Head High Contact - Worth it for a Free Kick?
- Thread starter The Devils Advocate
- Start date
- Tagged users None
I actually like the guy & applaud what he's done at the kennel in recent years, he just seems a bit off kilter this season
Its not a free kick against for doing this. Its a free kick if they don't dispose of the ball legally when attempting to do this because then its holding the ball.
You've got no idea, mate. Cody also falls forward to draw "in the back" frees.
H00t
Premiership Player
- Sep 28, 2019
- 4,892
- 8,511
- AFL Club
- Hawthorn
Players dropping their body into contact probably annoys me the most. It started with players dropping their shoulder to ride the tackle high.
A number of players now are throwing their whole body into the contact to try and get a high tackle, they have no way of getting out of the tackle as they are going to ground in order to draw a high tackle.
Nothing to do with players weaving through traffic.
And I don’t think it should be a free against, just prior opportunity and not a free to them. It will encourage players to move the ball on and break the tackle rather than hope for the free and knowing even if they fail it’s only a ball up.
Yeah but this new interpretation means if a player lowers his body to try and manouvre himself under and out of a players grasp but gets taken high, then it's holding the ball. That's ridiculous. If he does lower himself and gets tackled legally then yes holding the ball is fair because he clearly had time to get rid of it, but if he gets taken high then that's not his responsibility.
AFL even used the example of that hawthorn player saying it's holding the ball despite him literally lowering himself and moving away from the tackler.
I disagree. It's a split second natural instinct to give yourself an oppertunity to potentially slip underneath a tackle and get out. A player is never going to just accept a tackle standing upright without attempting to manouvre himself in a way that gives him some sort of chance to get away. It's literally an attempt to break a tackle.
Yes it should count as prior oppertunity if they get stuck with a legal tackle, not a high one.
- Jun 14, 2015
- 17,773
- 38,765
- AFL Club
- Melbourne
- Other Teams
- Port Adelaide Power
Weightman, ginniman and selwoodman drop to the floor though. That’s not evading anything. It’s literally stopping and hoping you get a free kick.
BS. Selwood will keep shrugging as a way of evading the tackle and if not most of the time it gets his arms free for the handball.
Maximus 2011
All Australian
- Oct 4, 2019
- 658
- 978
- AFL Club
- GWS
This is my view.
Why is the high free kick there in the first place? To protect the head and brain injuries obviously.
Players make it near on impossible to tackle themselves by leading with their heads or their shoulders and lifting their arms and hence the tackler slips up to graze their neck and the player with the ball gets a free kick.
I am all for rewarding the player who has his head over the ball and getting their hands on it first but when it is players first reaction to draw a free kick as soon as they get the ball they need to be penalised. Ginnivan, Weightman, Selwood, Mathieson, Macrae, are just a few. There is 1 on every team who exploit this and it needs to be stamped out as it is them who are putting themselves at risk, not the tackler!
Needs to be stamped out or the AFL will be exactly like soccer with players flopping and playing for free kicks because they are allowed to do it. The players don't care how the game 'look' or the fabric of the game, they are just trying to impact games and make as much money as possible from the game as possible and if that means they play for 10 free kicks per game to be able to do that, they will.
Why is the high free kick there in the first place? To protect the head and brain injuries obviously.
Players make it near on impossible to tackle themselves by leading with their heads or their shoulders and lifting their arms and hence the tackler slips up to graze their neck and the player with the ball gets a free kick.
I am all for rewarding the player who has his head over the ball and getting their hands on it first but when it is players first reaction to draw a free kick as soon as they get the ball they need to be penalised. Ginnivan, Weightman, Selwood, Mathieson, Macrae, are just a few. There is 1 on every team who exploit this and it needs to be stamped out as it is them who are putting themselves at risk, not the tackler!
Needs to be stamped out or the AFL will be exactly like soccer with players flopping and playing for free kicks because they are allowed to do it. The players don't care how the game 'look' or the fabric of the game, they are just trying to impact games and make as much money as possible from the game as possible and if that means they play for 10 free kicks per game to be able to do that, they will.
The tackle has to stick with no disposal surely?
Well no, not obviously. It's an assumption many incorrectly make.
That is part of it of course. The other reason is that a tackle over the shoulder is far too easy to effectively execute, taking skill out of the game.
LukeParkerno1
Post-Human
would stop players doing it if it was HTB every time it would stop coaches encouraging it.
