A young boy stands in any other year than this one.
He’s barely nine, and he’s cold. It’s a crisp Sunday morning, and the sun’s peaking over the horizon just. He pulls up his socks, because his coach always tells them it’s important to look the part. He just hopes he gets out onto the ground this time. It gets cold on the bench.
This game, he has his chance. The big man in a dark coat before him turns to him, his beard bristling in the cold morning as his breath frosts. “I want you to go in there, and to get the ball,” he says.
The boy goes out there, but young boys are forgetful. He got distracted. First he was running, then he was looking at the play, ball watching. He barely had the opportunity to even think about getting the ball before it was whisked away.
At the end of the quarter, an assistant coach pulls him to one side. He tells the boy: “No one’s going to get it for you, and no one’s going to give it to you unless you demand it. You’ve got to go find the ball yourself.”
So, next term, he goes back out there, and it goes much better. He actually remembers to find the ball, and he goes in and gets it himself. And he finds he’s pretty good at it. He’s able to get it, and it just feels instinctive from there.
(Photo by Michael Dodge/AFL Media/Getty Images)
The boy spends the next nine years of his life getting the ball. He puts on height, and muscle, and he learns how to kick and hand pass. He’s taught complex clearance arrangements, and when to block for a teammate. He gets involved with coaching a bit, he helps his little sister. His first bit of advice for her is exactly the same as that assistant coach: no-one’s going to give you the ball. You’ve got to get it yourself.
The boy is very good, and very lucky. He gets drafted, in the strangest of seasons. For the first time in history, no AFL games are taking place in Melbourne. They’re all interstate. And the boy gets another debut, this time for his AFL team. He remembers the mantra he’s lived by, and that he’s internalised to this point.
And he gets done multiple times in a game for holding the ball with no prior opportunity, without an umpire awarding a push in the back, a high tackle, or a trip, or a holding before he took possession free kick.
This is unjust.
So, to the point of this little story. We teach kids from the youngest age to go and get the ball. It’s the first thing we do, because if you go and get the ball you are less likely to get hurt. Kids are taught how to go in and to do it, on the ground and on their feet, and they’re taught how to defend themselves from unwanted contact. And the rules as such were designed to protect them: you had the disposal frees for the tackler, but the ball carrier was enshrined.
The current change to the holding the ball rule is unconscionable. It rewards the person second to the ball, and it murders the person who was better and got there first. It is an un-footy rule.
I beg the AFL establishment to recognise the irreparable damage they are doing to the code of Australian rules with this specific rule change. They have tinkered at the margins, and they have altered interpretations before, such is the way of things for the sport. But those changes fit within a paradigm. They didn’t change the essence of the game.
This is a sport for swashbucklers, a game of innovators, of daring in attack and defence. Not for us the nil-all draw of football or the brute-like smashing of bodies through defensive lines of the rugby codes. For us is the relentless runner, the skilled winger, the mercurial forward and the honesty of an in-and-under midfielder who simply wanted it more.
(Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)
This rule causes the AFL to cease to be Australian rules, becoming something else. This might be something that head office wants. They’ve done their utmost to make themselves a byword for the sport they play. When people ask what code I follow, I say Aussie rules. They ask questioningly, do I mean AFL?
The sport was there first, and it’ll be there after, and there will be in other years plenty of other games we can immerse ourselves in. There will always be local footy, and our community comps. But the AFL is influential.
This isn’t right. The AFL needs note this: if they persist with this rule interpretation, they will lose fans. Maybe not as many as they gain, maybe there’s enough tribal feeling in the sport to ensure its survival, but they will lose long time supporters of clubs and the code. God knows they’ve almost lost me over this.
Fix it. Go back to what you were doing before. Go back to whatever rule set you care to mention from a previous iteration of the sport. But the sport at the moment is not Australian rules.
Micko
Roar Rookie
The problem is the ridiculous flock of chip chasing seagull congestion the sport has devolved into. They need zoning of players to alleviate congestion, otherwise you might as well just play this sport on a soccer/rugby size rectangle field.
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
Baldock was a legend.
Wes P
Roar Rookie
The players know. The umps don't. Why, the umps are protected. Who attends footy to watch a well umpired game. Aside from a cuck lawyer like Humphrey-Smith. Miked umps, so tedious. I don't like the modern game.it's a contest, protect yourself, the ball. Playing for frees is a blight.
Wes P
Roar Rookie
Spot on. "You're hot"! So. Push, tao, kick off the ground. Only the real astute like M. Blight get this. There is no entitlement to take possession. Look at old guns like Baldock. Another skill umpired out of the game.
