Two games on tonight. Three clear instances at least of the things we all hate about football (even as a big fan) in the two games:

1. Richardson throwing himself to the floor, and the ref siding with it…if he doesn’t go down, it’s never a penalty.

2. Saints players flying at the ref follwoung high shot on Coote (Makinson ridiculous).

3. Bentley with the hand-on-head grimace after a near air shot across the back of his head.

Seeing it more & more with the zero tolerance approach to head contact. The referees need to wise up a little/use VR if possible (not sure this can be done?).

FWIW, if Bentley is in a team that isn’t winning every week, he could turn out to be a mega penalty machine for unnecessary housery - akin to how some of our guys were vs Saints.

Creeping in more & more…refs here aren’t a patch on the NRL ones, who let far more inconspicuous issues where there’s clearly no damage done to.

Makinson has to get a ban for that IMO

Was just about to start a thread solely about Saints. I’m in total admiration at the sheer effort they put in to games and they will more than likely make it three GF wins on the spin (aided by a nice post CC break) but what a bunch of play acting football wannabes they are. They have Bentley playing the part of the wind up merchant and guys like Coote throwing himself around like a Brazilian footballler.

Makinson really embarrassed himself in that Coote incident.

The Richardson one was hilarious as well (who did he play for again? )

The Liam Byrne sin binning another. I think it was Massey who couldn’t get to his feet he was that injured, until the ref called time off and allowed the time to get word in his ear piece he should give a pen. The Cas player shot to his feet no worries as soon as the pen was given.

It’s frustrating, they should be embarrassed

Plenty of play acting in the Derby.


Anybody see Isa play-acting at being an RL player?

We get called rotten as a club for anything teams can pin on us but in a mess of a season for us, we can come out with our heads held high on a couple of really poor aspects I’ll remember from 2021-

1-the play acting and football like antics that have crept in.

2-picking and choosing games to avoid, aka Covid problems.

As fans and as a club we can at least walk away with our heads up.

I saw Coote, Grace and Percival play acting to a level Neymar Jnr would be proud of. Same again tonight from some of the Saints players.

I don’t like the leg tackles on stationary players being held upright. If they’ve got a leg drive going then I understand. But it’d be more effective IMO to get back in the defensive line quicker than commit a 3rd man to the tackle just for the sake of putting them down, and I cringe at the increased risk of knee/ankle injuries. Soft yellow yes, and I agree it doesn't come if Massey just gets on with it.

I do agree but just can’t look past Massey staying down to earn the pen and then just cracking on. There’s one reason why he’s staying down and he gets what he’s after, so stops pretending he’s injured. We should avoid putting ourselves in that position though, you’re right.

I wouldn't get too excited about the lack of play acting, they will start doing it just like players at every other club. It's the way the game is going sadly.

Probably. I don’t see much of it from us at the moment though, in fact I can’t recall anything and even though that actually hurts us when you’re playing against teams like Saints, who are rolling all over the place and charging in on mass on the ref, I think we can take pride in it for now.

The Liam Byrne incident was correctly penalised and sin binned as you can't tackle below the knee when the player is being held up in the tackle

Not saying it wasn’t but there was a huge amount of play acting involved to ensure the ref had time to get the call in his ear.

the virtual card / 10 mins from the players is bugging me at the minute. i saw Zak do it last night as well as some Cas players after the penalty had been given. Just get on with the game and let the ref do his job. As fans we give refs enough stick without the players getting involved to get an opposition player binned or sent off

Winds me up something rotten this. Physical dissent is worse than verbal dissent as it encourages the crowd to get on the official's backs as well. The officials can't really punish it either as you can't reverse a penalty, and it isn't currently deemed to be enough for a bin. Having said that, I would be in support of them ruling that holding up the imaginary card is an automatic bin. It would wipe it out more or less overnight.

never in a month of sundays was that a binning - only did it to 'even up', them having JSL binned 2 mins before for a head shot.
Ref was playing to the home crowd

If a Wigan player had been tackled like that, you'd be screaming for a card. We all know how this works. Third man in tackles cannot be below the knee with force, especially if trying to bend the calf in an unnatural position. Below the knee is only OK if it's done 'gently'. As it often is, Sam Powell does this plenty of times during a game.

Watch it again, It doesn't look good.

The penalty/binning isn’t an issue IMO but I do have a problem with the fact it wouldn’t have been given had Massey not pretended he was injured. He knew if he bided his time it would be given because the video ref was there and he was right.

Yes, I don't disagree at all. I shudder to think what will happen when SL players catch on the current NRL trait of players feeling the back of their neck after every tackle in the hope (often successful) of getting a crusher tackle penalty.

To a lesser extent it’s here already, although it doesn’t seem as bad this season as it did when Smithies got his ridiculous ban last season.

We have already been there and done that. Connor was a regular for it. That's why they changed the rules so the video ref could only come in with input when recommending a card, rather than just a penalty as he could in the past.

The Byrne binning was correct,play acting in that case was a little harsh to call it that he shouldn’t have done,they seem to be cracking down on that type of tackle the clubs and players should know this surely?

As for the Coote “injury” at the derby it still makes me chuckle now I thought he’d been hit by an elephant gun he went down so badly

Is play acting surprising with the way that players are being penalised for any petty offence as a result of the rules which has made the game soft!

Penalties and citing's galore every week with only the odd player or so actually committing any real offence

You really are deluded.. All 99% of fans saw in the derby was once again Wigan resorting to thuggery because they couldn't match a far superior team in regards to playing Rugby!!