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When it comes to the laws of the game, footy fans don’t ask for much.
So long as umpires are consistent, fans aren’t too fussed on what gets called. As long as laws are simple, necessary and don’t get changed once a month they’re happy.
But over the last few seasons discontent has grown in the way certain players have been acquiring high-tackle free-kicks.
Geelong’s Joel and Scott Selwood, Brisbane’s Allen Christensen and Rhys Mathieson, Hawthorn’s Paul Puopolo, North’s Lindsay Thomas and Sydney’s George Hewett are just a few players who’ve gained notoriety for ducking to draw high-contact free-kicks.
But last Friday night it was Thomas who drew the ire of just about the entire footy world with his supposedly blatant dropping of the knees to draw the frees.
Hawks legend Dermott Brereton called Thomas’ actions “a blight on the game”, while Twitter was also quick to condemn the Kangaroos goalsneak for actively seeking out the tackler to draw high contact rather than play the game the way it’s meant to be played.
So what can the AFL actually do about this epidemic? Is it something the umpires are doing wrong? Do the lawmakers need to step in?
Or, maybe, do players need to be more careful with how they tackle?
By and large, fans seem to blame umpires for this phenomenon. There are few louder boos you’ll hear than when a player who ducked gets a free kick for high contact.
But is this actually an incorrect application of the laws?
The only part of the law book to touch on this is Law 15.2.3 (a) (iii). It states:
“Where the field umpire is satisfied that a player in possession of the football has driven their head into a stationary or near stationary opponent, the player shall be regarded as having had prior opportunity.”
That’s it.
While a case could certainly be made that umpires aren’t pinging players who do this for holding the ball anywhere near enough as they’re supposed to, the law is certainly very different to the common misconception that high contact is void if the player ducks.
In fact, if you search for the words ‘duck’ or ‘crouch’ in the Laws of Australian Football, you’ll find nothing.
Commentators fuel this misunderstanding regularly, but the laws of the game are pretty clear. If you drive your head into an opponent who’s standing still, you’ll lose prior opportunity, but ducking doesn’t change a thing – if the contact is high, it’s high.
So why don’t we change the laws?
North Melbourne coach Brad Scott said after Friday night’s controversy:
“Every player in the competition tries to do it… so until the rules change, the players will keep doing it.”
Well, the AFL actually tried that a year ago.
Kind of.
Exactly one year ago, to the day, the AFL announced a “new interpretation” for head-high free-kicks. This led to delight among fans but ultimately confusion when nothing really changed on the field.
That’s because this new interpretation wasn’t new at all. The official media release from the time reveals it was simply a “stricter” interpretation of the aforementioned law regarding driving the head into a stationary opponent.
So why has the AFL so far backed down on making any wholesale changes to the way high contact is assessed on the field?
Probably because doing so is fraught with danger.
Premiership coach and laws of the game committee member Leigh Matthews implored the footy public to remember “not being able to be contacted above the shoulder [is] one of the basics of the way the game is played” while also asking fans to “imagine … there is no free-kick for a high tackle. Imagine the game if you could tackle high. It’s a ridiculous debate”.
While nobody is asking for high tackles to be legalised, the scenarios that could eventuate if we permitted high contact on players who duck would be catastrophic.
Do high bumps go unreported because the player ducked? Of course not, because we all know if you elect to bump you must not go high.
Would a strike to the head be classified as a strike to the body at the tribunal because the player ducked? No way!
And what do we make of players who simply slip over? It’s not the tackler’s fault so much if they tackle high in that scenario, but do we really say ‘bad luck, play on’ to the player who’s just copped a whack to the head? I hope not.
With the NFL getting sued left, right and centre by former players suffering from very serious head injuries, there is absolutely no way the AFL can change the laws to make head-high contact less illegal.
At the end of the day, we’re only really left with one option. And that is for players to tackle smarter.
Take rugby league for example.
Rugby league is a much more tackle-heavy sport. For reference, AFL teams average 69 tackles a game in 2016, while Jake Friend of the Sydney Roosters averages 50.
But while AFL teams give away an average of three high-tackle free-kicks a game, do you think Friend is giving away a handful of penalties every week?
Absolutely not.
While it’s worth noting that the top of the shoulder is not high contact like it is in our game, the high shots don’t occur in league anywhere near as much as they do in the AFL.
And that’s because they know how to tackle.
When going for the ball, all footy players are told from day one to go ‘low and hard’, but when it comes to tackling it appears throwing your arm out is the way to go.
Swans coach John Longmire said on Friday night that they “try to [coach players on better tackling techniques], but it’s very hard, it’s a split-second decision”.
But maybe it isn’t so hard?
If going low and hard for the ball is football 101, then surely going low and hard at the man with the ball is 102?
In any case, it probably isn’t worth getting so worked up over the three of your team’s 69 tackles a week getting whistled.
And if it is? Then it’s up to the players to sort it out.