The AFL head-ducking debate, is yet more proof that modern day footballers cannot win the media game. The papers were stating that players ducking their heads will end with someone breaking their neck.
Ducking, for those who don’t know, is when a player who is in possession of the ball ducks his head as he is about to be tackled to intentionally draw high contact and therefore win himself a free kick.
The Herald Sun’s Warwick Green recently wrote that Kangaroo Liam Anthony could have been carried from the ground on a stretcher after Anthony ducking to gain a free kick.
On the AFL site, Nick Bowen wrote that ducking is ‘just for a free kick’.
Bowen was arguing that the risk of spinal chord injury involved in ducking outweighs the minimal reward of a simple free kick.
What are the armchair experts trying to tell players? That the game is dangerous? That if they put their heads in dangerous positions they might get seriously injured?
This shouldn’t be news to any player in the competition.
AFL umpires manager Jeff Gieschen believes that some players are taking advantage of the rules that have been implemented to protect them he said on his weekly AFL show ‘What’s Your Decision?’
“I think what’s happened now is they’ve realised that we will protect that area, and now they’re actually taking a few liberties to put their head down in an attempt to draw (a free kick),” he said.
After the AFL made the head sacrosanct by bringing in a new rule in 2007. The rule set out to penalise any player that makes forceful front on contact to a player who has their head over the ball.
But there is only so much the AFL can do.
It is a very grey area, if a player is intentionally drawing contact, do they deserve a free kick?
Most people believe they don’t, but AFL chief executive officer Andrew Demetriou defended the criticism of the rules protecting player’s heads.
“Head high injuries, neck injuries – the head is sacrosanct and we make no apologies for it,” he told The Age.
The most famous of very few spinal chord injuries occurred in 1975, when Bulldog Neil Sachse in his second game was awkwardly collected head on by an opponent. He never walked again.
It was an accident, and realistically players won’t heed Sachse’s advice, which was printed in numerous papers, “don’t duck your head’. Unfortunately one day it will happen again.
It is a part of the reason why AFL players receive such high salaries, they put their bodies on the line to receive the big bucks. They are more than fairly compensated for the risks they take.
The pressure the media puts on players to perform is somewhat responsible for this new ducking trend.
If a player doesn’t go for the ball with his head over it, he will be criticised. If he stops to think about the dangers of a situation, he will be criticised. If he isn’t getting enough possessions, he will be criticised.
Therefore if ducking will get them a kick, they will duck.
Geelong’s Joel Selwood, who has been targeted as one of the worst head-ducking offenders, has had his playing style ridiculed because of it. It is seen as too risky to duck your head to win a free kick, but not if it’s for a mark or to advantage your team.
Ironically the worst hit Selwood has received in his career did not involve ducking.
In round one Selwood clashed with Saint Farren Ray in a contest where both players slid in to win the ball.
Selwood copped Ray’s shoulder to his jaw and was instantly knocked out. In a sickening scene, Selwood lay on the ground motionless as blood slowly leaked out of his mouth.
Yet, there was nothing written in the papers telling Selwood not to go hard at his next contest to protect himself.
The poor players just cannot please journalists.
If you take the view that ducking isn’t worth the risk, you could easily apply the same logic to anything else that happens on a football field. After all, is football – or indeed any game – worth a spinal chord injury?
Yes ducking is dangerous, but so is a player blindly going back with the flight of the ball just for a mark, or to prevent their opponent from getting an easy disposal.
The danger inherent in the game is part of the reason why we marvel at these athletes. The fact that players relentlessly throw their bodies into harm’s way is astounding.
Footballers are modern-day gladiators and the MCG is their Colosseum. If ducking their heads will get them the ball, they will do it, and why wouldn’t they? It’s their job, let’s leave them to it.
Injuries are bound to happen in contact sports. That’s footy, it’s the worst part of footy, but like it or not, the high level of risk is why so many of us love footy.
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