Him wrote:
I get that to a point however the rules/punishments at pro level cannot be used in that way. They have to be for the benefit of the pro competition.
For instance I think most people don't want to see a stray high arm or the odd bit of a scrap harshly punished at pro level. But at amateur level they should be very very harshly punished.
The same goes for touching the ref. I'd have been happy with a sin binning for Charnley. I get that pro players can get very worked up. It's their livlihood's and a massive part of their life and who they are. They train all week and go through often huge amounts of pain and adversity (both physical and mental) to play at a weekend. So I can understand a player losing control and doing what Charnley did. (That doesn't mean I condone it nor that I think it should go unpunished).
However at amateur level NOBODY should be anywhere close to that level of mental amplitude. So the exact same incident should get a much, much higher punishment at amateur level than at pro level. That punishment at amateur level (along with changing the backward attitudes) is what will deter the actions at amateur level, not what happens in SL.
Nah, Charnley is a professional. It is incumbent on him to control himself enough not to be grabbing a referee.
Amateur refs dont have 15 camera's there to decode whether the player grabbed them aggressively or passively, whether it was a grab or a punch, a barge or a push, the level of contact, the level of aggression. They are protected by the idea touching them is strictly prohibited, no if, buts or maybes, a strict liability offence.
Giving Charnley a slap on the wrist destroys that. I think its crazy to expect that minimising the punishment at pro level wont send out a message of increasing acceptability.