bigtruck wrote:
You obviously didn't see the same game as i did. Mason had run off after the stamp and Fielden stood up having verbals with the 2 markers. Mason comes storming in from afar looking to barge into Fielden. Fielden stood his ground and let Mason have it.
I can understand people getting binned for retaliating when players are lying on etc but Mason could've broken Fieldens ankle. Sin binning should have been ample for the scrapping and Mason should have got 4/5 games.
You are right that Fielden could have had his ankle broken, but it was Fielden who carried the whole episode on. He was the one having a go at the marker.
I'm not condoning what Mason did - far from it, I think it was despicable - but you if you retaliate and cause a punch up, then you can reasonably expect to be punished. Players get cited for all sorts of things all the time, especially when there are cameras all over the place, so there was no need to 'sort things out' there and then. It's not rocket science to find the incident on tape after the game and refer the incident to the RFL, is it?
I appreciate a player's view may be clouded in the heat of the moment, but these players are professionals after all. Rugby League is supposed to be the toughest of tough sports, not a violent sport, where you can just belt someone when they do something you don't like.