Quote newgroundb4wakey="newgroundb4wakey"I'll agree 100% that he's been very well behaved this season and proved a lot of people wrong so far. However I can't agree that we wouldn't be talking about it if it was another player. Even if it had been Rob Burrow we would still be talking about it as its such a shocking image. Every one who has seen it will have their own opinion and are entitled to express it if done properly. The more I watch it the more I think it was deliberate but on the other hand the more I watch it I don't know why he did it. Put it down to a brain fart or whatever but he's been charged and will have to accept the consequences and I think deep down Gaz will know this.'"
For me, the thing that shows it's not a deliberate act is the fact that he's motoring to get on the end of a kick. A kick he actually gets a hand to. Which means his eyes and brain are focused on the balls retrieval. For it to be a deliberate act there has to be premeditation because he doesn't have long enough to make a conscious decision between handling the ball and trying to get out of the way. He makes a decision to try and move left to avoid impact but the Official is travelling in that direction. If he'd have opted to go right, he'd have probably missed him. What's telling for me, is that at the time nobody in the ground. Both sets of fans, both sets of players, and all the Officials thought anything was untoward.
The whole incident is being judged on the fact that it's Hock, which is wrong, well after the event.
