Poor chap or brain donor…..I’ll go for option 2.

terrible decision

Panel is ruining the game. Austin vs Wire never happened, now no a Bentley vs Bateman.
This sport sure knows how to shoot Itself in the foot!

You can't let players off for foul play just because they might be playing their former club the week after.

No injuries resulted from these tackles. Just mistimed tackles . No common sense applied. Is a farce….

So you have to injure someone to deserve a ban?

Always like that argument

I don't understand why bans are ever an option tbh. It just seems like one of those things that has always been done, but no one really knows why.

Fine the player, but is missing a game or two (especially at this stage of the season) that much of a punishment? Imagine doing something wrong at work and getting a week off (on full pay) and your colleagues have to pick up the slack too.

Add in the impact it has on the game as a whole and how marketable it becomes to broadcasters etc and it's a relic that needs changing.

how did Bentley get sent off and Holmes not? His was worse for me as at least Widdop was already going down thus had a small bit of mitigation

You mean like a suspension at work when you've done something wrong?

Yeah because that happens all the time. Show me a workforce that has one or two people missing per week because they are suspended. Then show me customers of said workforce that just happily accept substandard products because of it.

Like I said, there's a real mental block when it comes to this and RL.

Maybe people don't do things wrong every week in their jobs like rugby players.

What punishment would you have handed out to Ben Flower after the Grand Final if you weren't going to suspend him?

Contact with the head is a ban.....Just don't hit people in the head.