Rushed behinds - a clarification

[marvin]

I see a few of the threads over the weekend have had a "what gives" on why Smart's spoil wasn't pinged as a deliberate rushed behind.

Derek Humphrey-Smith was on Sports Tonight on 3AW on Thrusday night, and said that the umpires have been explicitly instructed not to penalise players who are spoiling a mark for deliberately rushing. He said that while it's not uncommon for the spoiling player to deliberately punch the ball through, that is the instruction given (from the Giesch, or from AFL HQ I'm not sure which).

Hope that helps.

 

[MarksGirl-kbcrowgirl]

Thanks for that Marvin.

It would be way to harsh to penalise a player for spoiling a mark or touching a ball bouncing through the goals. My belief is that this rule only applies to players who deliberately hand ball or kick a ball through the goals to concede a point.

I heard Port supporters whinging all night long about that touched ball - it goes to show that they really don't know what they are talking about!

k
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