Due to the injury he sustained v Salford last season not because of Newton.

GB vs Aus, can't remember the year but Tony Smith was doing his annoying thing of 'spelling' hookers from the interchange bench. We'd been doing OK in our sets, making good ground, then Smith took Newton off and suddenly we were going nowhere, just bashing into the Aussie line. Soon as Newton came back on we were going forward again.

I started watching Newton a lot more closely. At every PTB when most dummy halves would be watching the ball, Newton would take a look right and left before picking up the ball. In those two quick glances he was able to take in all the players in each line and with the following pass would pick out the GB player whose opposing tackler was mis-matched.

It might sound daft after the amount of RL I've watched but it was like a Damacene conversion. It suddenly dawned on me that Newton was a lot more than the biff-balling thug I'd always thought.

Let's hope the guy finds the peace in death that seemed to have eluded him in life.

I don't think anybody is making that out.

Internet forums are awful places when it comes to criticising players. It's easy to go along with the hysteria about how Terry Newton could be a "thug" or "drugs cheat", without remembering that he could be an excellent rugby league footballer and an excellent servant to the clubs he represented.

I agree.

The thing that shiits me is where was all the support on this type of forum for the bloke when he really needed it when he tested positive for HGH?

I gather Terry Newton had a Facebook account. Maybe he used to read these boards too and see some of the vile stuff people wrote about him. Didn't see many people saying what a top bloke/wonderful player he was then?



Whenever someone dies it seems to be we get this massive outpouring of grief from people who never knew the person even though many of the same people who are expressing these emotions are the same people who would have called for him to be cast into the pit for all eternity not so long ago.

Barry - you have made your point (and some would say it's a valid one), but maybe you could drop it now?

Absolutely.

Things like this sicken me.


Most people make mistakes in life.

Why wait until they are no longer with us before we do or say anything constructive.

That is all.

I've not outpoured grief and I've not excused any of his actions. I've set up a thread where people can share memories of what a good rugby player he was. I wouldn't have set it up if he hadn't have died but because he has I'm thinking of him, for all the good that does, and other people are too. One tiny bit of good we can do is share some memories of the positive things he did. What's the point of harking back to the negative? He can hardly be punished any more severely now. I understand the 'RIP' sentiment but isn't a bit more meaningful when people specify why someone meant something to them, even if it was only the minor impact a player has on the life of a fan, even if it was with mixed feelings at the time or after?

Cheers to everyone who has posted their memories, I've enjoyed reading them
and I hope other people do too.

His love for the game! Showed by his sadness at losing.

Holy cow.
I find myself agreeing with everything you say.

It is frightening to realise that one agrees with Rommel.

I got accused of so many things last night, for simply stating, in response to one of many whitewash posts, the fact that everyone was avoiding: that Terry Newton's career ended in a ban.

As I stated at the time – quite clearly – that does not mean that I didn't find it shocking, that I do not consider it a tragic waste of a "still-young life" and a tragedy for all his loved ones etc. But to pretend that it didn't happen – and then to villify someone for even mentioning it – is infantile sentimentality at best.

I think the fact that this thread is entitled "The Highlights" and that its creator has reiterated that fact should make things quite apparent, clearly Newtons taking of banned substances and his two year suspension from the game would not be classed as a highlight and should really have no part of this thread.

It doesn't mean that everyone is ignoring those events though.

Oh, there is an attempt to re-write history. Hence the absolute slagging I got last night from a bunch of ignorant prats who can barely read, let alone understand anything other than a tabloid story.

While we're at it, perhaps we should have a re-look at Hitler and contemplate all the good things he did – y'know, without all that genocide bølløcks.

I like RL. I like RL players. I am saddened when they die. I am cheered by memories of worthwhile things they achieved in life. I started this thread. I didn't expect it to wipe anyone's memory clean of what Terry Newton did to get himself banned. I did hope it might be a good place to be reminded of things he achieved and learn things I didn't already know. In and amongst the Hitler comparisons, it has been.

