As ever you make good points in your posts.

I always enjoy your stuff, but find it a little hard to read - any chance of paragraphs?

Whatever you think of the punishment, it's an interesting counterpoint to the news coming out of the wendyball camp...

harsher than I expected.

However it appears from comments made by Ben Flower that he is taking his punishment on the chin!

Ben Flower said:

"I fully accept this decision taken by Wigan. I deeply regret my actions and I am grateful for the support that my club has given me throughout this process.

"It is a relief to reach closure on the incident and I hope to move forward now and rebuild the trust of my club, team-mates and the Wigan fans."

I can imagine that some players would not have taken such internal action quite as well as Ben Flower. I would be interested in the opinion of the players union on this particular incident and action by Wigan and the RFL.

I'll bear that in mind!

One thing is certain when his contract is up he will leave. Well done IL for getting rid of another player.

This is harsh he is been punished twice for the same incident which is wrong. Is this how we manage to get Mossop in under the cap by not paying a player fully for 3 months. We did something similar a few years ago and got done for breaking the spirit of the cap. This feels the same for me no need for the club to punish him it was for the RFL disciplinary to sort out and not the media and IL. As it was on the field of play and not off.

I wish I could be stopped from doing my job for 6 months due to gross misconduct and still get 75% of my salary.

Does every infringement that results in a ban trigger a disciplinary process? Do clubs get to pic and choose who gets a double investigation and punishment? Where are the same kinds of events in the rest of the league for ban-able offences?

Remember the Long and Gleeson betting scandal, what did the club do there?

The club has lost the plot on this one!
His GF incident wasn't a mea culpa moment!
Would they have preferred him to end up like Colin Tyrer having been hit in the jaw by his opponents elbow/forearm?
We wouldn't, and Ben Flower wouldn't, be having anything like this if Hohaia had been sent off as he should have been. Or, if Hohaia had done his worst and broken Ben Flower's jaw as Hepworth broke Colin Tyrer's.
A ridiculous performance by the club!
After all, they were never going to sack him as another SL club would have signed him up the following day.
This club is now being better run than ever I can remember in decades of watching Wigan. Their whole attitiude over this incident though, I simply cannot understand!

Well it was a good day to bury the news with the football dominating all the media, let's move on.

What time's your slot at the Comedy Club this week?

It's time you gave it up Ted. You're an anachronism.

He'll still be getting beasted in training, he just can't play.

Training without being able to play is horrible.

I think the financial 'punishment' as your club are labelling it as is way way OTT, that he seemingly accepts it so readily comes across as more than a little odd. Even given his actions a fine by the RFL and ban plus a disciplinary by the club with stipulations for behaviour on/off field would be generally the norm.
To invoke a 50% reduction in wages over such a relatively long period is almost unheard of in sport never mind RL, are they backhanding him with a brown paper bag because unless they've made some sort of promise to him I can't honestly see how/why he would accept such an over the top punishment. I'd wonder if it is even legally enforceable IF he were to challenge it (which it looks like he won't anyway)

Whether he cost you a trophy and loss of income is irrelevant, you cannot financially punish a person on the back of being sent off to such an extent as being done even when it is as bad as his case is.

I know he'll still be able to train but his fundamental job won't be there for him. He got the biggest ban for a number of decades so only being paid 75% of your salary for a time doesn't look that OTT that some are suggesting (not you necessarily).

Rehabilitation... what the f**k?

He's been docked half his wages for 3 months. If he's on £60Kpa he's received a £7,500 (before tax) fine which probably works out nearer £5,000 after tax. It's not that bad really.

Someone earlier mentioned win bonuses. Can they get those under the salary cap?

^^ This....Paul Wood hit Pettybourne more than twice for no reason and got hardly anything, Flower gets elbowed in the face and reacts and gets letahered from all angles, Lance deserved the 2 Flower was just unlucky he has a glass jaw.

Flower did not get elbowed, never mind in his face

he was barely touched by LH with a pushing off leading forearm, that Flower instigated the whole thing in backfield seems to have passed you by.
The first punch was a sending off offence in its own right and not warranted retaliation, the second punch was just well...plenty has being said.
He has been punished with a decently hefty ban, but the financial punishment imposed by your club doesn't make sense and would appear on the face of it OTT unless there is another motive behind it.

The ban was imposed by the RFL for bringing the game into disrepute. This fine is imposed by Wigan for tarnishing the name of the club, both ban & fine are warranted IMO

We really have been conditioned by the tory media haven't we? Flower was a headline above ebola, a tweet of a white van & England flags is above hospitals closing due to cost cuttings, and no mention of further faults being found in nuclear reactors meaning power cuts over winter. The irony is rugby league never gets any attention on the southern tory media and here we are bending to there snobish judgements because we fear our sponsors may pull the plug. Yet in yawnion you can stamp on the players head and no one gives a toss what northerners think about it. Sponsors beware, we have no media coverage so you may as well pull out of the sport if you think throwing a punch may tarnish your image.

Imagine the Big Mac shortage that would hit West Yorkshire........

Getting really sick of the Hohaia apologists now and their 'Flower started it in back play' mantra. I'm not going over the same ground (see previous post) but are you saying every penalty on a rugby field should result in those offended against running 10 metres or so to elbow someone in the face? Get a grip man! And before you say he wasn't elbowed in the face again, I suggest you Google 'Lance Hohaia elbow'. It's really not that difficult!

Always been a Burger King man myself.

You are factually inaccurate. Hohaia used a forearm to the face, not an elbow, and that is what he received a one match ban for. The Sky footage quite clearly shows Flower push Hohaia in the back off the ball hard enough for Hohaia to fall over after which Hohaia ran after Flower and forearmed him in the face. There are no Hohaia apologists; but there are deluded people like yourself who think that Flower's actions were somehow justified or lessened by the fact that Hohaia responded with a forearm to the face to being pushed over off the ball (something the referee should have dealt with at the time).

I think Flower has been lucky myself. He was charged by Wigan with gross misconduct. In any career that equates to dismissal.

Whether anyone likes it or not Flower exposed the sport to national scrutiny and any follow up from Wigan had to reflect the degree of that scrutiny because that is the degree to which Wigan have to repair his and their reputations. Two versions of Flower's punches to Hohaia have been seen by over one and a half million people each on YouTube alone. Add to that pictures in every online news agency and print publication plus the footage on 24 hour TV news bulletins here and abroad as well as the audience for the match itself and that is significant damage done to the reputation of Ben Flower and, by association, Wigan (and the sport as a whole if the kind of discussions that went on in the aftermath are anything to go by).

he checked flowers run and got pushed out of the way, he reacts the forearm to the face and gets sparked out for it. Because he was KO'd people are feeling sorry for him. Guys an idiot who has got off very very lightly and the other guy has been made a scapegoat.

Thats like saying Flower barely touched him. He barely touched him with a poushing off leading fist.