There is a fine line between enforcers and thugs, historically the goons do encourage the stepping over of the line on a regular basis.
Newton for example could have broken the jaws of Gardener, Gilmour and Long in just one match, luckily he only managed to do it with the one player who now has facial problems for life.
Smith the forward was another example who was warned in the NRL about his raising of the knees, goons came along and signed him so he could carry on his thuggery, the end result was a career ending injury to the shoulder sockets of John Stankevitch had to stop plaing the game 5 years before his time.
Finally we had the goons signing up Madge for his dirty techniques campaign, up to then we never heard of the "chicken wing" and "cannon ball" tackles which can put a player out for a season or career.

An average player with lesser skills will use effort/aggression to compensate. Fans will like them for always putting in the effort for their team.

I would not confuse this with enforcers. Enforcers can be thugs but can be decent players. The best enforcers will dominate by presence. Thugs take cheap shots.

An enforcer will stand his ground and fists will fly. A thug makes a cheap shot during a tackle. Enforcers wwould be nickle

Damn pressed send mid flow.

Enforcers for me would be nickle, scully, both mcdermotts, Farrell could do it at times. But basically. Guy who will front up. Then there are the cheap shots. Davidson springs to mind, newton, I would say Bailey but I don't think he is dangerous.

There are others.

I've never been a fan of a dirty player. Push the rules fine. Be aggressive fine. But psycho does not do it for me. From the minute Davidson used take the field my only tthought was what damage will he do.

Spear tackle on John Gallagher, or did that slip your mind?

I think we also had the infectious Pongia incident which the Wigan club kept quiet until a certain player leaked it out by accident and the player was shipped out to another club.

You've lost me here judders

Hep c

Pongia played for three months after being found to have Hep B.

Didn't play again after it was revealed, Luke Rob allegedly got shifted on for disclosing the condition.

I remembered the Hep B, it was in regards to the spear tackle where I've lost track of the conversation.

Just seemed a weird tangent?

Enforcers: Paul Sculthorpe, Andy Farrell, Brian & Barrie McDermott, Jamie Peacock, Adrian Morley

Thugs: Michael McIllorum, Ryan Bailey, Terry Newton, Leon Pryce (Younger days with Bradford & Saints)

There's a big difference between those two sets of players.

Kevin McCormack's Rugby Career was finished by the Dirty action of a so called enforcer who played for Wigan.

Wasn't john stankovich career ended by a wiganer biting him?

Barrie Mac was a thug.

Very possibly, I was on the fence with him.

No, he did his shoulder tackling Craig Smith.

It maybe my ahe bit I don't recall Barrie mac being a thug.

Ah on my phone. It maybe my age but I don't recall much thuggishness.

Bang on, the club did reveal it to the RFL "afterwards" they did take precautions with there own players but kept it quiet against the opposition players, just another instance of the goons stepping over the line.

This is one of the reasons we have blood bins today.

It was insider information with Luke Rob but we have to use the term allegedly in this instance.

Craig Smith had a bad reputation in OZ of running into the tackler with the knees raised up impacting the shoulder area.

Correct if I am wrong but didn't Stankevitch take the player to court for damages but dropped the claim due to problems with finances.

Think he did a bit of thuggery on Peter Sheils, sat on his chest and did some GBH on his face. Think he played for Leeds at the time though.

Hooper used to take kickers out was he a thugicon_smile.gif (loved Hoops)

Regarding the McIlorum tackle: He times his arrival perfectly. There's nowhere for the catcher to go, he's flat footed after collecting the ball and has no time to even consider if he is going to go left or right to avoid the tackler. So the defender simply braces himself for the tackle, probably to maintain possession.

As a professional player, the tackler must surely know he's got him in the headlights and with his momentum against a standing player, all that is needed is all of his tackling force into the ribs. My opinion is when its so obvious that the catcher is just happy to take the tackle, why does the tackler run lopsidedly in order to get his arm fairly high up the body? This can only lead to riding over the catcher's shoulder or the ball and ultimately clocking him in the teeth. Maybe its a percentage thing that if you do go up and over, you can claim reckless rather than intentional?

I know there are those of you who think that you attack the ball to try and gain possession......or hit him as high up as possible to more easily knock him down but clearly the right technique in that instance was to cut him in half.....not in 90/10. I think it shows poor judgement/lack of skill from the tackler at best.....although I'm leaning to poor character. Still, at least its the first time he's been in trouble.

Not sure Gallagher was even given a penalty for a spear tackle on the day....can't remember. Was there though and at that time, was never likely to be considered a spear tackle. Haven't seen it since but no doubt it would be called today. Any way, it turned out he couldn't really play league......just ask Doug Laughton.