Hall/Thompson

[TheBloods]

I must have missed the meeting where this was made illegal or uncommon.

Pfft, like they care what you think - elbows and pushing in the back - which Thompson was doing - is illegal. Specifically referred to last year and in the DVD (oh what - they didn't send you one...?!). Pushing a player over when more than 5m off the ball is also illegal.

 

[THRILLHO]

That's horse shit NB.

Thompson pushed and shoved Hall for the first 50 minutes of the game. Hall had had enough of it when he was pushed over when tieing up his shoelaces and remonstrated.

Do you reckon it might've been because Hall was getting a bath from Thompson? How many touches did Hall have up to half-time?

 

[jacko57]

Interesting that most commentators and former players think that Thompson went (and goes) too far. Maybe they should defer to the expert and unbiased opinions of the NM supporters on BF...

Yep, kudos to Rocket, he's managed to win the spin war.

I do look forward to the response from these unbiased experts when the umps start gifting forwards soft goals from absurd frees like the Lake-Riewoldt one we saw in last year's prelim.

(Unless it's paid against Thompson, when I realise there will be dancing in the streets).

 

[chef]

Do you reckon it might've been because Hall was getting a bath from Thompson? How many touches did Hall have up to half-time?

Score board was 11.1 to 2.10 at half time. This is what matters. While you triple team Hall you release other players to kick our goals.

 

[Z_K]

It was on the rules DVD that every club received before the start of the season.

So, pushing and shoving is a free kick? Is that right?

If so, as ridiculous as it is (Reiwoldt in the final last year as case in point, where you lot lost your ****ing minds and rightly so), nothing really changes. Ump should have paid a free, didn't, umpires problem.

 

[TheBloods]

Yep, kudos to Rocket, he's managed to win the spin war.

I do look forward to the response from these unbiased experts when the umps start gifting forwards soft goals from absurd frees like the Lake-Riewoldt one we saw in last year's prelim.

(Unless it's paid against Thompson, when I realise there will be dancing in the streets).

Oh, boo hoo...

 

[chef]

So, pushing and shoving is a free kick? Is that right?

If so, as ridiculous as it is (Reiwoldt in the final last year as case in point, where you lot lost your ****ing minds and rightly so), nothing really changes. Ump should have paid a free, didn't, umpires problem.

Yes, the way Thompson was doing it anyway. That was what was on the DVD.

 

[TheBloods]

Do you reckon it might've been because Hall was getting a bath from Thompson? How many touches did Hall have up to half-time?

Yes, why not focus on one matchup rather than the whole point of the game - the team score...

 

[Z_K]

Yes, the way Thompson was doing it anyway. That was what was on the DVD.

"The way he was doing it"? Is he a ninja? Pressure points? Did he poke him?

 

[Pigdog]

Do you reckon it might've been because Hall was getting a bath from Thompson? How many touches did Hall have up to half-time?

Been over it before.

At the point of the said incident the scoreboard read 10.1 to 0.8... Yep, Hall wasn't playing his best game due to dropping a few marks, but we were going ok.

 

[always right]

"The way he was doing it"? Is he a ninja? Pressure points? Did he poke him?

Time to move on pal and hope your blokes simply concentrate on putting their heads over the ball this week. For all their bravado on Saturday this was a glaring weakness.

 

[Pigdog]

I must have missed the meeting where this was made illegal or uncommon.

You must have.

Like tactics were highlighted in the DVD sent to the AFL clubs prior to the season with a crackdown on behind the play niggling tactics to occur. Obviously the umpires haven't done a great job in following through with these instructions.

What did you think of the free Reiwoldt got in the final last year, off the ball and against Lake? Depending on your response, I (or someone who could be bothered) might do some digging.

Disgusting decision. Lake applied minimal pressure to Riewoldt who took a dive. What else would you like me to say?

And you can dig as much as you want.... Whatever floats your boat.

He'll do what he's done for two years, and as he has done in most of his 35 games, he'll win his position.

One would think his tactics will be scrutinised a little more in coming weeks.

If he is able to hold his own, good luck to him.

 

[Mcveigh]

christ, this thread is still going??? someone lock it please... its just going round in circles.

Hall is a legend, thompson needs to focus on the ball a little more.

 

[chef]

"The way he was doing it"? Is he a ninja? Pressure points? Did he poke him?

He was doing exactly what the DVD said was illegal.

Sorry mate time to move on.

