Israel Folau

It would seem that due to the Non Attendance of Catalans CEO Bernard Guasch at a Superleague meeting at the AJ Bell earlier today the Catalans Couldn't care less about what anybody thinks about there signing of Folau.


www.loverugbyleague.com/post/super-league-issue-statement-on-israel-folau/

Catalan have Three games against Toronto Two in 🇫🇷 and In 🇨🇦 on the 29th august, Will Folau still be at the Dragons in Seven &
A half months !!, Depends if he can keep off Social media.

Can’t remember Hardaker causing this much uproar after he called Childs a f*g, or the players who have assaulted people and taken drugs. Stop all of them playing or none of them.

I can't see him receiving mega Bucks or €s
By the time he's fully fit (He's not played any Rugby at all since April 2019) it'll be March /April Hope he's still off the pace in just over a month when the Red Devils are in Perpignan, Playing in Europe is the only chance he's got for the next 3/4 years before he finishes playing, We'd better get used to seeing him in the Superleague I guess.

The idea that a club could sue Catalans is unbelievable.
On what basis?
They’ve signed a player who has been ratified by the RFL. They had little option,legally.
Clubs are posturing,and courting public opinion.
Again,Les Catalans shouldn’t have signed this guy but that’s a different matter

I’m getting pretty bored of the whole thing now. Catalans were my 2nd team. I wanted them to win when it didn’t impact on Salford. Not any more. They have let down the sport massively. But it’s happened now

One thing that is really winding me up though is the ‘Hardaker did the same thing’ line. He didn’t. What he did was bad. There was a big fuss about it at the time and he was banned for 5 matches. He did a proper apology and then went and voluntarily trained the Manchester Canalsiders to get a better understanding of the issues.

If he’d never played again I would have been fine with it, same with Johnson, Lui, Barba etc. but at least Hardaker tried to make some recompense for what he did. I don’t know if Johnson and Lui did. Johnson obviously spent time in prison.

(As an aside - MR I think saying you won’t cheer Johnson but you will cheer Lui who beat up his pregnant girlfriend is just as ‘hypocritical’ as the others you are calling out. In my view we are all guilty of our own versions of hypocrisy and choose what things we can live with)

Anyway. If I called a work colleague, say, a fat git in a moment of anger I would expect to get in trouble for it and possibly sacked. If I apologised to the person and the rest of my colleagues and went and did voluntary work to help people with body dysmorphia or something I would hope that I would be given a second chance but would understand if I wasn’t.

If, however, I posted on the intranet page that I thought all fat people were intrinsically evil and deserved eternal punishment for their gluttony I would expect to be sacked, no question. If I was asked to apologise and I said no and what’s more it’s their fault that some awful event happened I would expect to be doubly sacked. If I was then given repeated opportunities to apologise and challenged about it in job interviews and I just kept saying ‘no, it’s what I believe and you have no right to stop me saying it’ I would expect no decent employer to want to work for them. I would probably have only LBC or the ITV breakfast show to choose from for future employment.

That’s the difference between Hardaker and Folau

I’m no fan of Hardaker and I know he has more to add to his rap sheet than just the homophobic slur. I do like his honesty and his openness about the realization he has had and how he has tried sort himself out. His interview on the SL podcast last year with Dan Sarginson is well worth a watch

likening the two on the issue of homophobia is facile in my opinion.

Rant over

I don't think its a case of playing "Top Trumps" to be honest mate, more for me a recognition that yes people do and say wrong, and punishments and sanctions are sometimes required.

My argument is for me the punishment here doesn't fit the crime. His comments are distasteful no denying that, however I simply do not believe that what he said, is worse than what others did.

That being the case for me he has to be given the opportunity, moving forward, to behave in a manner that we as a sport and a wider society expect. If he doesn't then the consequences whilst playing for Catalan have been made perfectly clear, there has been no lip service or ambiguity.

You assume, perhaps understandably, that he will "do it again". Well perhaps he will but can we honestly start preemptively punishing people for what they may do in the future?

Doesn't sound fair to me.

In a way i'm glad there haven't been any insincere apologies from him that we all know he didn't really mean. 

At least were not being treated like idiots.

I don't think its reasonable to insist people abandon fundamental beliefs and conform under any circumstances. As long as he keeps his mouth shut and doesn't preach i'm happy for him to believe whatever he likes.

Like RUTB has said we are all guilty of our own hypocrisy and were likely to never all agree, all I would say is if we ban one for life, we ban them all. Zero tolerance is fine if its across the board. If not the are we truly as "Fair and Inclusive" as we pertain to be.