Quote: Omar Little "I've only briefly seen a replay (just back from my holidays!) So this is a genuine question.... was it actually intended to be a shoulder charge? I thought it looked like a case of bad timing by Moon combined with Perceval falling forwards in the tackle. If so then it seemed a harsh (but not necessarily unwarranted) red card.
I think plenty of worse challenges escape punishment and suspect the injury was the key factor in the red (not something I generally agree with as intent should be the key factor)'"
It was an automatic red these days. A couple of years ago, pre ban, it would have probably been let go with Moon back slapped by his team mates for forcing the mistake. But when you look at the replay, it's a classic shoulder charge, there is a lazy attempt to get the hands up but the point of the shoulder impacts first and very cleanly with the cheek bone. For me it doesn't matter what the arms are doing, it's the point of contact that the problem. It was a challenge Moon should have stayed out of, there wasn't enough of Percival available for him to have any sort of meaningful shot on him as he was wrapped up well by other players. The head was the only real target. Moon isn't a dirty player, but hasn't he been sent off before? A nice 2 game rest before the play offs is probably in order.