Who for Saints? He dropped the ball with the line at his mercy immediately before getting himself sent off.

A former Bradford player told me of one coach who would occasionally tell the players stuff like "I dont care if half of you get sent off today".

None of the players took that literally.

Funny, no one's mentioned whether the ref had a good game or not..

He got an easy decision in early to help settle his nerves



I am sure Mr Flowers will be honoured to know he featured at the top of an article called top 5 pommie league thugs down under

There's almost no punishment the RFL could throw at Flower that could be considered too harsh, unless you are a typical small town Wigan inbred. But I remember Barry (before he was Barrie) McDermott hitting Paul Sironen with a shot that was potentially more damaging than Flower's, & he turned from a thug into the best prop of his generation. It will be interesting to see how his career pans out.

McDermott's 1994 shot on Sironen was at in at number 3 , just below Adrian Morley's high shot on Robbie Kearns which I think is still the fastest red card in international footie at 12 secs in. But you are right TT about all the wider public will ever know about this year's premier RL event was Flowers smashing someone already out on the deck

Sironen was brilliant, I agree.

I have fond memories of Bazza's long running feud with namesake Brian, with Brian delivering the coup de grace at the McAlpine [as was though, obviously, it was disgusting foul play and I would [inever[/i glorify anything like that..though it [iwas[/i well deserved..

Brian Mac's Hudders semi final scrap was against Newton, Masella and the might Damian Gibson.

Cassidy's flying elbow on Morley in 98 was awful. Intent to elbow a player in the face at full speed.

Moriarty breaking Hugh Waddell's jaw at Leeds was prob the worst I've seen. Worse than Flower.

Ah, I lose track! So many encounters and all so alike...disgraceful anyway

Whoosh!!!

Don't think it's relevant which team benefitted from his action to be honest, what he did [or maybe more accurately, the referees reaction to it, was probably the defining moment of the game, so 'man of the match' sounds about right. If we want the award to simply go to the 'best', or most effective, player maybe we should move to the American MVP award?

Still the worst incident I've personally seen. But it was on Morley, and that kinda made it okay.

If Cassidy had not been half Morley's size the damage from that could have been unimaginable.
Cassidy, Barry Mc, Flower - there must be a common denominator?

O'Connor was no shrinking violet either.....now you mention it

And as for that Roy Powell. Vile.

Shurely some mistake? I think, as a prop, Roy was virtually saintly..

You obviously have a different set of memories of Roy than I do. I remember vividly him being held down in the tackle. You could see the red mist descend as he began tutting slightly under his breath and rolling his eyes. He ROLLED HIS EYES!

You know, you think you know people, but then you find out they were far from the paragon you'd assumed. I guess you must have pictorial evidence or you wouldn't have made such serious accusations - and I must say I'm devastated, Big Roy had flaws, just like the rest of us.

I'm now off to a darkened room to meditate and consider the meaning of life in the championship..

It's still 42.

The RFL deducted 3 to make it 39 but then had to reinstate it....

Right, that does it, I'm off for my lawyer..

How many will Flower get? I'll go for 12.

A count of 10?

Confirmed that Ben Flower has been handed a 6 month ban for his actions in the Grand Final. He won't play again until April 2015 at the earliest.

Case closed. Can we all move on now please...

Far too lenient.

Six months from the start of the season, ok fine. But from now, that's basically a two month ban, so, oh look 8 games. There's a shock.

It's the same as them giving him a 13 game ban.