Simms has actually attempted to justify Fretter in a Sheffield Star article. He actually says that although he wishes Fretter hadn’t done it, he 100% understands why he did!!
He attempts to ‘muddy the waters’ by blaming the ref, the league, DOPS and Goulakos himself, amazingly he also says we shouldn’t judge Fretter because we have never been in his situation and he was understandably reacting to a non call by the referee.
The double standards espoused by this idiot are breathtaking, but then again he did hero worship a certain Mike Peron and we all know the indelible effect he had on a certain Jon Cullen!
There seems to be a lot of hate for Sheffield here, whilst i'll never defend them, the issue is as follows:
Hicks made a mess of the game with non calls.
Fretter felt the need to take matters into his own hands.
DOPS has failed to punish him accordingly.
Fretter won't be the first or certainly not the last person to seek their own retribution for an incident that occurs like this, so i agree with Simmsey's comments - He shouldn't have done it but it's pretty obvious why he did.
If a player like Goulakos can run about cheap shotting all game with no call then for the sake of a 1 game ban where Goulakos will miss 5+ with concussion, what Fretter did is 100% worth while doing.
The issue is not "sheffield did this, did that", it is simply that if players are going to deliberately injure others then they must be punished accordingly to stamp that behaviour out- something that DOPS have failed to do.
Heck if this kind of incident draws a 1 game ban and i was a Devils coach i'd be sending 90% of our team out to target the leagues best players to deliberately injure them, what's a 1 game ban when the other player is injured for more?