Why not just state what you know about the incident instead of dropping the odd cryptic comment in here and there?

Some of the comments on here make me laugh. Not because they are inaccurate, on the contrary I agree, the drunken behaviour of both brothers is shocking. I laugh because some people seem genuinely shocked. It's clear posters on here are totally sheltered and in the dark about how most of the lads are.
This video is the norm for how they behave, not just Joel and Sam, but most of the lads. There's still a 'don't you know who I am' or 'I can do what I like cos I play for Wigan' mentality at the club. Mix this will some drink, and possibly some devils dandruff and you get what you see.

This behaviour is all so common. You call for them to be sacked or suspended? Then you'd be asking for most of the team to go.

Do you think Waney or IL will see this as shocking? No. They'll be more annoyed that they were caught on camera, forcing them to react. As a previous poster said, this has already been, or they've at least tried to sweep it under the carpet.

Just like Zak was the one who got caught (when a high percentage of lads are on the beak socially) Joel and Sam are no different, they just got caught. Their guard was down to being so smashed. Sam woke up when he realised the camera was on (he'd have been just as bad as Joel otherwise) Joel was just too smashed.

Wake up people!

All the information is in this thread. I do think this has been blown out of proportion, though can agree they both come across like complete balloons

LOL,

Are you really suggesting that, purely down to his McDonalds adventure, Kelly got a new contract? Muppet!

let this be a harsh wake up call for all the clean cut wigan fans who lambasted the wigan move for ZH saying they didn't want him at our club because he isn't a role model. half the bloody games players act like this all the time and the sooner everyone realises it the better.

The club have stepped Joel down for 4 weeks pending an investigations and fined him £10,000. Sam has been fined £5000.

Presumably if there is a Pubwatch in Wigan they will both have been banned from all licensed premises.

Yes, and discussion to be made about Joel's long-term future at the club, hopefully, this means after the investigation they will get shut of him.

Think that is spot on from the club. It sounds like they hadn’t seen the video when the bar owner contacted the club but like everyone they are disgusted at the actual evidence.

At 29/31 years of age it seems they both still have a lot of growing up to do, especially Joel who seems to have a very high opinion of himself despite him being a failed RU convert and average back-rower in SL.

Just saw Joel in WH Smiths buying an English to French translation book, and a 'how to speak French asap' tape.

What's the French for rectum?

Well done to the club. Shocking it’s too of the senior players, guys with wives and kids.

On second watch Sam didn’t do too much wrong fine is probably about right and he’ll be gone at the end of the year anyway.

Joel however was horrendous and I hope he will never represent the club again. Shouldn’t get the honour of playing in that shirt.

A good strong response from the club.
All credit to them.

and this is in general with most other clubs as well too,
surly your not condoning what as happened as it sounds like it.
the reaction from the club might seem severe with fines and few games absence but at least our directors had the balls to sack Smith, Locke and Owen for drink related incidents

Is that timescale credible, though? If the bar-owner contacted the club at the time, weeks ago, and (presumably) said there was a video, surely the first thing the club would have said is, "Let's see it, then"? I find it very hard to believe that the club has only found out about the video in the last couple of days.



Absolutely. And whilst I don't kid myself that other players are all Goody-Two-Shoes, you'd hope at least they are not all that obnoxious.

The bar staff deserve some credit for dealing pretty well with a very unpleasant situation.

I’m puzzled at the clubs response TBH. It states that Rads saw the video last night yet Tony Callaghan says on Wigan Today he had already contacted the club some weeks ago.

Two conflicting reports there.

The irony Kris Radlinski is "disgusted" this is the player who played for no wages to fiddle the salary cap. Thus saving Wigan from relegation this club is rotten to the core.

The video did not belong to Tony Callaghan, it belonged to the girl. Did she release (show) it at the time to Wigan?

Read the first sentence again. Clearly not condoning anything. I literally made a point of that.

