I don’t think the club have made any conscious decision to change things. I think certain variables have happened that will force the club to change things.

A long overdue change at that.

Indeed she could. Are you suggesting she didn't know this though?

Don't know lad, just a suggestion on how people share media today..

She probably did delete it off her phone but she might not have the technical knowledge to delete it from the cloud if it went on YouTube or any other social media site or even know that once posted its out there in the wild so to speak, hard to get rid of and others may have copied it already.

Classic line from JT....

"You do look a scruff, really!"

The latest in Wigan today has Rads saying he saw the video on Saturday yet the landlord went to the club five weeks ago. At best this is a lackadaisical approach to investigating the incident if Rads didn't know there was a video and as a result of it surfacing [inow[/i it makes the club look bad for not acting sooner. The fact it's only issued the fines £5K Sam, 10K Joel) and suspended Joel for four week now just looks bad and a reaction to the video surfacing rather than part of a process. If as alleged the barmaid was offered a grand to delete it, whoever did that should be sacked. There should be no need for any such payoff if disciplinary action was being taken by the club. Yes the club might not like it of the video got out but the last way you would ensure that is with a backhander. Some sort of legal agreement with compensation on condition it was verifiably removed would be the only way you could do it officially but a grand payoff is the behaviour of a petty criminal.

This in my opinion would have been brushed under the carpet if it hadn’t come out on social media.


Pathetic by all involved.

Personally wouldn’t pick either of them again.


That would be a real message.

No matter how long the video has been around...if Rads says he's only just seen it how can you make out he hasn't.
There's no proof it is t weeks old is there?...
No that I doubt it.

It may be because of this ST and SW are doing one before they are pushed.

IL and KR are probably putting fires out daily, they only had to do something because Geoff from Warrington on Facebook is outraged. I think the speed of the reaction from Wigan was actually commendable when you compare it to the Kelly incident.

They’ve suspended Joel and fined both of them, now can we all climb aboard our incredibly high horses and get over it.

No.

The speed of reaction was 5 weeks too late.

Plenty of people are outraged, especially Wigan fans, and so they should be.

The video is all over the national press websites tonight (presumably due to being mentioned on TV today). The reactions are all negative, with people saying Joel's eyes suggest he was on drugs not just drunk. Not something I know about but a few people have suggested it.
i think he'll have to go this week.

And you know Wigan had the video or even access to it five weeks ago how? Just because they knew of an incident, doesn’t mean they had seen the video.

As I said, the club will probably be dealing with/have dealt with a number of issues frequently that we don’t know about. We love a sport that largely involves knocking ten bells out of each other for eighty minutes, the players aren’t going to be perfect, they will make mistakes.

Oh dear. One day in and someone has already potentially committed libel.

I suspect KR was aware that JT and ST had gobbed off to a barmaid on a night out, and that the manager who contacted him never mentioned a video. KR has told ST & JT to get back and apologise, which they have done. They have also offered her £1K to delete the video, which then somehow surfaced yesterday. They were the only two who knew they'd been filmed and thought they had put the matter to bed by way of an apology and £1K.

I think it is entirely plausible that KR was unaware of a video until yesterday, and the speed he has dealt with it gives me the feeling that he feels just as let down as we do.

Please don’t speak rationally, the illuminati won’t be happy.

All in all, no matter what happens it could work in our favour, we get rid of a few vastly overpaid duds without paying any compensation, and the fines can be used to support our grassroots.

Winner winner, Chicken Dinner...

It would have been very easy for the club to mention this in their statement to put to bed any speculation.

It's PR 101.

You have to wonder why the statement didn't mention that they were aware of an incident and thought they had dealt with it, however the video showed the incident was much worse than they thought had happened and they felt the new sanctions appropriate.

At the moment nobody knows who to believe and that is the club's fault due to that statement.

The owner of the bar went to the club five weeks ago with the complaint and given the video is of that incident how can it not be five weeks old? The players didn't agree to stage a reenactment did they!

If he's not seen it you have to ask why not and how come the club has ended up looking like it's reacting to it being posted only fining and banng now? The players knew they were on video, you can can see Sam T react to being videoed so the idea this would have come all as a big surprised to the club sounds far fetched to me.

Did they pass it by IL or just dealt with it in-house, looks like its the first time IL has seen it, maybe not the first time SW and KR have seen it.

Ive had great faith in IL and still have, but head at the top need to roll tomorrow if this has not been let known to the board and chairman, suppose we will wait and see.

Just reporting reader comments from Mail online. As I said, I have no idea about those things.

Someone? By saying that somebody on the internet has said something about Joel's eyes? The poster doesn't make the claim.

I will preface this by sayin that in no way do I think Wigan should pursue this at all, just a thought I had imagining the scenario having higher reaching consequences and involving much larger figures.

Say Wigan did pay her off to withold the footage - now the footage is online, is there a legal precendent for essentially a breach of contract? She was paid to ensure that video footage never made it online and it did. By accepting money for an express purpose it could constitute a contract between them which is now broken - contracts don't have to be signed on paper these days to be legally binding; It's often seen as you enterring into a countract with a Car Park firm once you buy a ticket for example.

Just an interesting idea - especially if the figures were much higher.

If the club didn't approach her but instead the other way round, is that extortion?

Unless there was a signed non disclosure agreement there’s is absolutely jack all the club could do about it. Even if there was and the club did, it would be a total PR disaster and would be spun to show the club defending ST/JT’s actions. It would cause more damage than good.

Clearly someone knew the video existed, I suspect the players themselves did rather than the club and attempted to hush it by paying the barmaid off. IF this is the case both players should be sacked IMHO. It’s sheer stupidity, they must have known the video will find its way into the public domain eventually one way or the other.

Hang on, the video makes it clear that the incident was being... well, videoed. So the players knew there was a video, no doubt. Or, at least, Sam did; Joel looks too far out of it to take anything in.



So when they spoke to KR they surely informed him about the existence of the video? And, additionally, it's not credible to me that the bar owner didn't mention the existence of the video when he reported it to the club at the time. So, from two sources, I find it very hard to believe that the club only just found out about the video.

The big one for me is the £1000. Whose money was it, and who authorised it and knew about it? If the club had any involvement in this, that's a very bad look indeed.

K Rads is very specific in what he said.... 'he only saw the video on Sunday night'.
This statement can be true without saying he or the club wasn't aware of it.

No way would the club risk a bribe....who is dumb enough to make it....only rugby players are that thick.