Quote: davey37 "By we I mean the club and they are usually fairly quiet on things like this.
I would like them to be more vocal and canvass other clubs on publicizing a vote of no confidence in the Rfl and the disciplinary committee.'"
Its a noble sentiment but unfortunately it won't work. The 2 most vocal critics of the disciplinary process have probably been Koukash and the dwarf from the East of the city and a fat lot of good it has done them. If anything it has made it worse for their clubs, especially Salford whose players always seem to get the maximum possible. Now I realise that there are other issues involved behind their complaints and Salford have employed some notoriously ill disciplined players but although it sounds defeatist its very difficult to beat the system. When Pearson first took over he was pretty vocal about the RFLs failings and got shot down fairly quickly so he's been much more circumspect since then.
I'm at a loss what to do. Speaking out doesn't work - if anything it can be negative. Saying nothing at all just allows the corrupt Wigan-Leeds axis to continue their institutionalised bias. I would agree that the more outrageous cases like the Watts one need highlighting as there is some pretty strong evidence on record and in the public domain and that's all we can probably do, keep chipping away.
Onto another issue from this case regarding Hallas on the panel I was a bit mystified by some of the complaints on this. I have no idea what his current feelings towards Hull FC are - either positive or negative - so unless someone has decent evidence on this I wouldn't read too much into it. However it does show a major failing of the system where ex players are sitting in judgement on individuals from their former clubs. No matter how impartial they may be they are wide open to conflict of interest accusations. A couple of weeks ago Hock was suspended for abusing a ref (again) and on that panel was former Leigh legend Neil Turley. Once again no evidence of any real wrongdoing but why the unnecessary conflict? Surely the RFL isn't so penny pinching that they can't put an extra ex player on call (as these are rotated anyway) so that when the former club connection arises that person can stand down for that case. Then again perhaps I'm making the ridiculous assumption that they are interested in a fair disciplinary process for all.