I agree, Chris. He did lift Campbell’s legs way above the horizontal and probably should’ve placed him straight back down but, what made it look worse, is he decided to carry him 5 meters back before putting him down. He righted him and forced him down to the ground legs first, or at least in a horizontal position. There didn’t look to be anything that would cause injury. He was definitely not placed on his is head – no way!



Whilst it is impossible to suggest he was play-acting for sure, from his reactions it did look very suspicious. As soon as the ref put varks on report, he bounced straight back up and jumped right back into the action showing no ill effects at all. If you’re as stunned as Campbell appeared to be, it takes a few minutes to shake it off, where you spend a bit of time out of the action. You see it every week on Sky Sports.



In my opinion Campbell was milking the situation. If I thought otherwise I’d say so.

C'mon now Jimbo... enough's enough. You've been made to look like a fool. Time to realise you look like a tit and trot off.



You were adamant about the match reports and you were wrong ....and you're wrong about this.

You're obviously so biased it clouds your opinion of an incident that I still doubt you even saw.

Time to head back to your own board and talk to yourself about the nasty people of Widnes.

The WWN reports Paul Cullen saying that he was furious with the tackle and that if the RFL dont ban Varkulis then the club will deal with the matter internally.

No-ones been made to look a fool. And no amount of silly 'emoticons' mean that I'VE been made to look a fool.

As for the match reports ; you claimed our club website match reports made out that EVERY Batley defeat was down to the performance of the referee/officials/. You actually only found one match report that could be construed as being biased in nature, and failed to produce any other that revealed this supposedly seeping ooze of one-eyedness. Your sweeping generalisations make you look foolish. Where are these other hugely biased match reports?

I am biased towards the efforts of my club and players like any other supporter. You show bias in the fact that you believe Varkulis is clearly in the right and should go unpunished for his saintly actions, and that Campbell was feigning injury. If you are accusing anyone of being biased, then don't go to lengths to indirectly show what a hypocrite you are.

Oh, and you also accused Batley fans of having a chip on our shoulder and inciting the poor old Widnes fans during Sunday's game. I'll leave you to discuss the nasty people of Batley on your own forum. Hypocracy yet again.

Just to remind you again, a long line of emoticons doesn't make you look big or clever, or help to win an argument. In fact its the action of someone with a very limited brain capacity.

Bad tackle, regardless of anything else. If he gets a ban you can't argue.

I think, if Varks had put him straight back down, there wouldn’t have been a problem, perhaps just a penalty. But in carrying him up field upside down before putting him down, he has made a rod for his own back.



Campbell did seem to be milking it though.



We used to have an Aussie forward when we where in SL, whose name escapes me, that used to play the old soldier far more often than I liked to see. He was a decent player, but really used to me off at times.

I was very close to it - He did not drop him on his head, however he put the Batley player down on his back (not as gently as mentioned above tho!) and, I presume, would have winded him a bit. I agree the Batley player milked it and wasn't injured at all. The reason I believe he wasn't sent off was because at no point did Varkulis put his hand between the legs and actually perform a lift. He tackled the Batley player around the waist from the top (the Batley chap was running in with his head down) and the Batley player almost appeared to push up with his legs and put himself in the upside down position. Varks seemed more like "what just happened, what do I do now?" rather than performing a malicious tackle. Hence the delay whilst he decided how to put him down.



I don't believe it warrants a ban, although it's right the RFL look at it.

Jimbo...



Thanks for your psychoanalysis of the use of emoticons within a post. Interesting point and I await the paper you've undoubtedly submitted on the matter within Psychology Journal.

On the match report thing... you wanted me to "point out a report ... that says we lost a game unfairly." I think I adequately did this. Presumably we both agree on that. Job done then...

I also liked your assertion about.." The guy that writes them is one of the best match writers on the internet in terms of fair reporting"... I agree his claims that the independant time keeper playing extra time to allow Widnes to score is about as fair and unbiased as you can get. Just the sort of material you want on an Official match report.



Onto your other drivel now... where did I say that Varkulis deserved to go unpunished.... At the top of my post I said that the incident was correct to be put on report and that he was deservedly up in front of the panel!!!! That line doesn't sound an awful lot like I am saying that Varkulis was in the right. You do not suggest that someone is deservedly up in front of the panel if you think they are completely innocent. I have admitted that it had the potential to be a bad tackle. Hardly the actions of someone supposedly so biased...



However... as everyone.. (with the exception of you) has stated Varkulis then went to some lengths to make sure that the player was not hurt. Campbell then tried to make out that he had suffered a neck injury in the tackle.



You're fighting a losing battle on this one. Time to accept you're in the minority and ship out.

As for the limited brain power remark... I am trully an example of an idiot that has thrived then and if my stupidity has helped me to achieve everything I have then I'm not complaining.

That would just make the whole thing worse, Cullen has gone loopy, that isn't going to sort out any problems in the camp, it's just going to lower morale.

Ok. To sum up and put an end to this, can you provide evidence that Campbell was NOT in some way injured by the tackle, and did not suffer any form of winding, which would have required three or four minutes of recovery time at the most?

Did he appear to you in the crowd and profess to you that he had suffered a neck injury? I think not. I never saw him clutching at his neck in agony. Not once. So he 'tried to make out he had suffered a neck injury'. Did he?

As for being in a minority, I'd like to point out that most of your fellow fans on this thread were not as quick as you to admonish my clubs player as a cheat, instead opting to state more rationally that he 'might' have been feigning injury. Indeed, one Widnes fan who was sat close to the incident even ridicules your claim that Varkulis 'placed' Campbell on the floor like a 'baby'. I suppose he is fibbing just to back me up?

And yes, you are stupid. Just as stupid as the fans who were booing Campbell from the second the referee blew up for the penalty.

As for the match reports, please find me another that blames the referee/officials for a defeat. You claimed that 'every' report blamed the officials. You only provided one. If you want to make a sweeping generalisation that we are a club that blames all our losses on the the match officials, based on one match report, then you really are stupid.

Just remembered it!



Daniel Frame



He regularly feigned injury. It used to wind me up summat naughty that.

Quality player but the kind of player other fans would absolutely hate. Absolute WUM.