Ok, I think we'll have to agree to disagree. I think Ben has been unfairly and disproportionately punished. You make a good point about Burger, and surely that only exacerbates Ben's punishment. If I was his TU rep I'd drive a coach and horses through this.

As ever you make good points in your posts.

I always enjoy your stuff, but find it a little hard to read - any chance of paragraphs?

Whatever you think of the punishment, it's an interesting counterpoint to the news coming out of the wendyball camp...

harsher than I expected.

However it appears from comments made by Ben Flower that he is taking his punishment on the chin!

Ben Flower said:

"I fully accept this decision taken by Wigan. I deeply regret my actions and I am grateful for the support that my club has given me throughout this process.

"It is a relief to reach closure on the incident and I hope to move forward now and rebuild the trust of my club, team-mates and the Wigan fans."

I can imagine that some players would not have taken such internal action quite as well as Ben Flower. I would be interested in the opinion of the players union on this particular incident and action by Wigan and the RFL.

I'll bear that in mind!

One thing is certain when his contract is up he will leave. Well done IL for getting rid of another player.

This is harsh he is been punished twice for the same incident which is wrong. Is this how we manage to get Mossop in under the cap by not paying a player fully for 3 months. We did something similar a few years ago and got done for breaking the spirit of the cap. This feels the same for me no need for the club to punish him it was for the RFL disciplinary to sort out and not the media and IL. As it was on the field of play and not off.

I wish I could be stopped from doing my job for 6 months due to gross misconduct and still get 75% of my salary.

Does every infringement that results in a ban trigger a disciplinary process? Do clubs get to pic and choose who gets a double investigation and punishment? Where are the same kinds of events in the rest of the league for ban-able offences?

Remember the Long and Gleeson betting scandal, what did the club do there?

The club has lost the plot on this one!
His GF incident wasn't a mea culpa moment!
Would they have preferred him to end up like Colin Tyrer having been hit in the jaw by his opponents elbow/forearm?
We wouldn't, and Ben Flower wouldn't, be having anything like this if Hohaia had been sent off as he should have been. Or, if Hohaia had done his worst and broken Ben Flower's jaw as Hepworth broke Colin Tyrer's.
A ridiculous performance by the club!
After all, they were never going to sack him as another SL club would have signed him up the following day.
This club is now being better run than ever I can remember in decades of watching Wigan. Their whole attitiude over this incident though, I simply cannot understand!

Well it was a good day to bury the news with the football dominating all the media, let's move on.

What time's your slot at the Comedy Club this week?

It's time you gave it up Ted. You're an anachronism.

He'll still be getting beasted in training, he just can't play.

Training without being able to play is horrible.