Methinks Briers may still be thinking about last years grand final and the 'treatment' he received from Ablett. I'd love to know what Ablett said to Briers after the grand final try and for that matter yesterday.

He will get away with it, pathetic from the officials.

Could be my imagination but I got the impression that Warrington were really out to make amends for previous play off defeats.

Lets hope they got it out of thier system.

I'm absolutely sure Ablett said something, it's what he does. But I can't imagine it was offensive enough to warrant that. Winding up your opponents is part of the game, and you have to keep your discipline in the face of it. I was amazed he wasn't at least sin binned.

I don't know, we've been on the end of that before from them. But if we manage to limp through and play them again, i'm fairly sure they won't be half as expansive when the stakes are a bit higher. It would be a totally different game.

Play-offs seem similar to State of Origin, you can do vitually anything without punishment beyond a penalty to the opposition at worst.

Old school

Good innit or at least a slightly better approach given how sterile the modern game has become.

In addition all Play-Off games should be played in the evening and under floodlights and if we had a sensible format they probably would be.

I think there is something in that.
The refs become very 'rule book', but at the same time allow some serious transgressions.

Deary me...this thread is good.

great four tries from Benny though...outstanding effort.

I'M just going to watch the highlights.By the way are you still banned from totalrlfans forum

me? banned for what? I don't use TotalRL fans much at all.???

I know Wendell hmmm

he's not wendell

I know.It was his pic that reminded me of Wendell.I actually miss him over there

i don't post over there, but do read , it's a different vibe to over here.

Pretty sure we've banned several incarnations of wendell over here.

I'm never over-excited by too much disciplinary action over the odd punch. There did seem to be some sort pf suggestion that it was an automatic red earlier in the season. Like most such things it doesn't seem to be applied all that consistently. Probably the most aggrieved parties will be all those players who've been walked for the same thing all season. I'm sure Carl Ablett can take it and won't lose too much time crying into his ovaltine.

The game plan was presumably designed to beat 13 men, so given no actual damage was done to Ablett, the rest of the game plan was likely to have been unaffected. And ineffective. I imagine that's what will occupy the minds at Kirkstall this week.

Sending off for a punch my daughter would have laughed at seems a bit extreme. I know it is sort of supposed to be the rule these days but it would have barely been a penalty a few years back. As Child had set a precedent I'm surprised & disappointed someone didn't snot Briers soon afterwards.

In my personal opinion a little bit of girls' blouses fisticuffs (Briers' attempt was pitiful ) and the shoulder charge should be part of the game. However, my opening point was a reference to the R L 's own rules.

If the referees are going to be so inconsistent and afraid to apply said rules then, as many have stated, it just makes the game a lottery and wide open for mockery. Child and Alibert are the worst, but how much better are the others.? The limited choice of match officials is another of RL's big problems.....my lads never fail to be amused at the apparent age of some of the 'grandad ' touch judges

Agree with the first bit, the lack of intensity during the regular season isn't helped in the least by players being terrified of losing their cool due to the disproportionate consequences it has for their team. It's reached a point now where there aren't even two teams in the whole league that have a semblance of bad blood between them. It's only a few seasons since every game against Saints was a must-watch, partly due to the obvious animosity between the sides. Not now though.

As for the scheduling of playoffs, if Sky wanted them at 2am on Xmas morning then that's when we'd play.

sore losers get on wi it bailey does it every match .U were crap end of

And you still have to Prove you are not crap.start of

we did'nt look too crap on sat

But you still have to come here to say aren't we good.we are you mentors after all.you are still trying to emulate us.primrose yeuk

Not really bothered if Briers gets a ban or not, my one hope is that we don't see James Child as ref in the playoffs.....for us or any other teams. He's not got the spine for the big moments.