Some leniency has clearly (and wrongly) been shown to avoid a ban for the WCC. But a non-suspension would have been more acceptable if the ref had shown some bottle at the time and sent Bowen to the sin-bin. On-report is becoming far too much of a cop-out response and the refs need to start taking more onfield action. It needs to be made clear exactly what kind of offences are worthy of a sin-bin and which ones result in a sending off. It seems like the refs don't always know what to do and putting incidents on report to be retrospectively dealt with is the easy option.

Closed fist, open palm, bounced up. People can dress it up how they wish but an obstructive high shot is an obstructive high shot. Good to see some Wigan fans disagreeing with the decision. Kudos!

you have just made that up. Surely its just counted as a professional foul? i think he should or received a 2 game ban for super league games and not a friendly and a WCC game.

Most people who have played the game would have been in that point where your committed for a tackle but realise the ball has gone and you have a brain snap and carry through with the tackle. It was naughty of bowen i don't think it could have ever really hurt grix it was more of a close line than a swinging high arm.

Nothing like the Meli Incident that was just sickening to watch
Nothing like the Hep cahil, that was massively mistimed and misjudged even if it was an accident. have to have some control if your trying to land a free hit or thats exactly what happens a 15stone bloke plus ends up taking somebodies head off at high speed with a shoulder.

Are you seriously suggesting Bowen was committed before realising that Grix didn't have the ball?? Grix ran about 5 metres without the ball before he got to Bowen.

I think you are being overly kind to Bowen there. He could have easily pulled out, he moved in to it (I don’t want to say jump because he didn’t leap but he was 100% moving in to it not pulling back) it was high, stiff arm to the neck of a player who hadn’t had the ball for a couple of seconds.

It was a late, high, unnecessary illegal hit on a player that didn’t have the ball, there is no mitigation, no excuse for it. It was poor. A few games would have been the right decision.

Ryan Bailey does that to Charnley and people would be demanding 5-6 matches.

There was no way in the world he was going to get banned with the WCC coming up. The RFL always go soft in the run up to big games.

If he'd done that mid season he'd have rightly been banned.

Not at all, What i am saying is he is committed him self to tackling grix but has had a brain snap when the ball has gone and he realised it but has already committed him self to it and instead of just pulling out altogether he has got it completely wrong and clotheslined him. I know thats happened to me in a game when i was younger (although i didn't clothesline him haha).

Its defiantly a ban probably 1 game with an EGP, but if the system was set up correctly i think that would have been applied. Its harsh to ban a player for a WCC for something silly like that he should serve a suspension in a super league game. I hope the RFL change the rule even for challenge cup matches.

read my post to YG.

And we all know ryan bailey wouldn't have slapped a player it would have been a swinging arm just like the other naughty players in the game.

I don't like that club bans can be used in international matches, particularly friendlies, but I think it's difficult in RL to implement bans that only count in one club competition. It would be unfair to miss out on a WCC because of one incident (though Jeff Lima did in 2011 after Wilkin's "sir, sir that man was nasty to me"icon_wink.gif, but what would happen if a player was in the middle of an 8 game ban or similar. Could you really justify a system where someone is in the middle of a long term SL ban for serious breach of discipline but could then be allowed to play in a WCC or CC final, for example?

I can’t see what all the surprise is all about in some peoples posts TBH, when I got home and watched the incident again I must say it did not look as bad as I first thought at the time, and I would have thought a yellow card sufficient punishment on the night. I’m sure the WCC also played a part in the panel’s decision too. It also strikes me there is a little hypocrisy in some post from other clubs fans who seem to want to bring back hanging whenever punishment is given to a Wigan player. My mind goes back to last year’s GF and the state of a Blake Green’s eye at the end of the game and the attitude of some people then.

And it absolutely should not have.

The game is tough enough without letting people away with that sort of thing. FWIW I though Westwood should have walked in the GF and was delighted when Green got back up and played a key part in winning the game. It was a clear tactic to take a player out of the game and it failed. Bowen on the other hand didn't need to tackle Grix, and should have walked. Late, high and off the ball. How the panel suggest it came off the shoulder first I have no idea, but it does set a precedent.

A lot of posters keep saying it's set a president (I've quoted your just because it was the last one to mention it) but I don't think it does simply because the disciplinary panel have deemed it as first contact with the shoulder so any forthcoming high shots will just be classified to suit, head if they want to ban them and shoulder if they want a penalty sufficient decision.

I thought he deserved ten minutes, simply for taking out the kicker and probably a one game ban as it was high (although my guess is it wasn't malicious just a poorly executed late tackle).

As for bans, bans shouldn't be served in friendlies. Maybe a better system would that a player is banned for X games in that whichever competition the offence was commited and can't play in any game, in any competition until it has been served. Internationals would be tricky though I guess.

New(ish) poster...more through luck than judgement that Grix wasn't seriously injured, and to say it was an obstruction? Bowen was off the ground when he made contact with the head of Grix (not shoulder)

I would hope, like this one, that the video evidence is clear enough for them to spot the difference between head and shoulder



Don't disagree with any of that tbh



Agree again. Would mean the problem of having to avoid banning players due to play in the cup final doesn't arise. Any ban would be served in the next SL fixture.

Do the RFL wear cherry and white shirts ?

I heard that Nigel Wood has a pair of XXXXXXXXXXXL cherry and white y-fronts

This made me laugh and want to puke at the same time.

For those of you with twitter accounts follow @RFLReferees many decisions made explained on there (including the Bowen one) #asktheref

So to summarise the last 11 pages
Silver wood copped out
Mattie Bowen is a vicious thug who went out to hurt Grix
The RFL are all cherry and white supporters and bent.
Or
Alternatively
(Please feel free to burn me at the stake for this)
A professional REF and the Independent panel came to similar decisions based on evidence.

Most people are actually being quite even handed about this, there are the odd few who are over reacting and saying it's an assault and the odd few - like yourself - who are defending the indefensible in an attempt to avoid the quite obvious truth: it was a high swinging arm, so late that it doesn't deserve to be called a tackle. Even if he did make a smidgen of contact with Grix's shoulder first it was in such a way that contact with the neck and head was subsequently unavoidable - that is the very definition of reckless. When you accept that (as almost everyone else appears to have done) then the only reasonable response, both as punishment and deterrent is a ban somewhere between 1-3 games. That they have let him off is an indictment of the disciplinary committee, lots of people coming to the same wrong decision doesn't make it right.

So why did Lima get banned for the WCC in 2011?

Didn't Super Kel once miss the CC final with a ban?

Kel was banned for the 91 CC Final against Saints. He had been sent off a few weeks previously. This was the Mission Impossible period when Wigan played 4 games in 6 days ( Cas on Sunday, Widnes on Tuesday, Bradford on Thursday and Leeds on Saturday), winning 3 and drawing against Bradford, to clinch the Championship. Disciplinary hearings were held on Thursday afternoons back then and Kel had his the afternoon of the Bradford game. He was banned for 3 games, I think, and thus missed the Leeds game, the 1st round of the Premiership and the CC Final. Wigan were losing 18 -2 early in the second half before Kel sparked a comeback, crashing over from about 2 yards from a quick tap penalty. An 18 -18 draw which meant Wigan still needed to beat Leeds on Saturday. Unforgettable times for all those old enough to be there!

He should have got a 1 game ban which should've been implemented for the SL or CC which ever game came first. The WCC shouldn't count as it's only Wigan out of SL that is taking part, having a ban in the WCC would have no effect on the comps back home thus giving no advantage to the team playing Wigan next which should be the case.