How many weeks for Billy Slaters Karate kick to the head of David Klemmer?

[Frank_Grimes]

Nah that'd be the 2002 Bulldogs.

Melbourne on the other hand have the best ever Win:Loss ratio over a 3 year period in rugby league history. Have won 3 straight minor premierships, played in 4 straight grand finals (would've been 5 if not for being banned from competing by the not corrupt at all NRL), won 4 grand finals over a 14 year period and continue to dominate the NRL despite having their squad decimated to appease the masses. Sounds like the greatest ever rugby league team to me.

Nope. With the amount of money they paid outside the cap, and the time and energy that went into orchestrating the rort, anything less than a premiership each year they committed the fraud is absolute failure.

They cheated, and they still weren't good enough. This fact must really cut you up.

 

[madunit]

Right, but you have no dramas with speculation that Klemmer may or may not have tackled Slater in the air had he not copped a boot to the throat?

I've not said a single thing about whether Klemmer attempted a tackle or not.

In my view, that is irrelevant to the issue.

 

[Timmah]

Sure, it's not the first time he's led with his knees/feet/legs but IMO he was just trying to protect himself from the defence. Smith was right - if Klemmer doesn't go to touch him when he's in the air, he doesn't get kicked in the head.

As an onside chaser, Klemmer is more than entitled to approach the area where Slater is contesting the ball. He was immediately in front of Slater at the moment he caught the ball, and didn't contact Slater until his foot was well and truly entrenched in his neck.

The notion that Klemmer touching Slater was the impetus for the kick is absolute garbage, the impact from Slater's foot on Klemmer's neck is first.

 

[firechild]

As an onside chaser, Klemmer is more than entitled to approach the area where Slater is contesting the ball. He was immediately in front of Slater at the moment he caught the ball, and didn't contact Slater until his foot was well and truly entrenched in his neck.

The notion that Klemmer touching Slater was the impetus for the kick is absolute garbage, the impact from Slater's foot on Klemmer's neck is first.

This is really the crux of it. It's like turning up to court after being charged for punching a bloke at the pub and your defense being "I was just protecting myself from the possibility he was going to punch me first".

 

[chrisD]

Nah that'd be the 2002 Bulldogs.

Melbourne on the other hand have the best ever Win:Loss ratio over a 3 year period in rugby league history. Have won 3 straight minor premierships, played in 4 straight grand finals (would've been 5 if not for being banned from competing by the not corrupt at all NRL), won 4 grand finals over a 14 year period and continue to dominate the NRL despite having their squad decimated to appease the masses. Sounds like the greatest ever rugby league team to me.

Proven cheats, undeniably the greatest cheats in rugby league history, no other club has ever had such a comprehensively entrenched culture of cheating, not even close. The club is defined by cheating.

 

[madunit]

wah wah wah

 

[Billythekid]

Nope. With the amount of money they paid outside the cap, and the time and energy that went into orchestrating the rort, anything less than a premiership each year they committed the fraud is absolute failure.

They cheated, and they still weren't good enough. This fact must really cut you up.

We have since won a premiership and are looking to be the best team again this year. You need to step up your trolling game.

 

[Frank_Grimes]

As an onside chaser, Klemmer is more than entitled to approach the area where Slater is contesting the ball. He was immediately in front of Slater at the moment he caught the ball, and didn't contact Slater until his foot was well and truly entrenched in his neck.

The notion that Klemmer touching Slater was the impetus for the kick is absolute garbage, the impact from Slater's foot on Klemmer's neck is first.

It's not often I agree with Timmah, but this is on the money, and I think only the dumbest (or most biased) tards here are still pushing the "if not for Klemmer rushing in there would have been no kick" argument.

Every week we see players chasing the bomb arrive at the player in time to tackle him just as his feet hit the turf. Klemmer looked on track to do that, but no one can say he would have got there early for certain, because Slater's leg out like that meant that he copped a boot to the neck before he could even get close enough.

To say that Slater intentionally targets players with his boot in this way is geniused, but to say that there is nothing wrong with this deliberate defensive action is even more geniused.

He'll be asked to change his technique, and it will be looked at going forward, just like the sliding in studs up issue.

 

[Timmah]

The core of the cheating team still exists - so if people want to taint CBY 2004, then they need to tar MEL 2012 with the same brush, sorry.

 

[Jason Maher]

and if that was illegal why has he never been punnished for doing it, or asked to change, or penalised? It can't be that illegal can it now?

emotional drivel aside, this is a rehash of your first paragraph.

hang on, because there's no precedent, he can't be defended? Lol that's quite a convenient but heavily bullshit laden thing to say.

and klemmer said it was an accident. There is no precedent, Slater has done this for years.

