspect that referee Childs got a call from upstairs when MM committed the foul on Lafranchie. Play had moved on two or three tackles when Mr Childs was heard to say "got it". Was he responding to a VR call. At the time of the incident I don't think any of the touch judges ran on for foul play.
If the VR can give advice to the referee why was the knock on try allowed in the CC semifinal against Leeds.

I'd love to know the answer to this. Child appeared to be listening to something on his earpiece prior to brandishing the red card and the assumption must be that it was the ref in the stands. Is the other referee an advisor to the ref on the field or is the ref on the field bound to follow what the ref in the stands says? Why do we need a video ref referral system if we have this procedure? Can the ref in the stands call forward passes? Are the rules for this written down anywhere - they don't seem to be in the Laws on the RFL website, but perhaps they are somewhere else?

I've been saying for some time that referees appear to penalise one side repeatedly in a game, only to then even up the penalty count and that this is probably because they are being told to by the ref in the stands. I've been assured by people on these boards that this is not the case but after Friday it does appear that the referee on the field is at least being given guidance by another official.

We really need some clarity on what is going on. Only RL, with its track record of inept governance, could allow such a ridiculous state of affairs.