The Liam Byrne incident was correctly penalised and sin binned as you can't tackle below the knee when the player is being held up in the tackle

Not saying it wasn’t but there was a huge amount of play acting involved to ensure the ref had time to get the call in his ear.

the virtual card / 10 mins from the players is bugging me at the minute. i saw Zak do it last night as well as some Cas players after the penalty had been given. Just get on with the game and let the ref do his job. As fans we give refs enough stick without the players getting involved to get an opposition player binned or sent off

Winds me up something rotten this. Physical dissent is worse than verbal dissent as it encourages the crowd to get on the official's backs as well. The officials can't really punish it either as you can't reverse a penalty, and it isn't currently deemed to be enough for a bin. Having said that, I would be in support of them ruling that holding up the imaginary card is an automatic bin. It would wipe it out more or less overnight.

never in a month of sundays was that a binning - only did it to 'even up', them having JSL binned 2 mins before for a head shot.
Ref was playing to the home crowd

If a Wigan player had been tackled like that, you'd be screaming for a card. We all know how this works. Third man in tackles cannot be below the knee with force, especially if trying to bend the calf in an unnatural position. Below the knee is only OK if it's done 'gently'. As it often is, Sam Powell does this plenty of times during a game.

Watch it again, It doesn't look good.

The penalty/binning isn’t an issue IMO but I do have a problem with the fact it wouldn’t have been given had Massey not pretended he was injured. He knew if he bided his time it would be given because the video ref was there and he was right.

Yes, I don't disagree at all. I shudder to think what will happen when SL players catch on the current NRL trait of players feeling the back of their neck after every tackle in the hope (often successful) of getting a crusher tackle penalty.

To a lesser extent it’s here already, although it doesn’t seem as bad this season as it did when Smithies got his ridiculous ban last season.

We have already been there and done that. Connor was a regular for it. That's why they changed the rules so the video ref could only come in with input when recommending a card, rather than just a penalty as he could in the past.

The Byrne binning was correct,play acting in that case was a little harsh to call it that he shouldn’t have done,they seem to be cracking down on that type of tackle the clubs and players should know this surely?

As for the Coote “injury” at the derby it still makes me chuckle now I thought he’d been hit by an elephant gun he went down so badly

Is play acting surprising with the way that players are being penalised for any petty offence as a result of the rules which has made the game soft!

Penalties and citing's galore every week with only the odd player or so actually committing any real offence