He'll get off.

when in the air contesting a bomb?

Evidence please.

You provided it yourself. Or at least a bald assertion that you clearly regard as evidence.

Your precedent argument is absolute bullshit. There was no precedent of players being punished for grapple tackles before the NLR decided to do something about it. Same with using the feet to stop a try.

Players use their ball carrying forearm all the time to fend off a defender

And players have been suspended for using elbows and/or knees to protect themselves from tacklers.

I personally loved Cam Smith's little "it's da rulez" speech about midair tackles. Such a stickler for keeping rules is our Cam...

 

[madunit]

Tainting the players from Bulldogs or Storm as cheats over Salary cap rorts is utterly stupid. It's not the players responsibility to monitor the cap.

 

[Timmah]

To say that Slater intentionally targets players with his boot in this way is geniused, but to say that there is nothing wrong with this deliberate defensive action is even more geniused.

He'll be asked to change his technique, and it will be looked at going forward, just like the sliding in studs up issue.

This x 1000. Really is end of argument.

Nobody's perpetrating Slater-hating, people are just concerned about a stupid reckless defensive action that will get a minor punishment and we all move on.

 

[Danish]

WTF are we talking about obstruction for?

He kicked him in the face because of dangerous play. We already have a charge on the books called "dangerous conduct", and another one calls "kicking". I think its safe to say one of those 2 charges would cover this well and truly.

Since we can all agree that Slater extended his foot intentionally to ward off defenders, can we remove the fact that he was jumping from the equation? What if Slater was still on the ground but decided to raise his leg out in front of himself and kicked the dogs player in the stomach, would the "thats just footy" type arguments hold up?

It was a clear a case of dangerous conduct as you could hope to see on a footy field. No specific intention to kick a player, but a clear knowledge that what he was doing could result in a player getting hit in the face/head. Hell he was relying on that fact, otherwise there would be no deterrent to the defence

 

[Frank_Grimes]

We have since won a premiership and are looking to be the best team again this year. You need to step up your trolling game.

None of the above changes the fact that Melbourne should have done more with the unlimited resources they had during that period.

 

[Timmah]

Tainting the players from Bulldogs or Storm as cheats over Salary cap rorts is utterly stupid. It's not the players responsibility to monitor the cap.

While this is an argument for a different time, I don't think the suggestion is that the players are tainted. It's the management processes and whether people believe the respective squads should've been disbanded post-cheat-reveal.

 

[madunit]

You provided it yourself. Or at least a bald assertion that you clearly regard as evidence.

Your precedent argument is absolute bullshit. There was no precedent of players being punished for grapple tackles before the NLR decided to do something about it. Same with using the feet to stop a try.

No I didn't.

I proved that it is something Slater has always done to protect himself and/or ensure an uncontested catch.

You are trying to twist my words to prove your point.

This is the first time Slater's outstretched boot has hit someone in the face.

Thus my argument is completely valid, no matter how much you disagree with it.

 

[AlwaysGreen]

Reaction of players is always a key indicator if the play was deliberate and foul. When Slater kicked Skandalis in the head every tigers player including John wanted to beat him to a pulp. Last night there was barely a scuffle after the incident. Klemmer got to his feet quickly and there was no square ups in the next set.

And yes I know that the days of biff are over but a deliberate kick to the head is still a deliberate kick to the head and you'd expect the players involved or around the play to act on it. Which they didn't.

 

[madunit]

While this is an argument for a different time, I don't think the suggestion is that the players are tainted. It's the management processes and whether people believe the respective squads should've been disbanded post-cheat-reveal.

There is a large contingency of dickheads who lay the blame equally on the players, shown by the fact they still call them cheats even though the cheating elements from those cap rorting days have long since been removed, punnishments have been handed down, accepted and carried out.

 

[Game_Breaker]

I can't believe that Bellamy and Smith have the audacity to blame Klemmer for this.

If Slater doesn't stick his foot out, no mid-air contact would've been made. Slater admitting that its a deliberate technique he uses when contesting a bomb to "protect" himself is BS.

He doesn't do it to protect himself, he uses it as a deterrent so the opposing players are less likely to contest the bomb. The outstretched leg is used to ward off a possible contest of the bomb, and if opposition do in fact try and contest the bomb which they have every right to do, then it's likely they'll cop a boot.

That's reckless play.

 

[CliffyIsGod]

This is the third time this week I have agreed entirely with skeepe.