And remember, there is no love lost between Cooke and Hull FC.

Just watched the highligts of the game on SLTV and my first impression (after only watching it once) was that he led with the elbow. Thats all that Ganson had to look at too, one look. It looked dangerous. Maybe with repeat viewings from a thousand angles we might be able to say otherwise but on the day at the time it was the correct decision

Put your handbag down dear. If you want to use comparisons you need them to be similar. For a start Ablett was charged with a grade C offence, Tomkins has been charged with a grade B.

Exactly I said it was a WORSE incident. lol Jesus wept. You can compare any two things you want. Just may be an unfair comparison. I can compare my Peugeot to a Ferrari if I want. It wont end well for the Peugeot but its still a comparison.

I dont think anyone can dispute that as it would have looked bad to anyone at first look. Most people around me were calling for Joels head when he did it one saying "what an effing pr!ck probably cost us the game now the effing dumb barsteward" However obviously now from the other angles etc I'd say theres a case for "sending off sufficient" wont happen though of course.

Cooke : "They even seem to feel opposing players shouldn’t be allowed to hit them hard!" HTF would he know. I sure we relish the strong phyiscal challenge of RL, it's dirty cheap shots that NO team likes. What a complete t00l.

Wigan carry on winning, first it's lying on, now its the mysterious tackling technique. I very much doubt Mr. Cooke was at the game on Sunday. Hull instigated the dirty tactics not us. No qualms with Joel getting sent off he was stupid and derserved it. Yes, he rose to the bait, and will have to learn (only a little, mind) to cool it when he is delibrately wound up.

Now were 'too brutal'. What are we playing RL or croquet. Unreal this guy.

Joel reminds me of a young Morley, huge talent with a temper but I would rather have a player with fire in his belly and needs reigning in than a player who doesn't seem bothered any day of the week.

Spot on.

From high up in the East Stand, I thought he deserved a red card.

The point being which you still don't seem to grasp is that you can't use Ablett as some kind of benchmark (which is what YOU tried to do) given the circumstances were completely different:

Ablett led with the forearm
Tomkins led with the elbow

Ablett was in the process of trying to make a tackle
Tomkins was the ball carrier

Ablett didn't just have a fight with Sam
Tomkins had just had a fight with Yeaman

Ablett was charged with a grade C offence
Tomkins has been charged with a grade B offence

i.e. the Ablett point is completely irrelevant because it was completely different.

This whole topic is getting ridiculous.

I recently watched a few clips involving players like Kelvin Skerrit, Cowie, Fogarty etc. Now those were incidents where some players involved saw red and probably oversteped the mark - but it was good old fashioned hard rugby.

What has joel done?

Been a little bit silly in taking the ball up first tackle after the scrap.

Any other time in the game that would have been penalty at worst. The photos clearly show he goes in very hard (isn't that what good rugby is about), hits the defender legally and pushes him away whilst still driving forward - isn't that what we want to see from forwards running the ball in?

As part of pushing him away, his arms go up and make later contact to the defenders head. Poor technique maybe but not an intentional attack to the head as it may have looked initially.

This thread can be summarise by:

No intent to hit his head.
Every very intent to run over the top of the defender.

That's exactly what I want to see in pretty much every hit up by a forward.

Dear Inside man

re above, please see 2009 challenge cup semi final

Regards

Matt King

That's actually a very very good comparison thinking about it.

Yeh I agree it looked dangerous at full speed and Ganson only had one look but had Ganson taken the proper action after the brawl which resulted in Joel running in the penalty tap (which there doesnt seem to be any footage of in any of the highlights), neither Joel nor Yeaman would have been one the pitch.