Sliding Below The Knees Rule & Smothers

[lordbob]

The sliding below the knees (as in dont do it) rule was brought in to reduce injury occurences to the legs/knees.

Should it also be applied to smothers where someone slides or dives in and takes out the oppositions legs out? Is there not the same risk of injury ? if it shouldnt then what is the difference is potential injury? and what makes smothering different to diving/sliding in to take possession that should see it interpreted differently?

Discuss

 

[CrowInFiji]

The sliding below the knees (as in dont do it) rule was brought in to reduce injury occurences to the legs/knees.

Should it also be applied to smothers where someone slides or dives in and takes out the oppositions legs out? Is there not the same risk of injury ? if it shouldnt then what is the difference is potential injury? and what makes smothering different to diving/sliding in to take possession that should see it interpreted differently?

Discuss

Not an issue until someone gets hurt from it. That's the AFLs type of operation

 

[lordbob]

Not an issue until someone gets hurt from it. That's the AFLs type of operation

Yeah that is unfortunately the problem

 

[sprockets]

I think it's more that not many serious injuries are caused by smothers, at least compared with taking the legs out when sliding.

 

[kickazz]

The sliding below the knees (as in dont do it) rule was brought in to reduce injury occurences to the legs/knees.

Might be an unpopular opinion but I disagree with this a bit, it's not just about injury.

Sliding in is taking out someone's legs. It's a form of trip and has always been a rule in that sense. When genuinely going for the ball it was rightly overlooked, but then it became a bit of a tactic to enter a contest late at pace, take out the opponent below the knees first then get the ball.

I think the difference between that and smothering is that at least smothering is somewhat of a skill and requires courage, whereas the former, not so much.

It can still cause injury, but is probably less likely to. But if you follow my full logic as to why the rule was brought in you can see how smothers can be excluded from the rule