Collingwood’s Jack Ginnivan has once again come under fire for his polarising playing style, after a series of controversial incidents in the Magpies’ win over Hawthorn.
Coach Craig McRae confirmed he will seek clarity from the AFL after the 19-year old was repeatedly denied seemingly obvious free kicks, with commentators suggesting Ginnivan was paying the price for a reputation as a serial ‘stager’.
Speaking on SEN Breakfast on Monday morning, former great Garry Lyon said Ginnivan had ‘gone too far’ in his attempts to win free kicks, defending the umpires’ decisions.
“I’m watching absolutely neutrally and I’m looking at it going, ‘you’re going to pay for that at some stage.’ And he did,” Lyon said.
“He ducked into one, got ripped around the neck – it should’ve been holding the ball if [the umpire] wasn’t going to call around the neck. It was one or the other. Then he missed out on one he should have got, and this is what happens.
“If you’re deemed to have ducked, therefore, you’ve given up your right to win a free kick for around the neck; and you’re held in possession, then that’s a free kick.”
However, former Magpies coach Nathan Buckley sided with McRae, saying there is a ‘skill’ in players winning frees and ‘testing the boundaries’ of what they can and can’t get away with – citing Geelong’s Tom Hawkins’ use of his body in marking contests as an example.
“I like the players that test the boundaries. I was trying to find different examples – Tom Hawkins and the way he approaches a forward 50 ruck contest,” Buckley said.
“I reckon he’s borderline giving free kicks away every time the way he uses his body. He does that in aerial contests as well, so you can say that he’s on the edge of the rules with the way that he uses his strength.
“So if you use your size or if you use your guile or if you use your smarts to be on the edge of the rules, I don’t have an issue with that.
“It’s a hard game to umpire and we have an emotional reaction. If Jack Ginnivan drops his shoulders or lifts his arm – as Joel Selwood has done his whole career – and gets a high free kick, and your defender has given that free kick away, you’ve got an emotional reaction to it.
“So I think we find that we get drawn into that. But that’s the game.”
Ginnivan has been a revelation for the Pies in his second season, with two goals against the Hawks taking his season tally up to 21 from 10 games.
Jack Ginnivan celebrates a goal. (Photo by Dylan Burns/AFL Photos via Getty Images)
Fremantle coach Justin Longmuir says it was a mistake to not take Nat Fyfe from the field in the final minutes of his WAFL return game for Peel Thunder, after the Dockers captain was mobbed by fans immediately after the match.
Fyfe will undergo extra health and safety precautions this week to prevent an outbreak at the Dockers, who are riding high after consecutive wins over premiership favourites Melbourne and Brisbane.
Speaking after the Dockers’ victory over the Lions, Longmuir praised Fyfe’s performance in the WAFL despite being a ‘little bit rusty’, and admitted the dual Brownlow Medallist would have been difficult to remove from a close match.
“It was a bit of a fiasco yesterday,” Longmuir said of Fyfe’s interaction with the fans.
“We would have loved to have taken him off with a couple of minutes to go and just ushered him down to the change rooms so he didn’t have to deal with that.
“But the game was on the line, and the competitive beast he is, he wanted to be out there and wanted to help Peel win.
“It is what it is. It was great for WA footy I thought.”
Former North Melbourne and Brisbane player Ryan Bastinac has revealed his injury toll from an ugly incident while playing in the Mornington Peninsula League.
Bastinac, who played 164 games for the Kangaroos and Lions between 2010 and 2019, shared an image on Twitter of a facial wound, which he said came as a result of a headbutt during a match over the weekend.
“Coward hits in local footy are not on in this day and age,” Bastinac wrote.
“The footy field isn’t free reign to go out and assault people. Put some gloves on and try yourself the right way if that’s what you want to do. But we know that never happens.
“People shouldn’t play the game they love and enjoy and have to worry they are going to get assaulted.
“Footy is a tough, hard and fair game but we need to do more to protect all the players who are playing the game the right way. The “hard and fair way” and stamp out these cowards because there is no place for it.”
Bastinac reportedly required six stitches after receiving treatment in hospital for the injury. Speaking with the Herald Sun, he described the incident as ‘Bailey Smith times ten’ in the aftermath of the Bulldog’s much-publicised headbutt on Geelong’s Zach Tuohy on Friday night, for which he was handed a two-match suspension.
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