 

[Yaaablett]

This all has to stop. North saw an opportunity to put off a highly volatile opposition player and did what they could. The umpires job is to adjudicate. Good on North for having a crack at it. No apology from Nth needed. Barry handled it quite well. Thompson does that every week.

I would have thought Nth might be putting some more work into why they got absolutely hammered on the scoreboard though and trying to figure out improvement areas in an attempt to bridge the sizeable gap between them and the top 4-6 sides?

 

[Ry009]

This all has to stop. North saw an opportunity to put off a highly volatile opposition player and did what they could. The umpires job is to adjudicate. Good on North for having a crack at it. No apology from Nth needed. Barry handled it quite well. Thompson does that every week.

I would have thought Nth might be putting some more work into why they got absolutely hammered on the scoreboard though and trying to figure out improvement areas in an attempt to bridge the sizeable gap between them and the top 4-6 sides?

We're a young side with a coach who is rightly trying to drill a gameplan with a team so that it becomes second nature, even if a huge loss is inveitable.

So up against a more skilled, well drilled side - the result is no surprise.

Dogs won by 10 goals, MRP actually got it right with the game (sadly not the umpires), so the reaction to Saturday has been overwhelmingly staggering.

Some people here really need to take a deep breath and realize the sun will actually rise tomorrow.

 

[incubi]

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/time-for-kangaroos-to-catch-up-with-the-times-20100524-w80a.html

ime for Kangaroos to catch up with the times
GREG BAUM
May 25, 2010

BY ITS petty and pathetic assaults on Barry Hall on Saturday, North Melbourne has achieved three things that had been thought impossible. It has made a martyr of Hall. It has weakened casual support for North, a club that has dangerously little of it anyway. And it has guaranteed that life will be even tougher for all backmen for the rest of the season. None will thank the Roos.

For Hall, this soon will be water under the bridge. As he and everyone else expected, he was provoked. Against all expectations, he did not throw a haymaker. Instead, he put Scott Thompson in a headlock. This confused even the umpires, who for this one action charged him with rough conduct, a serious offence, and wrestling, which merely incurs a fine.

The match review panel downgraded the rough conduct charge to misconduct, and fined Hall $4000. Effectively, it acknowledged that Hall's headlock, though illegal, was the least harm he might have wreaked in the highly aggravated circumstances. Far from lose control, he exercised a form of it.

More than this will affect Hall, it will rebound on North. Thompson triggered the incident by barging into Hall while Hall was on one knee, doing up his bootlaces, and the ball was at the other end of the ground. That, as Bulldogs coach Rodney Eade said, and despite North Melbourne coach Brad Scott's indignant and repeated denials, was a cheap shot.

Simply, Thompson made a deliberate and calculated attempt to incite Hall. Some have said that Thompson was brave. He was nothing of the sort. There is nothing heroic about attacking a man whose back is turned.

Hall's history is as unique in its way as Ben Cousins'. It means he is on the football equivalent of a 24-hour watch. It means there was almost no chance he would retaliate as viciously and infamously as he did to Brent Staker and Shane Wakelin in 2008. If he did, Thompson knew, there would be a place in posterity for both of them.

In the unsavoury aftermath, North let it be known that Thompson felt Hall strangled him to the point of unconsciousness. Only Thompson can know that.

But what is clear is that when Hall released his headlock, Thompson went back at him immediately with his head, as if to bait him again. For a man who allegedly had nearly blacked out, this was surprising presence of mind.

It got no better for North. Wisely, Eade hauled Hall from the ground. As he left, he was assailed by three North players, nah-nah-nahing him all the way to the boundary. North was down nine goals to nil at the time. If this was ''flying the flag'', it was about as tattered and tatty a standard as could be imagined. Frankly, North Melbourne made a laughing stock of itself.

If Hall has a notorious history, so do the North protagonists. Scott was a Brisbane player in 2005 when his brother, Chris, and Mal Michael attacked the injured and helpless Nick Riewoldt in a match at the Gabba. The Lions were unapologetic.

Thompson's antagonistic style of play was one of the catalysts for a crackdown at the end of last season on contact far from the ball that is meant only to provoke and annoy. He was warned about it before the start of a match against Carlton.

The rule has not changed, in word or spirit. It is one thing to jostle an opponent. It is another to bowl him over in an unsuspecting moment. It has nothing to do with being tough. Toughness, as all now understand, is about what players do at the fall of the ball, not 150 metres away when they think no one is looking.

