Flower stripped of wages

[sc74]

How can you say he has been charged twice for the same crime and it's not fair? Of course wigan was going to investigate it he has breach club rules/policies.

If you hit somebody in your work would you not expect your employer and the police to take action?

Exactly, they wouldn't keep paying you while you were banged up, would they? You'd be happy that you had a job to go to.

[thegimble]

How can you say he has been charged twice for the same crime and it's not fair? Of course wigan was going to investigate it he has breach club rules/policies.

If you hit somebody in your work would you not expect your employer and the police to take action?

If he had been investigated by the police then it would have been 3 investigation and not just 2. Fact really missed by you on here he got punished by the RFL. Police did not investigate it.

Its apparent what the club are upto. The incident took place in the first week in October its now the 3rd week in November and we sign a player then the judgement got passed on Flower just as we took Mossop from Leeds hands. It looks a bit iffy given the length of time between incident and the end of the disciplinary process given how quick the RFL did it.

[Exiled Wiganer]

It seems fair to me. I would have sacked him for what he did to the team and the club. Given that he completely lost control once, and that it is "out of character", presumably if provoked it could happen again. He lost us a GF, gifted that to Saints who will have a stronger team next year building on the confidence he gifted them. Thus making next year harder than it ought to be.
For those looking to welcome him back, I wonder how much damage a player would have to do to the team and the club before he'd be considered a bad thing.

[thegimble]

It seems fair to me. I would have sacked him for what he did to the team and the club. Given that he completely lost control once, and that it is "out of character", presumably if provoked it could happen again. He lost us a GF, gifted that to Saints who will have a stronger team next year building on the confidence he gifted them. Thus making next year harder than it ought to be.
For those looking to welcome him back, I wonder how much damage a player would have to do to the team and the club before he'd be considered a bad thing.

So everytime a player gets sent off for punching you want him sacked?

[Exiled Wiganer]

So everytime a player gets sent off for punching you want him sacked?[/quote]

No - if the punch is like Moose's one shot that floored the rabbit punching Saint in Millenium Magic then I would buy them a drink. I reserve that sanction for punches which are cowardly and dirty, cost us championships, gift Saints championships and drag the club's reputation through the dirt. Am hoping that there won't be many.
I appreciate that my views are out of step with many of my fellow fans, though...

[thegimble]

So everytime a player gets sent off for punching you want him sacked?

No - if the punch is like Moose's one shot that floored the rabbit punching Saint in Millenium Magic then I would buy them a drink. I reserve that sanction for punches which are cowardly and dirty, cost us championships, gift Saints championships and drag the club's reputation through the dirt. Am hoping that there won't be many.
I appreciate that my views are out of step with many of my fellow fans, though... [/quote]

So here is my point.

You are not punishing the crime but the consequence of the crime. If we had won then we do not punish him then. As that is what is coming across by you and most on here.

Its not the punch you want punished it the fact Saints won the GF. And that is not how a disciplinary process works. A very dangerous precedence has now been set by IL.

Question is who is next.

Your views are not out of sync with most its a 50/50 split.

One way for the club to shut me up for this is to actually pay Flower and then make him donate it to a charity say Steve Prescott's or Mind etc.

[TrueBlueWarrior]

It seems fair to me. I would have sacked him for what he did to the team and the club. Given that he completely lost control once, and that it is "out of character", presumably if provoked it could happen again. He lost us a GF, gifted that to Saints who will have a stronger team next year building on the confidence he gifted them. Thus making next year harder than it ought to be.
For those looking to welcome him back, I wonder how much damage a player would have to do to the team and the club before he'd be considered a bad thing.

Talk about an overreaction!!

He should be sacked!!
He is more than likely going to do it again!!
He single handedly lost us a grand final!!
He is to blame for Saints being stronger next season!!
He has made our season next year tougher than it needed to be!!
He is also a 'bad thing' to our club!!

I really wish you was allowed on all the yew tree jury's we might have got some proper sentences for them then!!

[cook123]

Please can you quote where I said that flower had been investigated by the police please?

If you look carefully I used that as an example in relation to you saying it was unfair for him to be punished twice for the same thing.

I'm not sure it is "apparent" as the club stated holidays leave etc has been in between. Also given the fact scott taylor has gone to Salford around the same time wigan sign mossop is more coincidental than what you are referring to.

[AndyNick]

My opinion for what it's worth.

Punches get thrown, we all accept that i'm sure and when they are, they are dealt with.

What Ben Flower did, was in the showpiece event of the year, the media spotlight was on him and he's punched a player on the ground who was in no position to defend himself. Forget about Hohaia for a moment, We all know that Hohaia is a cheap shot artist and he is St Helens problem not ours. If we weren't prepared for Hohaia coming out with cheap shots then quite frankly that is a big error in our preparation for the game.

The RFL have dealt with the Rugby League aspect by issuing a ban. However his actions also reflect badly on our club. I don't know about you but I have had to spend the last couple of months defending our club against people from other clubs within our game and also non rugby league fans who have seen the incident.

This is what the club have dealt with here. I'm sure Ben will come back a better player for this. Channel his aggression into running even harder at opponents.

Would McManus or Hetherington have taken action? I doubt it very much but for me that is a reflection of who we are dealing with here. Hetherington probably would have accused the RFL of making an example of his player and appealed the ban on the grounds that he owns Rugby League.

Just to throw another argument out there though. What was the difference between what Hohaia did, and Mickey Mac on Laffranchi which received a straight red a couple of years back?

[BriH]

Where do you stop? Are Wigan going to have a "hit list" with a sliding scale of "fines"?

Legally, are Wigan even allowed to do this? Maybe a breach of his contract unless there are clauses that allows this.