Peacock was nor a thug or a grubby player. He was just a tough, no nonsense player, who would be more than willing to stand toe to toe when needed. His reputation and standing in the game did grow to a level that meant he was hardly ever penalised though. I’m talking for more technical offences like lying on, hands in at the ruck etc. He could get away with murder in that regard at the back end of his career. It was the same with Adrian Morley. The refs seemed to just about manage to stop themselves apologising on the rare occasion they did blow the whistle against one of them. It’s the same with Cam Smith down under. They seem to have as much influence as the referees.

that not the same as MM

Well yeah, the more games you play (half of which was in a period when discipline was miles worse!) the more cards you are likely to rack up. Like I say it depends what you call a thug. By the dictionary it's just an aggressive person which they both are. I still can't put my finger on what makes a player a thug to be honest. Maybe to be a thug in rugby you would need to really go over the top with ill discipline (e.g Hock, Newton, Nickle). I wouldn't put McIlorum or Peacock in that bracket generally. McIlorum plays on the edge, Peacock is an enforcer.

I agree, but like I was saying to them if they think MM is a thug so is JP.

Micky Mac and Peacock would both stand toe to toe with anyone but I just think Micky Mac would’ve been the man more likely to cause the flare up of tempers in the first place. I don’t think you can be an out and out thug in the game anymore but he plays right on the edge. I’ve no issue with that, I’d probably have him in my top ten favourite Wigan players and Terry Newton in the top one, so it’s not a criticism.

Both very tough players but I'm not sure anyone outside of Wigan would have them in the same category in terms of the cheap stuff to be honest.

I have Peacock more as a toe to toe enforcer rather than purveyor of cheap shots. I think MM has a decent repertoire in the latter as I suspect their respective disciplinary records would likely show. I also can't imagine Peacock showing the lack of disregard for an injured player MM showed, nor laughing on camera when he realises he's got away with injuring an oppo.

Id imagine Peacocks is far worse, but hes an enforcer but MM isnt? Yeah ok

I agree with much of what you say and it’s what I’m getting at when I'm saying Micky Mac would cause scraps and be happy to be involved in one, whereas Peacock would usually just end up involved in them when he was defending a teammate.

One thing I don’t agree with is saying MM comes up with a lot of cheap shots. I think he gets plenty wrong but it’s because he throws so much force in to his tackles and like on Friday, when his timing is off, the results are terrible. He’s quite upfront about smashing people and isn’t doing it on the sly. I suppose it’s how you define ‘cheap shots’ but I’d be looking more at incidents like Westwood on Blake Green or Shaun Mengennis punching Tuson from behind. I don’t recall MM being involved in many incidents like that.

I think that Shaun Maguiniss was in the same game as and was started by LMS trying to do what Tomkins did to Myler to Hock.

again Ive seen peacock plenty of times, in fact nearly every time throw the first punch in the ones hes involved in, think there was only the fielden/mason one he didnt throw the first one

I guess you can point me to all his charges then? Looked at the RFL discliplinary and he appears to have been charged once between 2009 and retiring for Leeds (for punching). Can't see anything before then, maybe they're not online, but MM certainly has more, including the cheap stuff like off the ball high tackles and what we saw last week.

Happy to be corrected but I trust my eyes having watched both players play.

I once went to Chester zoo and saw Micky Mac destroy 4 elephants one after tother. Anyone who thinks Micky is a coward is a pillock. Simple as that.

MM isn't a coward and he has a fair bit to his game, but unfortunately for me his starting point is a good 2 yards the wrong side of the legal line.
Arguably not that many players in the game today that far offside, now the 70s was a different matter - but that's the point. We're not in the 70s.
I understand the point of view that it often looks bad when he miss-times things because he puts so much force into the efforts, but he never seems to learn.

From a quick google I've found McIlorum has been sent off at least 4 times, couldn't find any evidence of Peacock being sent off(not that I want to encourage the stupid comparison).

A player from one team being a thug is irrelevant to a player from another team being a thug. It's stupid whataboutery.

McIlorum's a house and I love him for it.