Hastings has picked up a 1 match ban for reacting to Josh Jones’ play acting.

Greenwood also picked up a 3 match ban for them, can’t say I noticed anything worthy of that.

Sounds about right

Brilliant. Our only creative player banned. Least Lam’s got 10days to come up with an excuse

EDIT : Missed Fridays fixture.

I remember it happened just in front of me and they just seemed to be messing about. Appeal?
Never rains but it pours!

10 days? We play on Friday don’t we?

That we do. I missed it and skipped to Wakey next weekend.

FFS

What do we do now?

Hanley at full back. Halsall (if available) or McDonnell in the centres with Bibby back to the wing?

hanley to 6 and smith to FB with this idiot

Marshall will play FB no doubt.

The ban is for trying to drag Josh Jones to his feet after an injury. I’ve just had a look at it and at first it felt like it was going to be a friendly gesture but he does drag at his shirt a bit before letting go. The fact he’s had a running battle with Jones throughout the game probably hasn’t helped him. The players heads look gone at the minute, with the silly bans we’re picking up just highlighting that.

I can't quite believe how the game is these days !! Players banned for next to nothing and I'm not just on about wigan players. The game is being spoilt by all this nonsense

I absolutely agree in the main but I think this ban is warranted tbh. They’re hot on head injuries and rightfully so. Josh Jones went down holding his face and Hastings knows he shouldn’t be trying to drag a bloke to his feet, even more so with a head injury.

The ridiculous yellow card for KPP is the sort of decision that is spoiling the game. This incident is something Hastings should’ve known better on IMO.

We would be baying for blood if an opposition player picked up a Wigan player with a potential head injury and rightfully so.

I'd be annoyed if said Wigan player was milking it like Jones was. He took an elbow to the nose. It was pretty clear to everyone that he was fine and was playing for time. If he was sparked out on the floor, you'd have a point but he wasn't.

Part of a wider issue here imo. The players know they can milk stuff like this because the powers that be are terrified of concussions, regardless of the negative impact it's having on the game. Doesn't help that all the officials sit in their echo chamber telling each other how well their doing, even when the game is going to the dogs.

I have to say the amount of play acting going on in the game at the moment is bordering on the farcical. The players don't appear to be aware that it's turning supporters off in their droves and, ultimately, it will be their livelihoods that will suffer. They seem to absolve themselves of all responsibility to play the game according to the values of the sport and it's supporters. To put it in a nutshell, we aren't football fans (in the main) for a reason and the players need to recognise that their paying audience doesn't want to see this fakery.

I don't think it helps that the referees aren't applying the rules consistently either. The ref claimed on Sunday that he didn't stop the game for the Sam Powell injury because he didn't regard it as a head injury then stopped the game when a Huddersfield player quite clearly had a knock to his back. You find heads in funny places these days!

Play acting is undoubtedly an issue that’s crept in but there’s just no need for Hastings to try and help him to his feet. Play to the whistle and take the advantage of playing against 12 men for as long as the ref allows it (and I know the frustration really comes when the ref predictably blows up).

The wider issue of bending the rules to give you an advantage needs addressing but what can you expect when some teams seem to have lost the morality to even turn up for games or release players for representative fixtures. Imagine the flak Wigan would be getting now if we’d acted in the way a couple of teams who’ll be playing in London at the weekend have recently. It doesn’t bare thinking about.

What's the alternative? Have the refs, who have no medical qualifications, determine on the spot whether a head injury is legitimate or not? I agree that players are milking it, but there's bugger all the officials can be expected to do about it.

Id say immediate time off the pitch for a compulsory HIA on ALL suspected head contact would do the trick. if the player stays down they go off

The alternative is to not ban someone post match, especially when nothing was said on the day.

The medical staff are allowed to come on immediately and make the call. No need to stop the game for that to happen.
Stopping the game only encourages teams to go down (particularly at the start of defensive sets on transition).

