Chris Rattue: It's mercy, not justice, we're after

It's been a week of conflicting emotions for Auckland footie fans who, having dealt with the giddy joy of the Blues obtaining four points for a win, were brought back to Earth when the NRL took the same amount off the Warriors before the season had started.

It means the combined might of our professional football empires - the Blues, Warriors, and Knights - has come up with a sum of six points in competitions just completed, started and yet to begin.

The really galling part to this latest Queen City sporting tragedy is that the Warriors defence team never played an obvious trump card: that a metropolis which has endured the Knights pretending to play soccer all season has been punished severely enough.

To be fair to the Warriors defence unit, they would have been caught off guard by the NRL's rather quaint practice of holding board meetings. It must have been quite a shock, finding out what that big table and all those chairs are for.

They would also have been thrown off kilter when, after arriving in Sydney, they found out that the NRL's chief executive, David Gallop, wasn't in a secret meeting with a darts club. What kind of chief exec is he?

At the very least, Gallop should have been out and about in Sydney doing something really worthwhile, like saving Anthony Mundine's career.

But no - apparently not. Gallop had managed to organise a hearing and a board meeting about league on the same day.

Having got over these shocks, the Warriors should have pleaded for leniency by showing up with the Auckland cricketers' scorebook, a Breakers basketballer, the Knights' game plan, a model of downtown Auckland where the street race won't be held, the Blues' blunders, and film of a lonely midget car on the Western Springs track.

With that lot thrown in, we might have got off with a bit of weeding on the weekend.

And finally ...

Who said?

* "This behaviour goes against the grain of the club and social values."

* "I think it's important they explain their actions."

You guessed it. Mick Watson, commenting on misbehaving players.