Your expecting a 'double shift' from Ma'u on his return Dave.? He must have showed up well in training.

I am still in 2 minds about it. I can see what they are trying to do but its pretty ugly at the moment.
I think ultimately its about tackle technique and that isn't going to change overnight so we are going to continue to see the same cards and bans for awhile yet if they continue with this approach.

If only abit of common sense was applied.

The refs are too letter to the law, each incident is different you could have a blatant high tackle with nasty intent fair enough red/yellow card and a subsequent ban, no arguments

But there has got to be scope for common sense applied, if a tackle situation changes and a player slips into somebody, with the tackler not being able to change his stance, then this has to be recognised, especially after watching a replay 3 or 4 times, surely common sense comes Into play.

The panel should know better absolutely no excuses, it's not fit for purpose

If Mau is fit i hope the club rotate him sensibly and dont try and have him on the field for 80 mins.

Think the club should appeal this one.
The only difference is Prior went in as the second tackler but that shouldnt make a difference to the length of a ban.
I wonder if we will see Evans first team appearances into double figures this season?

Don't think an appeal would be wise or successful. Under the current rules if you have had a ban within the last year you automatically get the higher end of the grade. Given Evans' ban carried over into SL it follows that he has 'form' in the last year so he automatically gets 2 whereas Prior presumably doesn't and so gets the lower end.

Lets be honest the part of your post I've highlighted in bold is for me the biggest issue in that the RFL, Officials and the disciplinary panel seem devoid of any sense, common or otherwise.
Its seems from the interview with Moorhouse its agenda she is pushing through regardless of any collateral damage these heavy handed and ill thought out decisions are having on the game. There is an element of risk in any sport especially one that is founded on physical contact like RL. For Moorhouse to tell two ex players that played at a high level that the examples they used (in relation the points they raised) were not very good ones then said that Netball is a better example to use pretty much sums up all that is wrong within the organisation ruining sorry running the game.

How do they get these jobs?

What qualifys them, just incompetence at the top of the game

The issue is that the players are employees of the clubs.

It is clear that being beaten about the head causes long term brain injuries.

We can probably expect legal cases resulting in very large amounts of compensation being paid to damaged ex players.

If the games authorities and clubs are not seen to be taking very serious efforts to prevent head injuries then the game will find it impossible to get insured.

This would mean that the professional game simply stops.

No professional games, no clubs. All gone.

Hence they have no choice other than to crack down on contact with the head - accidental or deliberate contact does not change the nature of the damage.

Cotton wool brigade

If Lane is fit. I'd start Manu on the bench.

As you say ideally he won't play the full 80

Very well summed up. Hodgeson said we need insurance to play and that's the end of it. The discussion should be where do we go now. It's not clear what the sport will look like in a few years once the rules are settled on and the players get used to them. I'd imagine there will be a shed load more offloads for starters. Will it destroy the game? I'll still be going. What else am I gonna do with my time?

How do they get insurance for UFC, Boxing, MMA etc when that is a sport that is about hitting the head, whereas typically RL is accidental contact

I don't know - but it probably has something to do with the fact that they are all independant contractors, not employees.

I guess they sign a waiver

UFC fighters all have to be insured for brain injury. I assume other sports are the same.

I don't think a waiver would hold up in court. It might even imply that the employer knows the risk and has failed to protect employees. If they worked then I bet all our bosses would make us sign them instead of forcing us to watch videos about picking up cardboard boxes.

(I'm an independent contractor and I have to watch the box videos every 3 months.)

Well there is an easy answer - tackle round the legs. Yes there would be more offloads and line breaks but the game can get boring to watch sometimes , this would liven things up a bit.
I know the game has moved on but when I played, we were coached to hit the waist and slide and lock the hands.

