Head High Contact - Worth it for a Free Kick?

Jul 13, 2015
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Saw one tonight where Grimes backed into a tackle so obviously, I swear I heard the reverse beeps and thrust his arm out in a hitler salute almost before the tackle was made. He got the free for high contact but it looked so awkward and contrived.

I stopped watching half way through the 3rd cos the game was awful. Didnt notice much ducking. Saw one 50/50 paid high which is ok. Lets stop the obvious ones first.

The biggest issue was neither team actually wanted to kick goals and win.

When I saw the result after I was glad I stopped watching.

Freo still undefeated at Marvel this year.
 
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Alesana

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Oct 13, 2011
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How many clubs grease their arms before each game to make sure that tackles that land on their player’s arms easily slip off/are shrugged off to hit them in the head?
Can't think of any...

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When you back into a tackle you are forcing your direction of momentum in the opposite direction to the tackler, it makes it harder for the tackler to stick his tackle because of the force going the other way. How people are happy to accept wanting players to just stand upright and accept tackles is actually beyond belief.

I didn't expect him to stand upright and accept the tackle. I expected him to attempt to evade the tackle and dispose of the ball, or stand in the tackle and dispose of the ball. When the ball carrier instigates first contact with the tackler, I feel it goes against the spirit of the game.
 
Sep 16, 2015
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It looked like the umps took a while to adjust last night. There was clearly a change in the dynamic though.

For much of the game, it was basically no free kicks for high contact - even legitimate frees. That was never the intention of the rule change.

They found a balance later in the game that looked better though.
 
Jul 13, 2015
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Dylan Moore had a couple of tries which the umpires ignored then he didnt try again. I really like that they are now finally enforcing it properly.
 
Jul 29, 2008
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Mihocek calling for the ball, he could have attempted to evade the tackler, or passed it to a teammate, instead he goes down into the defender.
You'd be so annoyed as a coach seeing this. At this point of the second quarter it was his only possession.
 

Alesana

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1658642682551-png.1455079

Mihocek calling for the ball, he could have attempted to evade the tackler, or passed it to a teammate, instead he goes down into the defender.
You'd be so annoyed as a coach seeing this. At this point of the second quarter it was his only possession.
Was this called HTB?
 
Jan 13, 2006
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Here's what bothers me, the AFL steps in and says "Okay, head high contact is now a free kick, because CTE is awful, we want to look after our players".
Nekminnit, you have players intentionally taking head high contact to milk free kicks.

Which is it? Do you want your head protected, or do you want to ruin the fabric of the game.
This diving s**t is soft, it's made soccer nearly impossible to watch for me, don't do it to footy too.

Selwood, Ginnivan and Weightman, we're looking at you.
Discuss.

Ginnivan, The Milkman
You look at the selwood ones for years and a lot of the time because he is such a contested beast in the contests it was all in the play trying to shrug off tackles. You look at the ginni ones and it is taking the drop of the knee and the shoulder shrug to a level 4 to a level 10 of exaggeration and intention for purely nothing more than a free kick. The man almost ends up in a fetal position when he is tackled. It is the ugliest look for the game and was always going to end up in a rule change. There is a line with such exaggerated full in free kick playing intentions when your sole purpose is not to win the ball but to get a free kick.

No surprise, half time of the eswendon game and ginni has barely gotten a kick, surprise surprise… he doesn’t bring anything to AFL football besides playing for free kicks.

If that’s all you have to bring to AFL footy, your probably going to need therapy after a while from the reputation you get. At least weightman is an elite small forward and selwood is a champion contested midfielder. Ginni has very little else to claim
 
Jul 29, 2008
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You look at the selwood ones for years and a lot of the time because he is such a contested beast in the contests it was all in the play trying to shrug off tackles. You look at the ginni ones and it is taking the drop of the knee and the shoulder shrug to a level 4 to a level 10 of exaggeration and intention for purely nothing more than a free kick. The man almost ends up in a fetal position when he is tackled. It is the ugliest look for the game and was always going to end up in a rule change. There is a line with such exaggerated full in free kick playing intentions when your sole purpose is not to win the ball but to get a free kick.

No surprise, half time of the eswendon game and ginni has barely gotten a kick, surprise surprise… he doesn’t bring anything to AFL football besides playing for free kicks.

If that’s all you have to bring to AFL footy, your probably going to need therapy after a while from the reputation you get. At least weightman is an elite small forward and selwood is a champion contested midfielder. Ginni has very little else to claim
Yep, there's no doubt that Selwood is a champion of the game, and that Weightman is a jet.
Ginnivan's biggest claim to date are his social media efforts.
 
Jan 13, 2006
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1658642682551-png.1455079

Mihocek calling for the ball, he could have attempted to evade the tackler, or passed it to a teammate, instead he goes down into the defender.
You'd be so annoyed as a coach seeing this. At this point of the second quarter it was his only possession.
god thats a disgraceful look to the game.
 

cob

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It's fascinating that one player can make a career out of it and another player can't play more than 20 games before getting targetted about it.

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May 16, 2017
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It's fascinating that one player can make a career out of it and another player can't play more than 20 games before getting targetted about it.

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Yeah, it was about time they changed it. Or are you saying it should have just been a free for all because now your team had a player that was good at it?

Also although Selwood is the godfather of it, he would still keep his feet and play the game. He and Shuey used it more as an actual tackle breaking technique. They still shouldn’t be getting called high. Ginnivan and the younger blokes run around looking for a tackle to fall over into and get their heads taken off. A bit different.
 

Goosecat

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You're going to start seeing more and more of this. Commentators called it high the instant it happened and it was. Player doesn't even know the tackles coming let alone setting up to milk a free. The tackler is doing as all are trained now; go higher and get the arms, the tackle literally starts at head height. The ball winner tries to balance himself as he's hit totally unprepared, get's clothes-lined and gets nothing. The tackles will get sloppier and sloppier over time, there will be more and more high tackles missed and we will have a period of high tackles being missed, increasing in number before we go through all the interpretations again.
It'll probably take some big close games and head high tackles missed affecting results and supporters going nuts before they realise what they've actually done.
In the mean time any new audience trying to understand AFL and head high contact just shakes their head and laughs at the stupidity of the inconsistent game rules.
 
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banzai

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Yeah, it was about time they changed it. Or are you saying it should have just been a free for all because now your team had a player that was good at it?

Also although Selwood is the godfather of it, he would still keep his feet and play the game. He and Shuey used it more as an actual tackle breaking technique. They still shouldn’t be getting called high. Ginnivan and the younger blokes run around looking for a tackle to fall over into and get their heads taken off. A bit different.

This exactly, most of the time Selwood is trying to shrug the tackler. He would play a similar way if none of them were ever paid as free kicks. Ginnivan just heads straight towards the tackler and goes to ground.
 
May 16, 2017
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View attachment 1456192
You're going to start seeing more and more of this. Commentators called it high the instant it happened and it was. Player doesn't even know the tackles coming let alone setting up to milk a free. The tackler is doing as all are trained now; go higher and get the arms, the tackle literally starts at head height. The ball winner tries to balance himself as he's hit totally unprepared, get's clothes-lined and gets nothing. The tackles will get sloppier and sloppier over time, there will be more and more high tackles missed and we will have a period of high tackles being missed, increasing in number before we go through all the interpretations again.
Not disagreeing but I can't tell anything from those photos. Are you able to make them larger? It's also possible the umpires can just miss some free kicks. Agree it's difficult to adjudicate but its necessary.
 
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