I mentioned 2 weeks ago about 3 of the last 4 games having 7/8/9 stoppages, and 95% of those stoppages happen first 2 tackles of a defensive set.
Thats why I questioned you about a player having to leave the field if he goes down and game is stopped. That would discourage players going down unnecessarily. I thought we had brought it in over here for general paly but maybe its only NRL that do it?

Either way, I'm telling Lam from now on play it that way.
Kick deep, make first tackle and go down injured tapping your head. Let defensive line set and get some energy back. Job done
We'll kill the sport (and it will be wigans fault) but hey who cares.
Forget Powell having a shoulder injury and game.playing on, just tap your head and game will stop for o reason 40 years away from play.

On the game thread I mentioned at HT that it had happened 3/4 times first half, and then within 20mins of 2nd half starting another 4 or 5, its a joke.

Ended up arguing with The Hudds fan, who was having a go at Powell for time wasting when he actually had to go off !!!
The Nerve of their spectator

We improved the game a couple of years back with scrum clock and shot clock, weve got tondo something about this pretty soon because its making the game a joke.
Nearly 2hrs Sunday for an 80min game

how many times did Hudds go down in the defensive line? Id say all apart from the high kick when Marshall fouled him, they even stopped play when he was off the pitch, ive never seen that before ever and was ridiculous

Do you think there is a danger that players with head injuries would be more likely to try to play on with them if they knew that? Rather than taking a knee and letting a physio take a look to see whether it's serious. That also buys time for the medical team to review the footage of the relevant collision to see whether the player was knocked out, unsteady etc (many won't be aware that happens in all SL games).

I agree it's an issue and there is gamesmanship going on, but we have to make looking after head injuries the number 1 priority, regardless of what that means for the quality of the game.

Where does it end?
The trainers/physios are never off the field anyway, it took 8 seconds for a trainer to be at the side of Jones on Sunday and if game had carried on his treatment would have been affected how? If it was so serious that extra medical attention was needed then trainer could inform the officials and they stop the game, if play goes anywhere near the injured player officials can stop the game (like how it used to be).
What is to be gained from standing around for 2mins waiting for a player who in all seriousness took a bang on the nose and all he was doing was waiting for VR to review it to try and get a penalty and at the same time gain his defensive line 2 mins red to get set.
2hrs the game took Sunday
In 4 of the last 5 games (fair play to saints as they didn't get themselves involved in it but to be fair they didn't need to) there must have been 35 plus stoppages (about 25 plus for our opposition i would guesstimate) and only 3 i think opposition players went off with maybe 3 for us (2 Sunday from 2 stoppages).

2 years ago the fame improved 25% overnight with introduction of shot clock and scrum clock.
Suddenly the coaches and players have found a new way to cheat the game.

If a player goes down game carries on unless trainer calls for it (or any obvious case where an opposition player can see there's a problem and calls officials to stop game for example or the official can see it immediately)
Once player has been assessed if he goes off the fair enough as they lose a substitute which they wouldn't want to do
If he plays on then he leaves the field for the set or 1min whatever

As it is there is absolutely nothing/zero to stop players going down every tackle and its becoming a farce (anyone who and the displeasure of watching the Leeds catalan game about 3 years ago where catalans went down about 25 times in the game you have my sympathy).

Yes, occasionally a player will try and carry on, it still happens now, and the medical people will have to watch out for it, like they do now.

Were.over complicating it and the coaches/players are exploiting it

I've been trying to find it, but my Google-fu has let me down: Don't the NRL have some system whereby if you are injured, you have to leave the field for two minutes, or something? Which I understood as an attempt to address the issue Jukes is taking about.

On another thread I mentioned it a couple of weeks ago as I was getting increasingly frustrated at players not leaving the field.
I thought SL had brought the rule in but Grimmy advised its only for drop out situations

If players/coaches will cheat/bend the rules at drop outs, they'll do it at scrums, they'll do it increasingly at transition plays (1st and 2nd tackles).

Something has to happen, because its creeping into the game

And whilst people can shout player safety the fact is all the precautions and rules/checks are in place already.
Game.doesnt need to stop, and if it does then player leaves field.for x amount of time