- Feb 21, 2006
- 20,735
- 19,581
- AFL Club
- Melbourne
- Other Teams
- Turtles, NYJets, Celtics, Tottenham
Well yeah that's implied
Anyone who actually plays footy will understand that the last thing that comes to your mind in a contest is attempting to win a freekick... It doesn't even cross the mind in the slightest. Except for maybe staging for a push in the back. A high tackle rather is given not taken.
You clearly don't understand the mentality and mechanics of dropping yourself when a tackler comes at you. It's to reduce your centre of gravity to a smaller area. It concentrates your power and strength into your core, makes you smaller, and gives you a chance to slip under and out of a tackle. It's like a slingshot effect when you stop, drop then pull your direction opposite to the momentum of the incoming tackler. The players mindset in that moment is all about being able to win clean posession and kick a goal etc, not a freekick attempt. Selwood dips because 90% of the time it allows him to slip away, you only notice the 10% where he gets necked. It's not his problem, the tackler should be more disciplined and understand his opponent. If a player is good at evading your tackle to the point that your always collecting him high then that's your problem, predict and place your tackle better, you can't expect concessions because your opponent is athletically superior to you.
If you want to see your players walking into a tackle limp as a dick and making no attempt at evasive action then keep arguing your point.
Last edited:
I want whatever you are smoking. This is just flat out wrong.
Just following on, which clip do you want to see in the AFL. Is the first clip really Ginnivan trying to slip a tackle? Come on, don't be ridiculous. Why didn't he use that technique when he was actually trying to slip the tackles. He's actually a good little player, he will be fine and now hopefully he will actually use his skills.
- Jun 14, 2015
- 17,773
- 38,765
- AFL Club
- Melbourne
- Other Teams
- Port Adelaide Power
Bullshit. Complete and utter bullshit.
There's literally footage of Givinniman showing others how to drop their legs and raise their arm in a tackle. Weightman spoke about it being a skill on the radio.
It's patently obvious they are trying to win frees. And they are doing it because until now, it has been successful. Hopefully it isn't any longer.
The action is a natural football action, it just so happens to win frees. They can drop and raise their arms, even do handstands and cartwheels as much as they want, it won't be a freekick against you if you tackle them below the shoulder simple as. If ginnivan is too quick for ya and he drops his legs before youre able to stick the tackle, then stiff s**t to you for being too slow and not predicting the move. AFL is played on a 360 degree axis, you can move however you wish, deal with it.
FourthTimeAround
Cancelled
- Jun 6, 2022
- 2,173
- 2,639
- AFL Club
- Port Adelaide
When "practitioners" like Ginnivan and Shuey are telling you that it's all about drawing a free kick, you really should stop arguing the opposite.
How about just not letting them draw you in. Aim for his knees instead of his waist and you might get him around the waist instead of the head.
If they can train to draw it in, then defenders should train to counter it.
Let's just ban tackles completely, turn it to touch footy. Because after all when a player has the ball and is moving, his movement might affect how accurately his defender can tackle him, we can't have the attacker go left when the defender though he was going to right. We don't want any movement from the player in possession to affect the defenders ability to tackle do we.... You should no longer be allowed to jump for a mark either because players are placing their heads purposely in the vicinity of spoilers fists in order to win freekicks for high contact. We can't have that, that's potentially fists to the head, and it's the person's who's trying to mark who is at fault, not the defender sticking his fist in therefore anyone who jumps for a mark will be penalised. That's how stupid you lot sound, arguing in favour of ruining a once grouse game.
Beveridge read this so wrong.
Calling it "flinching".
Considering the number of lawsuits the AFL is facing and will face, they need to prove they tried to minimize head contact as much as they can. Rewarding players for using their head to draw a free is not minimizing head contact.
Same as if you reach the ball at the same time and one guy dumb as * runs in head first and the other uses his hip, it shouldn't be a free. No one will just blindly run head down with their head and neck exposed if there's no free. Both will use their hips as is proper technique.
Calling it "flinching".
Considering the number of lawsuits the AFL is facing and will face, they need to prove they tried to minimize head contact as much as they can. Rewarding players for using their head to draw a free is not minimizing head contact.
Same as if you reach the ball at the same time and one guy dumb as * runs in head first and the other uses his hip, it shouldn't be a free. No one will just blindly run head down with their head and neck exposed if there's no free. Both will use their hips as is proper technique.
Similar threads
- Poll
- Poll
