Easy fix for DOOB?

fleabitten

Norm Smith Medallist
Feb 16, 2012
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Change it from "deliberate" to "directly" out of bounds.

Remove the guesswork about intentions and pay a free kick any time a player kicks, handballs or taps the ball toward the line and it maintains its line and goes out, whether deliberate or not. If it deviates before going out, it's a throw in.

This makes it a skill issue rather than being a guess about intentions. If a player kicks the ball along the line and it takes a sharp bounce and goes out, then they've successfully executed a skill (or got lucky) and there's no punishment. Throw it in. If they try to gather the ball and fumble and it goes straight to the line and out, then that was a skill error and deserves to be punished.

I'd rather deal with Jayden Short fumbling away our chance to beat the Dogs than have the game decided by Curtis Deboy.
 
May 8, 2007
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Still won't work. Imagine this - Full-forward leads into pocket, teammate does chip pass - full forward accidentally runs under ball (or get's bodied by full-back). Ball goes over their heads untouched, keeps rolling straight and goes out. Free kick?

Defenders will just stand back and watch the ball roll out rather than try and pick it up - they will actively shepherd opponents to prevent them from touching the ball.

All that means is that teams will try to stay 5-10 metres inside the boundary to avoid the accidental skill error, or the unlucky bounce. Defenders will no longer chip along the boundary to get the ball out of defence. All the new rule will have done is make the ground smaller and the game more crowded.

I am happy with penalising gross skill errors like kicking out on the full. But we have a funny-shaped ball, it's not easy to kick perfectly, (particularly if someone is trying to tackle you or smother the ball), and as the example above shows - you may execute a perfect kick, but the opposition get a free kick just by being purely defensive, and not needing to go near the ball.
 
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fleabitten

Norm Smith Medallist
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Still won't work. Imagine this - Full-forward leads into pocket, teammate does chip pass - full forward accidentally runs under ball (or get's bodied by full-back). Ball goes over their heads untouched, keeps rolling straight and goes out. Free kick?

No. The idea wouldn't be to create any new free kicks. It would only get called in situations where the question currently gets asked "is he going to pay deliberate here?" If the kick is toward a teammate or a contest and it goes over their heads or through their legs and stays on its line and goes out, it's just a throw in.

Defenders will just stand back and watch the ball roll out rather than try and pick it up - they will actively shepherd opponents to prevent them from touching the ball.

I don't think this would happen any worse than it already does. You need the ball to stay on its line to get a free, so if the opportunity is there to pick it up and move it forward, you're much better off doing that

All that means is that teams will try to stay 5-10 metres inside the boundary to avoid the accidental skill error, or the unlucky bounce. Defenders will no longer chip along the boundary to get the ball out of defence. All the new rule will have done is make the ground smaller and the game more crowded.

I am happy with penalising gross skill errors like kicking out on the full. But we have a funny-shaped ball, it's not easy to kick perfectly, (particularly if someone is trying to tackle you or smother the ball), and as the example above shows - you may execute a perfect kick, but the opposition get a free kick just by being purely defensive, and not needing to go near the ball.

If it's only called in the same situations as it is now, but instead of being guesswork about intentions, it's a matter of whether the ball went directly out (free kick) or bounced off line (throw in), I think that would be far less frustrating to watch and would rid the game of a massive grey area.
 

Hawk_francais

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I think your suggestion is good but it still doesn't stop opposition players from throwing out their arms and waiting for the ball to run out rather than chasing it down. That's the really bad look I think.

As a general rule, I think that deliberate frees should not be paid when a team is going inside their attacking 50. Of course it will be deliberate sometimes, especially in the last two minutes of a close game, but it should be very blatant if it's going to be paid. I agree with the the call for a throw in from Bont's kick tonight, for example.
 

LuckyHawk

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A kick that is not touched and rolls out of bounds is a free kick. Each side is allowed 3 DOOBS each game with no penalty.
 

Admiral Byng

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I think we should just have some distance qualification for it. If the ball traveled at least a certain distance, say 25m, then just throw it in. Allow a defender to hack a quick kick out of defence, as long as it goes 25m before going over the line then throw it in.
 
I think we should just have some distance qualification for it. If the ball traveled at least a certain distance, say 25m, then just throw it in. Allow a defender to hack a quick kick out of defence, as long as it goes 25m before going over the line then throw it in.
Umpires can't judge 15m how are they meant to judge 25
 
Keep it as it is but change one thing, opposition players who shepherd the ball out of bounds appealing as the ball is still bouncing over the line are penalised, it's such a bad look and infuriating to watch.
 
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