Now reaching headline news on media outlets - www.dailymail.co.uk/home/index.html Very embarrassing for the club.

Now reaching headline news on media outlets - www.dailymail.co.uk/home/index.html Very embarrassing for the club.

Fair point but I’d have thought if the club were aware of the incident, they must also have been aware of the video. Hence the “rumoured” hush money.

He played for zero money, how is that fiddling? It’s pretty much the epitome of loyalty.

Indeed!

This isn’t a Wigan, or Hull or Cas thing (the clubs who’ve seen things like this happen with their players of late); this is a culture within rugby league across both sides of the World.

AND IT HAS TO STOP!

I think as a community of fans for this sport we have to get together and almost do something like an open letter to the players/coaches/clubs. They have their heads a few decades behind if they think that as professional athletes they should be drinking alcohol during the season, never mind if it’s a “day off”, and never mind going as far as being completely bladdered! That’s just an absolute disgrace.

Being a professional athlete means their body is their job. Being a professional athlete means that during the season, bar a glass of wine with a meal every now and again, these players should not be touching pints of beer/bitter/stout or spirits with sugary mixers. It’s not good for their muscles or organs and it takes more than a day of drinking water or some nice juices after a drinking session to get this stuff out of the body, it takes days, so how is it affecting them in training and how is that then affecting them on game days?

All this “cheat day”/“day off”/“treat day” stuff within athletes is such a 1990s-2000s way of thinking that it’s embarrassing to see it still goes on. Slamming a McDonald’s, a full pack of biscuits and and a full pack of Haribo down your cake hole on a day off isn’t a cheat or a treat, it’s acting unprofessionally. Never mind getting completely p¡ssed or shoving what these guys shove up their noses these days. That’s just an absolute ing disgrace that that goes on (and we all know it does, they aren’t all going to the toilets together and making those jangly metal and sniffing noises to clean each other’s sets of keys on the sly in a toilet cubicle!) or smoking as well.

A cheat day would be having a slice of cake or a lemonade with their meal instead of abstaining. A day off is sitting and relaxing or having a massage instead of training. A treat day is going shopping and maybe having a steak+potato wedges with glass of red wine in a bar instead of weighing their protein and carbs out for the day.

But we see these idiot rugby league players acting like mobs of teenagers on their first nights out banging fifteen pints and a gram of coke down them and ending up arguing, acting the hard man or fighting. Why do they have to act so unprofessionally and immaturely? Sam and Joel are 29 and 31. Not 17 and 19. And they aren’t the only ones. And I’ve seen worse than this video from RL players.

The argument of “but they are allowed to let their hair down on a day off, and they’re young lads acting like loads of young lads do across the country” is null and void. Yes the British and Aussie drinking culture is there and there are young men doing this all the time who aren’t rugby league players. But go to the Mediterranean and have a look at how young men act. Yes they drink and go out in groups but they are so much more mature and sophisticated about it than we are. It’s about time our whole culture changed rather than excuse it. And look at other athletes; Andy Murray, Adam Peaty, Anthony Joshua, Mo Farah - they are all young British men but does anyone think any of them are hammering fifteen pints, a gram of coke, a few Es and a bit of magic and maybe a bit of ketamine down them on their days off?

No?

So why is it alright for rugby league players?

If they want to act like amateurs maybe we should sack off the game as we see it and change to being an amateur sport. Clubs could thrive a bit more if they don’t have to pay the players all this money and fans could get into games a bit cheaper as well. The players can go and get jobs and train in the evenings and play at weekends. Then they can go and get leathered on their day off and it won’t affect any kind of “professionalism” because the word doesn’t exist in an amateur game...

Just because you wouldn't lift a finger to help anyone unless you were being paid for it, you mustn't assume that everyone else is the same.

The timing of everything leads to more questions than answers at the moment in terms of how, when and why the club have reacted. Either way the whole episode doesn't look good for the club and especially for the Tomkins brothers. At the moment I wouldn't lose any sleep if both never played for the club again.