I've got no problem with the treatment dished out to luauki,it's all part and parcel of the game in my opinion,they tried to wind him up and suceded,he lost his cool and gave away 2 penalties. What i did have a problem with was the continuous taking out of players after the ball had been passed. We're not talking about players already commited to the tackle but cynical attempts to clatter someone off the ball, Also Vella's need to come into the tackle as 4th man when it's already been completed and murrells forearm challenges,the one on Horne in the last 2 minutes was shocking imo.

Disgraceful? Hmmm.

Depends where you draw the line. Although I don't, booing the kicker is fine IMO. Sledging is okay, short of ruffling a player's hair (which for some reason I hate) or standing over an injured opponent. I may have briefly despised Danny Tickle as a lying, cheating fake, but if a Rovers player had done the same it'd have been nowt more than a rueful grin. He's a pro ateotd. I don't excuse cheap shots, nor do I want to see players hurt. My line is crooked, as fans are biased, but some of you are taking it to extremes now, IMO. Your perogative, I guess.

Care to point out the publication in which Hull FC's players have been "spouting drivel"?

Fans' comments on an internet forum, is hardly deserving of a rebuttal in the local press. If Galea was hoping that his comments might gain him some favours from RFL officials, I fear it may have exactly the opposite effect

I'd always had you down as a sensible guy, but if you could watch that performance yesterday and not see the disgraceful and cowardly tactics on display from a number of Rovers players then you're a lot less unbiased than I'd thought.

There is a marked and extremely important difference between hard but fair tackling (or even a bit of 'bif') and constant niggling once a man is on the ground, hitting players off the ball when they aren't even looking, and coming in 4th man with a sly dig.

I think that is my interpretation, rather than his intention. I take your point though.




That hadn't occurred to me. My assumption is that it is his honest, if biased opinion. It was just an example of how there are two sides to every story - for every pile of poo there is an equal and opposite pile of poo. We deserve our poo too!

Having watched the game again I stand by the fact that Lauaki did not help himself one bit. That said whilst there was nothing wrong the the gang tackles on Lauaki they were paying a lot of attention towards his head and a couple of times he took the hit before he retaliated. The ref never gave him any protection whatsoever.

Also noticed that Vella was 4th man in on a lot of occasions, I hope we watch the video of the game before we play them next time and offer a little payback!

Any player singled out by both the officials and players is going to get hurt!
Poor from silverwood very poor and i hope the club make a compl;aint about it too.
Hame was on a hiding to nothing , yes he lashed out and as shuch it asks why wasnt the ref calling a penalty against rovers if they were holding down then , hence why he was trying to get up..
Hame wil be a star for us this season trust me, dont take his agression away thats what makes him so deadly

As far as players are concerned: whatever happens on the field, stays on the field.

Once they start in the press with post-match criticism of opposition players and match officials, then that's a whole new can of worms that should never be opened up.

I'm prepared to accept that rather than Galea wanting to see his comments in print, he made what he thought would be an "off the record" statement. However that does suggest some naivety, given the p1$$-poor editorial standards of the local rag

Hame can consider himself very fortunate not to be put on report. The way he kept headbutting Clit Newtons elbows was a disgrace.
I thought the effort Vella applied was superb as well. Being fourth man into the tackle all afternoon, & not actually completing one himself was an amazing performance.

Is this the Rovers that are at the top of the 'fairplay league'?

I fully agree , I think he's made a rod for his own back and like a few have mentioned , Teams will target him now and Lauaki will have to wise up to this. Still , Silverwood should have done more.

I'm biased and perhaps my bias in exaggerated in this instance, but I don't think I'm alone in that. Disgraceful and cowardly pretty extreme words, especially from sensible posters like you, Sheldon and Robbo. I just don't think it was [ithat[/i extreme a game, and I'm surprised there has been so much focus on it.
I'm not going to make myself any more unpopular over it, anyway.

Did Lauaki actually play?... just saw a grey headguard getting 'told off' by Silverwood throughout!

From what I have just been told he was extremely upset himself by his completely being hung out to dry by the ref himself after the match and Agar DID apparently tell silverwood his thoughts after the match over Hames treatment, by all accounts he is black and blue today from cheap shots but will play on Monday!!

Yep. Seemed like a lot of late shots and OTT aggression watching it first time, but confirmed watching it back. Murrell, Newton and Vella were out of order in what was clearly part of the gameplan. How sad for them that despite this they came off second best. Perhaps they should pick their battles more selectively in future.

Galea's comments about Lauaki and Long for me are the most surprising aspect of this whole thing. Since when do players start bad-mouthing each other in the press, particularly in a game where Rovers employed borderline thuggery as a key tactic? Very, very poor from a player I had respected up to this point.

Not like Fitzgibbon to push someone in the back when their not looking?

O'Meley coming in again once a player is tackled and rapped up swinging his arm into a players face?

Luaki throwing punches on 3 occasions.

Get a grip, yes you guys won and fairly so but please dont across all sweet and innocent!

What, like Ben Galea with his public slating of Long and Lauaki in the HDM, you mean? Great form from a fellow player.

And just how many of our players went bleating to the press?

You're correct that I don't normally use such extreme language. The fact that I am gives some indication of how shocked I was at what I saw.

The niggling in the tackle is nothing new, but it happened a lot more than usual. What really stood out for me was the number of off-the-ball incidents of a player being taken out while not even looking, and the number of times elbows were used by the last man in the tackle. I honestly can't remember the last time I saw anything like it - and that includes all the previous SL games between the two sides.

Galea is a is a big girls school blouse...the tart!

if you're talking about Webster, he'd just roughed Fitz up in the tackle. And while he may not have been looking he was certainly aware of Fitz and his displeasure since Fitz ran alongside him giving him the verbals before shoving him in the side - a shove that came nowhere near pushing him over.


Didn't see it but won't excuse it.


I'm on record elsewhere as saying that Lauaki should have held his temper better. But in his defence, he was [iretaliating[/i to being elbowed and butted in the tackle.


I always knew you were heavily biased, but that's comical even for you.

Maybe he shouldn't have made them comments but IMO Luaki should have been binned.

I thought Rovers tackled well in the middle of the park, yes it was rough and tough but thats what a derby is all about. Got to give O'Meley credit, I thought he got bashed all over the park but never stopped grafting all game.

Very similar to the one he did against Salford when Cashmere took exception to it.

Poor tactics by Justine's team trying to win by intimidation. Newton usually tries to take the half backs out so it's unusual for him to have a go at a forward who was laid on his back.Doesn't throw many face to face punches,usually does it slyly.Galea has made a fool of himself,he should look at leadboots Murrell,Cocaine and the coward Newton.Interesting article by Galea and if you look in the top right hand corner of the same page you will see an article about Judas who the Aussie gang forced out.Matchwinning performance apparently.

How can we intimidate the biggest most fearful pack in SL?