Realistically, this is no longer about Barry Hall. He is big enough to look after himself, and on Saturday, he showed that he can. Eade might have used an ill-advised word when he called for ''protection'' for Hall. He does not ask for protection, but merely to be allowed to play by the same rules as everyone else.

The story now is about Thompson, and Scott, and North, and a way of playing football, so-called, that has been superseded by the times. In its attack on Hall, and its spiky us-against-the-world defence, North has tried to turn back the clock, only to find that the hands don't go that way.

Is interesting for someone who nearly blacked out. also didn't show any signs of heavy breathing etc. which usually would follow.

if it wasnt hall who did it we would barely have heard about it, herald sun listed a bunch of other headlocks this morning, but only 2-3 are memorable and nearly all resulted in only a fine if not less.

 

[Mofra]

At the point of the said incident the scoreboard read 10.1 to 0.8... Yep, Hall wasn't playing his best game due to dropping a few marks, but we were going ok.

Given how Hall-conscious the North defenders were, I though Hall played very well in sucking the defenders out of the contest (sometimes past the fall of the ball).
They covered Hall which allowed Minson & Hudson to mark & goal, and Stack & Hill kicked goals in the first half when they ran onto spoils because every North defender was too worried about covering Bazza to keep every forward under check.

We had 13 individual goalkickers for the game and won by 70 points. I think our tactics worked pretty well.

 

[Coach Bombay]

As far as I am concerned, discussing this issue is completely pointless. What Thompson was doing happens in alot of matches through many defenders and I didn't really see anything too wrong with what Hall's reaction. Certainly no need for a fine.

This would be a complete non-issue if it wasn't Barry Hall.

 

[R00StaR]

60 pages for the second time ive seen Thompson do this this year, Zero pages the first time. Why was it ok with everyone the first time?

 

[Long Live the King]

Sam McFarlane incident</SPAN>
Adam Simpson incident</SPAN>

Joel Corey incident</SPAN>

Matt Maguire incident</SPAN>

Brent Staker incident</SPAN>

Shane Wakelin incident</SPAN>

Triple 50m penalties</SPAN> against Hawthorn incident

Ben Rutten incident </SPAN>

And now the Shoelace incident

Looks like theres been plenty of incidental contact when it comes to Barry. Yep Barry needs protection from the umpires.

 

[Hoser]

This all has to stop. North saw an opportunity to put off a highly volatile opposition player and did what they could. The umpires job is to adjudicate. Good on North for having a crack at it. No apology from Nth needed. Barry handled it quite well. Thompson does that every week.

I would have thought Nth might be putting some more work into why they got absolutely hammered on the scoreboard though and trying to figure out improvement areas in an attempt to bridge the sizeable gap between them and the top 4-6 sides?

You pretty much summed it up there mate.

Thompson niggling - nothing to see here, move along people
Thompson pushing Hall over while doing his shoelaces - Not the most sporting moment and should have been dealt with by the umpires.
North getting smashed on the scoreboard - Needs to be addressed

 

[Hearts to hearts]

This all has to stop. North saw an opportunity to put off a highly volatile opposition player and did what they could. The umpires job is to adjudicate. Good on North for having a crack at it. No apology from Nth needed. Barry handled it quite well. Thompson does that every week.

I would have thought Nth might be putting some more work into why they got absolutely hammered on the scoreboard though and trying to figure out improvement areas in an attempt to bridge the sizeable gap between them and the top 4-6 sides?

Fair summary. I'm sure North as a club are spending a lot less time on last week than Bigfooty and the media.

 

[TheGoatBaron]

Looks like theres been plenty of incidental contact when it comes to Barry. Yep Barry needs protection from the umpires.

How ignorant can one be, yep, he's big enough to look after himself, right? Let's look after those soft forwards like Riewoldt, who is a blight on the game, with his staging. Squibb Thompson is the innocent victim, right? There's a photo here with 3 Kangaroos players holding Barry down, oh right, you Kangaroos supporters, think that photo has been doctored.

 

[Ry009]

How ignorant can one be, yep, he's big enough to look after himself, right? Let's look after those soft forwards like Riewoldt, who is a blight on the game, with his staging. Squibb Thompson is the innocent victim, right? There's a photo here with 3 Kangaroos players holding Barry down, oh right, you Kangaroos supporters, think that photo has been doctored.

They were trying to get Hall off Scotty mate, clear as day.