Irie
Roar Rookie
I've said this before, but surely studies can be done to work out the average reaction times of a footballer from taking possession to disposal. Do tests for collection a loose ball on the ground, receival of a handpass, and whatever common occurrences lead to a player taking possession and determine how they affect the player's ability to then dispose of the ball. Crunch thee numbers, come up with a time as your suggested - be it one, two, three seconds and that becomes the basis of "prior opportunity". Get tackled in that time then it's a ball-up (unless the ball is knocked free), after that time its either "holding the ball" or "incorrect disposal"
Samuel Laffy
Roar Guru
The AFL's idea of a 'perfect' game seems to be a 25-goal a side uncontested spectacle. They forget that 'pleasing' football often doesn't equate to winning football (teams who preach all-out attack never win flags). Coaches thankfully are smarter than this, as are fans.
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
Like teaching, no-one wants to do it.
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
Check out some the action at the 1961 Brisbane Carnival. The game had an emphasis on territory and not possession. —— Taking the ball, under the pump, invites the tackler in. There should be no time allowance. Counting 2 or 3 seconds is a definition that’ll be honoured with nebulosity. If you are drilled with pill- handover! You can’t claim you didn’t know you were going to be tackled if you take possession. I was taught to think about promoting the ball whether by paddling or taking possession. In other words get rid of the ball FORWARD!!!! How simple! —– I’d rather the ball loose in front of my goal rather than 15 pointless back-court basketball possession ‘rackers’. That’s why small forward crumbers exist. —- Make no mistake that rewarding the tackler for every legit tackle will bring our great game into sharp relief to that which happens in RL. Fancy how stupid that is. The tacklee gets rewarded for stopping the game for a reset! Oh, that’s right, we do the same. How Stupid!
Peter the Scribe
Roar Guru
A beautifully written and articulated article that made me recall the smell of the milky dencorub the trainer would rub all over my legs and arms in the pregame of junior footy. I was a slight and fast kid and used to get tagged. One game I recall an opponent telling me before the bounce he would smash me anytime I got the ball. Got a lot of free kicks that day. Maybe now I’d be pinged. I hope the ball hunters in juniors when it kicks off again are still looked after.
DTM
Guest
I hear the pay and conditions are attractive, any reason you can't step up?
Naughty's Headband
Roar Rookie
You know it’s a problem when Bruce starts commenting on it. Friday night was the first time I’ve ever heard him comment about the umpires
Johnno
Roar Rookie
The problem is no one one knows what is a free kids I & what isn’t now a days. Even the commentators are saying that. You can see identical plays, one a free for holding the ball & the other not. This is a huge problem for Gill & his merry men.
MarkD
Guest
Just another rule that won't get enforced
Damo
Guest
*punish not publish
Damo
Guest
Taking to a mate last night after a couple of shockers in the WCE vs Gee match we came to the decision that there rule isn't that bad but the umpires are just ridiculously incompetent. Maybe if they fix that and properly publish poor umpiring (looking at you razor and margetts) the rule might actually work properly?
Dan
Guest
I’m a rusted on Aussie Rules fan. At least I was. I can’t fathom this new rule. I don’t think I’ll totally code switch over this, but I’m far more likely to switch the channel to League now. I don’t want to watch a team waiting for someone to pickup the ball. It’ll be too frustrating.
Caterv
Roar Rookie
I agree, but would add that although juniors tend not to get the ball and then purposefully hang on to it, AFL players may quickly learn to do that in order to slow down the game. There needs to be balance for both the ball-carrier attempting to move the game forward and the tackler doing the same. Moving the game forward is the crucial part, along with sensible safety provisions, of course. But then safety provisions are also prone to rorting by the ball-carrier as well. Clarkson was on about ducking into tackles the other day, although when his team get a shot at goal resulting from the same manoeuvre, I don't hear him complaining then! That's the rub. The rules have more holes than the roads outside many country grounds and there are so many incentives to manipulate any of them to advantage that the rule makers and enforcers may be disinclined to make necessary changes, which would be a real shame. Ultimately, congestion puts more opposition players in and around the one with the ball. Therefore, more tackles will be laid before opportunity presents for disposal.
DTM
Guest
Beautifully written Liam. I agree the focus of our game must be on the ball getter. Frees for in the back, holding the man and trips seem to have reduced greatly in numbers when compared to holding the ball. However, a tackler must still be rewarded where a player with the ball either incorrectly disposes of the ball or does not dispose the ball within a reasonable time (this could be formalised into 2 seconds or 3 seconds). What is worse though is when a player with the ball is forced to the ground and another player is lying on top of him - this is not a tackle and should not be rewarded with holding the ball. What is even worse is that the player lying on top is often the one holding the ball in. What makes that situation more frustrating (and is exacerbating the congestion), is when a third and sometimes fourth player falls on the group - preventing any chance of the ball being extricated. This could be players from either team either trying to hold the ball up or change the umpires interpretation of who actually has the ball.
sven
Roar Rookie
couldnt agree more, the way the bloke going in first & getting the ball is then being pinged htb where there has been no prior opportunity is a disgrace.