Super point

[Handsome_Devil]

I always thought the best way to give your team a chance of winning was to put the ball in the net rather than trying to get the opposition down to ten men by blatantly cheating. maybe I'm to old school now.

Indeed you are...the game has moved on and having rallied against cheating for ages I've now accepted it - the players and officials certainly do (it's worth noting how rarely pros have a go at other pros for diving, deliberate handball etc in the grand scheme of things. They know they'd do it themselves so just shrug it off) and fans of every team do too because they never complain when their own players dive. So rather than get wound up by cheats, I just enjoy the game as it is. I'm disappointed/frustrated of course when a referee gets fooled and costs us but I don't blame the opposition for doing their best to win. If Thomson had given a penalty for Main in the last minute, would anyone at Fir Park have turned it down because he fell like a bag of spuds? Of course not and we on here would have absolutely lapped it up.

[Wellup4it]

I'm disappointed/frustrated of course when a referee gets fooled and costs us but I don't blame the opposition for doing their best to win.

Yes the game has moved on but maybe not by as much as we think. The question is though, where do we draw the line? Is it acceptable to injure player so that he has to leave the field? What about deliberately trying to injure a player so that he is out for several games? Some "gentleman" managers were at it decades ago. Trying your best can take several forms. The most successful managers have 2 simple rules 1 Just do it and 2 Don't get caught.

[Handsome_Devil]

Yes the game has moved on but maybe not by as much as we think. The question is though, where do we draw the line? Is it acceptable to injure player so that he has to leave the field? What about deliberately trying to injure a player so that he is out for several games? Some "gentleman" managers were at it decades ago. Trying your best can take several forms. The most successful managers have 2 simple rules 1 Just do it and 2 Don't get caught.

I think very few professionals would wish to seriously injure anyone else. You get notable exceptions like Roy Keane but these stand out because they're so rare. Giving someone a wallop which stops them playing, however, has clearly been considered legitimate in the past and I don't think anyone can seriously complain about the attempts to eliminate the 'early reducer' from the field.

[Wellup4it]

I think very few professionals would wish to seriously injure anyone else. You get notable exceptions like Roy Keane but these stand out because they're so rare. Giving someone a wallop which stops them playing, however, has clearly been considered legitimate in the past and I don't think anyone can seriously complain about the attempts to eliminate the 'early reducer' from the field.

Amongst professionals there are a few at it and thats always been the case. Its an emotional game and feelings can boil over but yes by no means all bad tackles are intended to injure. However preplanned instructions to "do" players have always been part and parcel of the game. I very much doubt that in such cases emotion comes into that equation its more cold and calculating ruthlessness. Its a case "Player X has the potential to keep our rivals ahead of us in a title/relegation battle I want him taken out for 6 weeks."

[Handsome_Devil]

I don't think you can put a length of time on how long someone will be out going into a challenge...I doubt the vast majority of players think beyond the 90 minutes.