2019 R13 Fri - Rabbitohs 12-20 Knights @ ANZ

[aqua_duck]

I admire the NRL being an equal opportunity employer but probably not the best idea to have a blind person in the bunker

 

[Pedge1971]

I'm still confused as to why Fitzgibbon is in the bin? What did he do exactly? Is it because he's wearing a Knights jersey?

Yep

 

[Spot On]

Poor form Fox no closeup!

Sam's employer. Can't have that.

 

[no name]

I'm still confused as to why Fitzgibbon is in the bin? What did he do exactly? Is it because he's wearing a Knights jersey?

Atkins offered no reason at all as well.
Called him over binned him, both Fitzgibbon and Pearce ask why and he says you know why.

 

[Grapple]

f**k Chris Lawrence looks so different. How did his face get so rooted?

I hope he has some decent painkillers later in life. Gonna hurt with what his body has been through.

 

[Frederick]

Atkins offered no reason at all as well.
Called him over binned him, both Fitzgibbon and Pearce ask why and he says you know why.

Funny, my wife and I have that exact same exchange

 

[martielang]

Not really Atkins call is it? He would of been watching the play. On the bunker that one.

 

[t-ba]

The total amount of minutes players will spend in the sin bin this evening will exceed the total crowd.

 

[aqua_duck]

Atkins offered no reason at all as well.
Called him over binned him, both Fitzgibbon and Pearce ask why and he says you know why.

Had no valid reason, absolute in over his head. Hope we ask for a big please explain from Annesley

 

[Bazal]

That's not as catchy as your number one hit, "Waaah the Cheating Neutral Umpires Cost England the Ashes"....

 

[CliffyIsGod]

The total amount of minutes players will spend in the sin bin this evening will exceed the total crowd.

*teeth

 

[Cockadoodledoo]

Hard to see the Knights being allowed to win this one.

 

[Bazal]

Lol at whoever that plug and play rando on the wing is

 

[hineyrulz]

lol@50uff$!!

 

[t-ba]

*teeth

Mate I work in Waterloo and the freak show on display this evening was genuinely horrifying. What a toothless, braying mass.

 

[I Bleed Maroon]

The total amount of minutes players will spend in the sin bin this evening will exceed the total crowd.

So much passion on display....Passion for durries and sweets.

 

[Someguy]

100% they did it because two Souths players were being binned and they think it has to be even.

As far as I could tell Fitzgibbon's crime was mouthing off at Sam Burgess. Since when is that a sin-bin?

I agree it’s just weak they have to bin equally. Really if they wanted to just throw a random should have been Lee for running in late

 

[hineyrulz]

*teeth

Teef!!

 

[no name]

Not really Atkins call is it? He would of been watching the play. On the bunker that one.

As the head official, he is the one way hands out the decisions.

He gave no explanation for the Fitzgibbon binning.
The only explanation that he gave was when Pearce questioned that the headbutt started it all, he said we didn’t see that so Souths get the penalty.

 

[wibble]

I guess, technically, by todays standard you can say the referees got all that nonsense with that last melee correct. They'll certainly say that.

There was a bit of "pushing" in the tackle that sparked the head butt as a reaction, so I suppose you could call that the instigating incident and therefore a penalty to Souths. And then all four players were "involved" in the melee and so all got binned. Boxes ticked, NRL happy.

But it was pretty minor incident and the referee was content to let it go. But Tom wanted to make something of it, so he headbutted an opponent and earned a penalty.

Fitzgibbon was "in" trying to stop Sam from becoming involved, so Sam hit him and headbutted him.

The problem with this one size fits all punishment approach from the NRL, is that the actions of Sam and Tom were really out of whack compared to the things that upset them, and yet they got the same punishment. Tom was rewarded with a penalty for gross over reaction.

And this has the potential to green light the sort of violence the NRL is trying to prevent, because you can "object" to anything minor and then get payback however you want, and not get penalised, relative to your opponents.

The only "punishment" from an overly violent action then, in this sort of case, is from the judiciary, which has its own consistency concerns, and doesn't bother Sam at the moment anyway.