I'm not sure that is the case (a re-writing of history)

By his own admission Terry Newton took a Human Growth Hormone last year and by his own admission he attempted to cheat the rules, he's explained the reason why and admitted his guilt and the really sad thing is that having served his ban he would have been able to return in some context to the game he loved - as several other players have done.

None of that obviates his very successful RL career up to the point at which he first took the hormone and its that period to which people are recalling his achievements and admiring the player he was, not the player that he became during his last two seasons, I can forgive him his frailties, his desperation to be the player he was, his stupidity in thinking he'd be able to get away with it - I can separate all of that and celebrate the player he was.

Ultimately the saddest thing about this whole affair is the fact that in his state of mind he could not see beyond the hole he'd dug himself and presumably could not reach out for help either.



None of the above is re-writing history and if its being selective in its interpretation then so be it, I prefer to see the man and his career as a whole rather than just focus on the negativity, and no, I wasn't one of those who would have been slagging him off last year, "big daft lad" would probably have been my comment.

Well said McClaren_Field. If fans can,t comment on the "Highlights of his Career" then don't post.

This is apologist tosh.

I made quite clear yesterday that his death is a shock and a tragedy. I was subsequently accused of being everything from a hypocrite to leading a "witch hunt" to behaving in a comparable way to someone disrupting a commemorative event. In other words, the cretins had their day.

Y'see, apparently I shouldn't have mentioned the circumstances in which his career ended or the fact that people were deliberately avoiding that. Apparently, you don't talk about the 'bad' things in people lives when they die, even when those things might have contributed to someone taking their own life, and even when you do not use those things to lambast them.

In other words, this place is full of tabloid-reading imbeciles who cannot actually differentiate between fact and 'slagging off'.

That did not – does not – change the fact of the tragedy.

What it does do is make (some) RL fans look like sentimental cretins.

I'm not apologising for anything or to anyone, simply stating how I approach such things, being prepared to see the whole picture, empathy I think the word is.

I've shown empathy. I think that I feel empathy. Just in case you missed it: I have said, repeatedly, that it is a tragedy, for everyone from Terry Newton himself to all those he loves and who loved him.

But empathy is not a synonym for 'let's pretend this didn't happen'.

And the attitude shown by some, here, is enough to make anyone with half a brain cell vomit. It is absolutely of the culture that Blair allowed the tabloids to create with Princess Di – condemn before death; turn to sainthood after.

Someone needs to take a step back and a big deep breath. Clue, it isn't McF.

Ooooooh it's a moderator fight

I'm still waiting for the retractions of the accusations that I'm a "hypocrite", that I'm launching a "witch hunt" and that I'm behaving as though I'm carrying a flaming "pitchfork".

Of course Graeme, you'd happily ignore such accusations yourself.



Don't even start it.

You've been right on a lot of points today – don't assume it can continue or chance your luck.

Thats going to form part of my signature I can tell you.

Did that happen on THIS thread????

No.

So exactly what is the point of re-hashing it. Couldn't you have just NOT posted anything here??

It happened yesterday and I was accused of things that cannot be supported by evidence. But hey – people keep ducking that. Facts are unimportant, apparently.

I started a thread here yesterday that was aimed at being a discussion of Terry Newton's career. I introduced it with a specific and clear request for respectful language etc.

I was villified by pompous w*nkers for daring to treat Terry Newton as something other than Mother Theresa. I was accused of being a "hypoctite", of launching a "witch hunt" and of behaving like someone who would misbehave at a commemorative event (such as a minute's silence).

Now I admit, I really resent all of that – and particularly the last one. It would seem that stating a simple fact is not allowed these days.

I suggest that some people need to actually learn what debate and discussion and democracy mean.

Minty we seem to be in agreement here on the whole mother teresa/sainthood/expression of grief that hasnt been seen since John Lennon was assassinated type thing.

Can you make me a moderator please?

I want to ban Dally Messenger from these forums forever.