Well said Dalgety. The Toby Greene foot up incident has seen him turned him into a soap opera villain by hysterical half wits - when, as you say, far worse things have been done on the field. The latest tripe from Malcolm Blight blaming Green for the rule change and saying "He should never have been born" shows how some old players longing for the "good old days" will trash anybody. The AFL changed the rules: they are seeking to reflect community attitudes. Maybe the rule change has to be tweaked but let's not use it as a vehicle for personal vendettas. The game moves on!
Funny this caused outrage when its in the law book yet visiting interstate teams (both Vic and non Vic) are slammed in the free kick counts because of the crowd factor. So much so that the AFL is becoming unwatchable. The NRL have been criticised for refs making games close for better spectacle (no real crowd factor for visiting teams there) but visiting AFL teams being regularly slaughtered is just as bad.
From the archives 1949. Many years ago I saw a photo of the mark described below, where young North full forward Jock Spencer took an absolutey beauty. Spencer got great height and straight legged his opponent rather than pushing noticably out , marking head and shoulders above him.
NB. This was the prelim. North were down by 11 and the mark was taken in the square, dead in front.
Anyway here is the paper's description I found in Bigfooty?NMFC History: "North were on the attack when a pack rose in front of their goals. North full-forward Jock Spencer flew high over the Bomber back men McClure and Brittingham to take a screamer. A goal was certain but the yelling crowd was stunned when McMurray raced in, took the ball from Spencer and handed it to McClure. He considered that Spencer had unlawfully infringed by planting his feet in McClure's back. Spencer claimed the free was not justified given he had not used his hands for anything other than taking the mark but McMurray was not to be moved".
Wonder what the crowd called that umpire? Dodgy.
North went on to lose by 17.
Anyway I've searched high and low for a copy of the mark with no luck. If anyone ever comes across it, let me know.
The player is using a fully outstretched leg and plants his foot in the middle of someone's back with a fair bit of momentum behind him... much prefer if the player is closer and climbing up his opponents back.
The wording of this law was always a problem, but all up the way most people were looking at the Toby Greene incident was always likely to lead to this sort of situation happening. Sometimes you just got to wear some studs in the guts. The way Natainui crashed into Sandlinads back fracturing his ribs was 20x worse than the Greene blocking with his foot incidents, but other than hoping for basic honour, it's very hard to police with costing some key parts of our game.
JP
Roar Rookie
Well said Dalgety. The Toby Greene foot up incident has seen him turned him into a soap opera villain by hysterical half wits - when, as you say, far worse things have been done on the field. The latest tripe from Malcolm Blight blaming Green for the rule change and saying "He should never have been born" shows how some old players longing for the "good old days" will trash anybody. The AFL changed the rules: they are seeking to reflect community attitudes. Maybe the rule change has to be tweaked but let's not use it as a vehicle for personal vendettas. The game moves on!
Raimond
Roar Guru
Robbing Collingwood players of speccies. Some of Toby's best work.
Mama
Guest
Funny this caused outrage when its in the law book yet visiting interstate teams (both Vic and non Vic) are slammed in the free kick counts because of the crowd factor. So much so that the AFL is becoming unwatchable. The NRL have been criticised for refs making games close for better spectacle (no real crowd factor for visiting teams there) but visiting AFL teams being regularly slaughtered is just as bad.
Peter the Scribe
Roar Guru
I reckon the ump actually got this right. Studs up free against and Howey agrees.
Pope Paul VII
Roar Rookie
From the archives 1949. Many years ago I saw a photo of the mark described below, where young North full forward Jock Spencer took an absolutey beauty. Spencer got great height and straight legged his opponent rather than pushing noticably out , marking head and shoulders above him. NB. This was the prelim. North were down by 11 and the mark was taken in the square, dead in front. Anyway here is the paper's description I found in Bigfooty?NMFC History: "North were on the attack when a pack rose in front of their goals. North full-forward Jock Spencer flew high over the Bomber back men McClure and Brittingham to take a screamer. A goal was certain but the yelling crowd was stunned when McMurray raced in, took the ball from Spencer and handed it to McClure. He considered that Spencer had unlawfully infringed by planting his feet in McClure's back. Spencer claimed the free was not justified given he had not used his hands for anything other than taking the mark but McMurray was not to be moved". Wonder what the crowd called that umpire? Dodgy. North went on to lose by 17. Anyway I've searched high and low for a copy of the mark with no luck. If anyone ever comes across it, let me know.
Gary
Roar Rookie
The player is using a fully outstretched leg and plants his foot in the middle of someone's back with a fair bit of momentum behind him... much prefer if the player is closer and climbing up his opponents back.
Dalgety Carrington
Roar Guru
The wording of this law was always a problem, but all up the way most people were looking at the Toby Greene incident was always likely to lead to this sort of situation happening. Sometimes you just got to wear some studs in the guts. The way Natainui crashed into Sandlinads back fracturing his ribs was 20x worse than the Greene blocking with his foot incidents, but other than hoping for basic honour, it's very hard to police with costing some key parts of our game.