Granted, but what would you lot be saying about him if he lamped Morley and got himself sent off? The talk wouldn't be "Oh look at Graham, he's an awesome prop, he's just pwned Morley". It would be, "Haha Morley pwned Graham, got the petulant baby sent off" etc. The incident was another example of the complete inadequacy of the competence of Super League referees. Graham did absolutely nothing wrong and was elbowed in the face. The referee saw that as a penalty to Warrington. One can only assume that had Graham punched him he would have been sent off for striking an opponent and in league you typically are sent off if only one player is doing the punching.

Bizarre and ridiculous and given the standard of the officials it is no wonder football style appealing and gesticulating at the ref is creeping into the sport as a whole. Most of the time the players appealing are 100% right.

Utter rubbish. Phil Clarke-esque.

morley had stitches at half time to bad cut to the chin was available to come back on if needed but as graham was looking for his dummy for most of the game he was left on the bench

There is a middle ground. I'm sure he could have put Morely on his . It is rare but does happen. Stamps his dominance and looks like he is ready for some Biff. Then if moz instigates it is a cautioning for both, maybe a replay to see what happened. Morely might get a ban for striking out, even if Graham was trying to cheat. Instead, he looked straight to the ref. As a player in a professional sport- spot on. As a prop- mistake. Sorry.

I see what you are saying, grabbing Morley's shirt and eyeballing him or something. But then again if he starts reacting to every little petulant dummy spit from an opposition player (Which is what Morley did was) he'd spend half his games squaring up to people and banging his chest.

You're right. It sent a message though.

He had a choice in the first minute. He could put some pressure on MOz or go the the ref. If he had squared up a bit with moz, people would have got the message. Instead he looked a bit soft and people knew they could take liberties (as Moz had done)

Nothing intentional from Morley. It was a shrug to stop Graham messing about with the play the ball as per.

Nothing was given against him. Graham was bleeding after it though, so something happened.

Definitely caught Graham with the corner of his elbow, but wasn't intentional. It was just a shrug.

Should Graham have done something in retaliation though.

The correct course was taken in terms of Refereeing. Graham attempted tot steal and Moz reacted.

If he had then God help him. You don't mess with Morley.

I agree. Graham was right not to retaliate as he may have been embarrased live on TV.

I believe that by not reacting he was in for a kicking for the whole match. Everyone was taken him apart.

As I said not many people have taken on Moz and won but Graham had to do something to stamp some authority on what he was doing. Everyone was taken him for a mug.

At amateur level your told to get in first on your opposite number and never take a backward step otherwise they will have your measure for the rest of the game, its like in the wild the weak don`t survive as get targeted and singled out.

Moz set the platform for us last night and Garreth Carvell carried that on along with the rest of our pack, it was a great performance from the lads up front and the backs finished things off nicely.

Regards of how bad he played,Graham is one the best props in SL.Like its been said before i would have him at Wire.

Sorry to my fellow Wire fans here but it was largely Saints' lack of ability on our line that cost them, along with some solid goal line defence from ourselves! Eastmond just passed the ball, Gaskell looked out of his depth in a game of this magnitude and they were slow and predictable at spreading the ball. I said in Cardiff, Saints are still by far the quickest team at getting upfield into good field position, however, its all to no avail if they can't deliver the finished product.

Some great hits from our boys though, especially Carvell, wood and westwood. As for Morley's elbow, I honestly think he was trying to shove Graham off not elbow him in the face. No malice in it whatsoever!

Probably the most analytical post on this entire topic.

Can't believe it took 4 pages for someone to confirm this .....

As James Graham's biggest fan (when in an England jumper at least) he has had better nights than Friday. Was nowhere near fit, and it showed! To be fair to him though, he stuck a bit of grung in, unlike LMS and Clough who were too busy cowering in the stands. Him and Perry will terrorise the league though, a tough bugger who will get him on the front foot for him to take it to the line and vary the play with his hands. Saints will struggle as long as Moore, Clough and that over-rated, under-spirited, general banker Kyle Eastmond get a jersey... Union are welcome to you you pretencious little bas*****

I'm still undecided as to whether I think James Graham is worth all the hype or not.

On his day, he can be the best prop in the competition. And there's no point arguing with that, I'm almost 100% certain that the opta stats (if they would make them available to us all in any useful format) would back me up.

The problem is, he can also be the most petulant unplesant dummy spitting s*** on the field since Lee Briers in his pomp. His sin-binning in the last years' Grand Final was just reward for him after an entire season of him gobbing off at the referee every time something didn't go saints' way, and the fact it took every game of the season until the final show piece event for the ref to finally get tired of it and show him the yellow is more an indictment against our referees than it is against Graham, if he had been treated in the correct manner over his behavioural fault during the course of the regular season he may well have learned to control himself in a more professional manner.

As for props standing up for themselves and keeping face - I think there may be something in that. Stuart Fielden was once one of the most respected and feared props in our league. Then he squared up to big Willie Mason and got dropped with a single punch, Fielden, IMO, has never been the same player since then and he certainly hasn't ever squared up to his opponents in the same manner that he used to since then, either. He is a shadow of the bullying, intimidating and effective enforcer that he used to be at Bradford.

And before any of our saints' brethren come along and make the "my dad's bigger than your dad" level of argument, yes, I'm well aware that Lee Briers ought to have been sin-binned far more frequently in his career than he has been for the same ref-whinging-behaviour.

nah fielden still does the angry face and gesticulating, just from further away.

Exactly. Once upon a time he used to get up and aim punches at everyone, doing absolutely everything but connect with it - and when he was doing it, and when people believed he was capable, it worked - it scared the crap out of the majority of forward packs in the league.

Now, I think most of the forward packs just quietly giggle at him everytime he tries it.

He can be the best prop in the world, when he wants to be.. Runs strong, agile for a big fella with the hands of a stand off! With the right front row partner he could be astonsihing! LMS isnt the right one though, he is trying to hard to be his own 'maverick'

Out of interest (only because i haven't seen it for so long) if you give the ref lip after a penalty, can he still give the attacking team an extra 10 metres ?