Quote: BuckleyStreetWire "I don't agree with that first point and I'm getting sick of players (Brough at Hudds especially) moaning about tackles being late (on his kicks) when they aren't.
If a player has already made the move to tackle an opponent and within the seconds that follow that player has moved the ball on or kicked it and then he gets creamed because the tackler has committed himself to the tackle; there's nowt wrong with that. It's a tackle after the ball has gone but it's not late.
And I would complain at two games for that from Westwood. Yes it was high and it was silly but bloody hell it wasn't that bad at all.'"
I can kind of see your point, but technically (in the actual rules), you cannot make contact with a player who does not have possession of the ball. There is no sort of 'time lapse' that says you have, for example, one second in which you are allowed to tackle the player after he has had possession. If a player doesn't have possession of the ball, you just cannot tackle him and stil be within the rules of the game.
As said I don't think Westwood was ridiculously late, but he was late. That would have justified a penalty. The problem he has got is that he made contact with the head, and this would be foul play whether Gale had the ball or not!
One match would fit with similar offences this season.
