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6 months on half pay?

Seems very harsh to me.

Looking forward to getting him back in the team. Cracking talent.

3 months suspended.

Way OTT but completely in tune with the sack cloth and ashes attitude that must be displayed in front of the pitchfork brigade these days.

Did the club run this by you first? I hope so, hopefully you won't be still recycling the entire episode in another 6 months. I come on here every now and then, and you always seem to bang on about the same crap. It's like rl fans version of the Dave channel, nearly as annoying as Clarkson reruns.

Personally think 50% is a little OTT. He's already had a big ban in terms of matches.

Anyway time to move on now and hopefully he comes back fully recharged and looking to make it up to his teammates and fans in the lead up to and in the playoffs (Without getting too emotional).

A good day in Wigan to post some news you wish you didn't have to.

Correct JJ. He's already been banned for 6 months thus losing any win bonuses. There is no guarantee that he'll get back in the team in any case, thus losing further bonuses, as others may grab their own opportunity in Ben's absence. He's been punished enough.

I hope he has a decent trade union because losing half your salary for 3 months is a hell of a lot. These guys aren't on that much money anyway to start with. They are not professional footballers.

He's being punished twice for the one 'crime'. I'm afraid this is simply unfair.

Don't think it's inappropriate at all.
Given it made news on the other side of the planet and got everyone talking about league in the UK for all the wrong reasons he's lucky it wasn't summary dismissal.

He seems to be genuinely contrite & recognises the fault so he should be welcomed back with a line drawn under it all. Any lesser player or anyone with less of a clean record would have been turfed out quicker than a gnat's fart.

He now needs support, but no doubt all the various Mesdames Defarge (esp those with long yellow necks) will rattle on for another while yet.

The fact that it made news has got absolutely nothing to do with justice. So it's 'Trial by Media' now is it? Let's just hand over the disciplinary code to Rupert Murdoch and have done with it.

Its not trial by media.

we are a minority sport who cannot do as we wish in the face of world news. Football can but we cannot. RL never ofter hits the front pages around the world as a rule but now we do for what Ben did.

If we are not strong on this it is detremental to the games image, and again unlike football we cannot risk it.

Look at what the wigan football club are doing, will there be a need to do anything, doubtful even it should.

thats life.

By the way, speed of a gnats fart?????

Stick to the topic pal.

It shouldn't be, but I'm afraid that's the way the leper crumbles. Have a think about the wailing & pointing that would have ensued had the club just slapped his wrist. Look at the opprobrium currently being meted out to the FA over their attitude to a convicted rapist.

Like it or not, this age of ubiquitous communication gives voice to those who in quieter times would simply write letters in green ink to the editor of the Times.

The lad has accepted his punishment and apologised again to everyone and he just wants closure, think we should do that as well.

Excellent work Mr Whelan

99% of the media and those in the mob who have demanded nothing short of hanging for Ben Flower couldn't care less about Rugby League, it's just something to vent their spleen about before they move on to Kim Kardashian's bum or Kate Middleton's new baby or whatever.

What about justice for Ben? Doesn't it bother you that he has been disproportionately punished? So far, he got sent off, Saints won the game, Lance is just fine, he got a six month ban, he loses win bonuses, he has to go on a course to educate him about not hitting people (I might have made that bit up), now he loses the equivalent of six weeks salary. All because there was bugger all else happening in the sporting world that week.

Meanwhile Dylan Hartley stamps on a guys head in a ruck and gets ten minutes for his trouble(to pick just one random example of sporting thuggery that has hardly been noticed in the meantime).

So in your opinion has Ian Lenagan chosen to fine Flower simply to appease the public/media?

Personally I don't think that's the case. FOr what it's worth I also agree that this punishment seems harsh but more pertinently it's also unexpected. I thought that the ban from the RFL was the end of the matter; I didn't realise that Wigan were taking disciplinary action too.

I don't think today's announcement was particularly expected by the general masses therefore I don't think there'd have been too much of a reaction had Wigan not imposed their own punishment.

Thierry Henry handles a ball into the net to deny Ireland
Lampard scores against Germany, goal not given
Schumacher crashes into Hill, wins Scalextric championship
Sheffield relegated, West Ham escape punishment over a dodgy Tevez contract

Injustice is (unfortunately) part of life - get over it. Unless you know where to get hold of a certain Joseph Dredd .... ?

(Yikes! I'm agreeing with Yello Neck

)

Blimey, good job you weren't around when the Labour and Trade Union movement was being set up. People getting killed or injured at work - get over it. People being used as slave labour - get over it. People being discriminated against because they are female or black or disabled - get over it.

None of the examples you chose to highlight had anything to do with violence in sport unlike my example.

Ben Flower has been unfairly and disproportionately punished.

It does, on the face of it, seem harsh and, as a direct punishment for the incident alone, I would agree that it is. However, you have to set against this, the fact that he, in all probability, cost Wigan the opportunity to be crowned back to back champions and denied them the opportunity to become World Club Champions. The financial implications of this are frankly enormous. If anyone here had made such an error in their own line of work that cost their company hundreds of thousands of pounds, I'm sure they'd expect to be dismissed. In the light of this, and despite the fact I abhor the self righteous indignation that surrounded this particular incident, I can't help but feel that the punishment is warranted. Harsh, certainly, but less harsh in some ways than the results of his actions on the club, fans and his team mates!

First punch was understandable, 2nd was a disgrace!imo his actions cost us the game, not only that he let himself and the club down by standing over someone whilst they were knocked out and punch them live on tv..... well done the club!

Wind yer neck in - a degree of proportion please. Racism, exploitation & endangerment are not what we're talking about here.
If you want sporting injustice how about Schalk Burger only getting 2 months for trying to poke out another player's eyes? You could well argue that that was pre-meditated & deserved a much longer ban (if not life).

Flower's actions were broadcast in full technicolour and regardless of whether it's right or correct that the media influence levels of punishment, the fact is they do. Just stick "Ben Flower" into any search engine - apart from his Wiki biog, almost everything is about the punch (and even then it's only 5 paragraphs before it's mentioned).

I've not heard anyone (except on here) complain about the punishment. Flower's accepted it (or at least publicly he has) & I'd guess the rest of the squad has been told to stay off the topic or a slap will be heading their way.

He cost us a sealed on (well, as sealed as any game can be) trophy. Brought the club & the game into ridicule. And I'm pretty sure there will be some inventive chants from the North Stand that will get increasingly annoying as next year moves through (can someone do something to dampen the acoustics in there please).

Hard done by ? I think not.

Nice one Wigan. Further scapegoat someone already punished to appease the fact that WAnes tactics backfired and Wigan ended up trophyless this season. That should deflect the fans wrath nicely.


Meanwhile -precedent set. Every time mccllorum loses his cool and lashes out violently he can expect a hefty fine yes??????

............

I wouldn't know what ILs reasons are, although his judgement is usually pretty good. However in this case I agree with you, and I don't think there was any need to drag this out into the open again.

Ok, I think we'll have to agree to disagree. I think Ben has been unfairly and disproportionately punished. You make a good point about Burger, and surely that only exacerbates Ben's punishment. If I was his TU rep I'd drive a coach and horses through this.