Quote nottinghamtiger="nottinghamtiger"I still find the system very frustrating, and not just this particular incident (I have said it previously lots of time if you had the time to look through my posts)
If Westwood (or any player) is banned for an on-field incident this indicates he should have been sent off at the time. It's almost the RFL's way of saying the referee got it wrong! With the amount of suspensions each year, that's an awful lot of foul play the referees are not acting strongly enough against.
Banning any player for the following game(s) is usually no consolation to the team who were actually damaged by his foul play through the loss of a player (in this case for 74 minutes!).
I would propose that one game of any suspension is served the next time the offender plays the team he committed the offence against. So, if Westwood gets a one match ban, it should be served next time the club he is playing for plays against Castleford. If he gets two matches, he should be banned for the following game (regardless of opposition) and then the next time he is due to play the team he committed the offence against.
At least this way the affected team have some kind of justice served for having the offence committed against them.'"
The thing is, no system is perfect. A player gets banned in his club's last game of the season, then moves to another club. Use the system you've suggested and you finish up penalising his new team. Leave it as it is.
