Eagles' free-kick tactic queried in AFL

Lats, You're absolutely right about there being nothing wrong with West Coast fans "getting on their high horse". To greater or lesser degrees we all do it when our club's involved. My comment, re "pious claptrap", was in reference to the fact that while everybody else is condemning the duckers and the knee-droppers a few WCE fans are busy defending the indefensible. This issue is not about West Coast, it's about the welfare of the game. I've lost count of the number of people I've spoken to who have offered the opinion that while the game is still great the current interpretations of the rules suck and they suck big time. The game is turning into rugby union and if we wanted that we'd all go and watch the Wallabies. The AFL is in a very politically correct headspace at the moment - perhaps, in a now professional game they fear being sued by an injured player - and it's a dangerous place to be. Human nature devises methods to counter any situation. The duckers, knee-droppers and sliders have simply done what anybody of reasonable intelligence could have predicted. They found a counter-measure. It might be physics but it's not rocket science. I don't blame West Coast one bit. Good luck to them - but it's not about "tackling techniques". To say that it is is to ignore the real problem - hence my comment about "pious claptrap". The real problem is the AFL continually interfering with the game and thus changing it into something completely different - like rugby. For example, next time a game is on try and time how long the umpire lets play go on in a scrimmage before calling for the ball. It's now like a rugby maul. Some of the scrimmages in the Crows/Swans game seemed to go forever. This was not the case ten years ago so why now? As for tackling around the waist, as used to happen years ago, the emphasis has changed. Waist only allows the arms to be free to release the ball. The tackling player is still involved in the tackle and the ball is gone and he's out of the play. The arms are grabbed now to stop that ball release - which is precisely why the "Selwood shrug" can be brought into play - and create a stoppage. Today it's all about stoppages.

Nathan, With due respect, the very idea that an umpire might know more about football than a player is, if not laughable, certainly enough to bring a smile!!!! There was an old Monty Python sketch where a street interviewer asked a fellow a question and got the reply, "I'm a chartered accountant and therefore too boring to have an opinion!" Umpires are the chartered accountants of footy. They love a rule book but they have no idea why these rules exist - just that they do exist (and that's good enough for them).

I think a lot of these "solutions" are real armchair nonsense with very little officiating experience behind them. And yes, even an experienced player is an armchair general when it comes to officiating (as I suspect Bannister would be starting to agree)

Cattery, Thats what the MRP is for. They can look it the tape, freeze frame it, and then rub you out for recklessly endangering a head. If the head is sacred, then it doesnt matter if you are endangering his head, your head or the umpire's head, it still should be several weeks on the sideline.

I'm just not sure how good a solution that is. In one sense, there should never be someone's arm or hand around an opponent's neck - so it seems pretty dangerous that you start mucking round with that basic principle. By the same token, I don't like players maneouvering themselves so that they encourage the high tackle - but if the ump has to guess whether the tackler came in correcty or not, in the space of a milllisecond, well, I tell you what, that's pretty hard to do in real time.

don't like that either - there's a lot of stuff happening at the moment which I don't like

I agree with Chris McDermott re the sliding in - I don't like it at all and I can't understand how it has been allowed to creep into the game the way it has. By rights, you should not be able to take possession of the ball in that manner - let's reward players for keeping their feet.

Lats Demott Brereton showed on "Teams" this evening why tackling around the waist is simply a waste of time and effort.

Anyone who didn't see "Teams" with Dermot Brereton on Fox Sports Thursday night should really try to get a copy. He explained, and showed quite clearly, how players are turning legal tackles into free kicks. He believes, as most people appear to, that when a player uses these tactics and gets caught high that it should be play on. This brings up thoughts of possible headlines that we could see in the future. "Eagles, Ducks and Quacks" "In the game between West Coast and (insert your team here) on the weekend there were four Eagles players taken to hospital with serious neck injuries. It would appear that these players will all be out for several weeks and all chance of West Coast making the Finals are now gone." You play with fire, you get burnt!

If you're a BF lad, look at the 'Happy Duck Floating On A River of Tears' Bay13 thread that mostly WC supporters put up. No one mocks like an insider :D

I hear that Plucker Duck has applied for the job as West Coast mascot. :)

"Turns out there was, I got sent to my room with no desert lol" Brilliant :D

@Bayman... Apart from the "pious claptrap " comment I pretty much agree with everything you have said here. Come on old boy, nothing wrong with the folks from the West getting on their high horse about the AFL and the Melbourne media :-).. its what footy is all about after all.. But I do honestly believe, that if players target the waist, rather than the biceps.., less head high tackles will result. Cheers

They're competitive souls, I'm sure they don't need me to ask them to risk their necks, as it were.

Nathan, Actually, Im thinking Joel Selwood is the one who needs to be rubbed out repeatedly before he ends up not being able to remember his career. But Im glad you're clear about being OK with West Coast Eagles players being in wheelchairs or brain damaged, if it improves the chances of a premiership.

Simply, no. Let players take on the risks that they will. Furthermore, the technique your complaint is most relevant to is the one we aren't practicing, i.e., the charge into an opponent.

Nathan, I'll ask again. Do you agree deliberate endangerment of any head should get you referred to the MRP ?

Either way, its still the tackler going for the upper arms that is causing the problem, even if the tacklee is making it difficult to tackle otherwise - that is not the tackled players problem. People are aiming for those upper arms to lock players arms in to prevent off-loading and to drive into the ground players who can't defend themselves, but because this is the way it has been done for a while and because people are scared to move away from a congestion and stoppage heavy style they are complaining about the counter-techniques rather than the dodgy tackling!

Nathan, That doesnt change anything I said in the slightest. Endanger *anyone's* head by putting it in the way of a tackle, and its a trip to the MRP. That includes high shots, ducking the head and using the head as a battering ram.

"Pious claptrap, though, from Eagles apologists about “teaching players to tackle properly” is simply rubbish. " No seriously, most AFL players suck at tackling. Get better, get stronger. We did, after all.