RFL exclusive Paul Cullen was thrilled to announce:

“Kane Evans makes history, making his home debut on the last day of the season”

Cullen was reported to have said, because of Evans record, his size, and the now long forgotten art of tackling aggressively, we have made great strides going forward, not only are we able to shove it up Hull again, but more importantly make pass holders consider any future investment in rugby league.

Hudds are likely to be virtually unchanged with only ikahihifo who failed his HIA missing from last week. Watson could go with Wilson who played the week before, club captain Lawrence or go with a bit more size in Mason, we have plenty of choice up front. I think this will be a very interesting match up with Hudds having some speed around the ruck and in the middle in Levi, pryce and lolohea whereas Hull lack pace in the middles but probably have a bit more pace out wide.
I expect watson to want to play a kick early and long game and get your middles turned around as much as possible in the first half.
lets hope the man in the middle is a bit more sensible this week but im not going to hold my breath.

Your are right. It’s a laughing stock. Having the best players sat in the stands for nothing is just what a marginal sport needs….!

That's the frustrating thing and the RFL can't see the damage its doing with the new officiating and disciplinary policies. No one is denying the need for player safety but there also has to be an acceptance that there are risks involved in a contact sport.
All I hear is Paul 'Cliche' Cullen spouting the same rhetoric every time and using the same handpicked incidents to argue the case about these have always been yellows, reds and suspensions. The ones he uses just about everyone agree those incidents have always been punished the same (unless you were Sean O'Loughlin of course

). What is ruining the game from being a watchable sport is the over zealous officiating and banning of players for what are incidents which are not malicious acts of foul play and are simply the consequences of players playing a tough physical game. Most of the yellows and bans are where a player has ducked, lost their footing or falling in a tackle and some contact is made with the head. I'm not sure how you yellow card a player for that or ban them for the very slightest little thing. Against Leeds Jack Walker made it look as though he had been knocked out as he laid motionless for about 3 to 5 secs which brought about the yellow for Evans but where was the HA for Walker as he carried on in the game.
People do not pay to see players sat in stands or sent from the field of play.
The current policy has brought in a worrying trend for gamesmanship by some players who now see this as an opportunity to gain an unfair advantage by acting to see a fellow player binned.

I agree with a lot of that, but I think that's unfair on Jack Walker. He did get hit hard and I've no doubt it shook him a little, but I don't feel like he milked it at all. He had a defender on him on the ground and didn't struggle to get up quick but as soon as the defender peeled away he got straight back to his feet.

I agree I don't think he milked at all and maybe using the word 'made' makes it read that way, the point I was trying make was that he went down and laid there for a few seconds as if/though he'd been knocked out then jumped straight back up, I think he probably did have a moment of birds flying round his head. The officials then decided Evans should be shown a yellow but I was surprised that Walker wasn't made to have a HA. I certainly don't think Walker did it intentionally but when you watch it, it just looks as though he is momentarily out then jumps to his feet (you see this a lot when people have this sudden quick moment of unconsciousness that they leap straight back up) and its that bit for me that should have lead to him having a HA as it looked a genuine pause not one of milking it. Had there been no pause I'm not sure that any action would have been taken in terms of yellow.

In that same game Fusitua takes Griffin out off the ball with a more deliberate attempt of a shoulder charge which is outlawed and gets nothing in the game or by the disciplinary yet both Evans and Prior yellows for contact that is a consequence of a contact sport nothing more and then get a ban to further add to things.

Manu might be back for hudds.

No other players to return. Guess that means no Lane this week

I get the feeling that we're a season or two behind the NRL in this whole area. Last year they had yellow cards galore and players accused of milking penalties. This season it looks so far as if it's been sorted barring a few teething problems where players haven't been taken off for HIAs quick enough.

Players get put on report instead of yellow carded. Of course bans get dished out but there's been relatively little noise about it yet in comparison with last year.

Same applies to the six again rule - they've re-introduced a penalty for offences in the opposition 20. It's got rid of a lot of the cynical holding down.

Seems we choose to go our own way over here rather than learning lessons already learnt.