Head High Contact - Worth it for a Free Kick?

[JyeDye]

Agree totally but it’s not just him. The AFL have officially made above shoulder cintact legal.
Head high contact is now rife in the sport and the AFL have trained their sheep so well not a word is spoken about it.
It’s a disgrace.

You are just making stuff up and giving faux outrage. The umpires have done well with the new head high rules and now players aren't ducking at every contest. When they said they wouldn't pay them you acted like every contest is now going to have players deliberately clothes lining each other, yet to see anything like that.

 

[JyeDye]

Imagine watching and playing it your whole life and having a puzzled WTF looks during games.

This shouldn’t happen. Generally, when you get a WTF moment, it’s around a foul/penalty that everyone knows about which a ref may’ve gotten wrong with that infringement.

With our game, you get frees where even the commentators are genuinely confused. We’ve added far too many layers to the rules that it’s legitimately open to so many different interpretations.

That's the nature of such a complex sport though. You watch basketball or soccer and you can tell what's going on without the need for much of an explanation. You watch AFL without any context and you wouldn't have a clue what anyone is doing out there.

 

[JyeDye]

Eventually the players would adapt to the whistle stop conceding so many free kicks and the game would be more free flowing as a result.

I must have missed the part when Selwood stopped getting high free kicks over the last 10 years because all the players adapted to him.

 

[PieLebo87]

That's the nature of such a complex sport though. You watch basketball or soccer and you can tell what's going on without the need for much of an explanation. You watch AFL without any context and you wouldn't have a clue what anyone is doing out there.

It wasn’t complex 20 years ago though.

You could either be pinged for holding the man, holding the ball, or pushing in the back. Those were the 3 key infringements.

It’s become complex on the back of the competition making it so with all the changes they keep making.

 

[JyeDye]

It wasn’t complex 20 years ago though.

You could either be pinged for holding the man, holding the ball, or pushing in the back. Those were the 3 key infringements.

It’s become complex on the back of the competition making it so with all the changes they keep making.

The newer rules really don't come up often though and are more for player safety then gameplay. How often do you see contact below the knees, or kicking in danger or whatever other specific rules there are. Most free kicks still are the three you outlined and high contact.

Maybe in marking contests there might be too many now, such as chopping the arms, high, front on contact, in the back, coupled with players diving it seems like almost contest has someone infringing.

Just wondering what would you change?

 

[PieLebo87]

The newer rules really don't come up often though and are more for player safety then gameplay. How often do you see contact below the knees, or kicking in danger or whatever other specific rules there are. Most free kicks still are the three you outlined and high contact.

Maybe in marking contests there might be too many now, such as chopping the arms, high, front on contact, in the back, coupled with players diving it seems like almost contest has someone infringing.

Just wondering what would you change?

It’s the extra layers they’ve added to the original 3 and the way they’ve been trained by the AFL to interpret them. It’s not as clear cut anymore. Fans and player are just confused. I’ve lost count of instances where players are running away before being called back to take a free kick because they didn’t even realise it was theirs.

There’s nothing you can do to change it. That’s the actual problem I’m trying to say is that they keep making changes and alterations which is confusing more players and fans.

Should’ve just kept it simple in the first place.