‘Had an eternity’: AFL rule has disappeared as ‘confusion’ makes game ‘harder to play’

It appears one AFL rule has gone out the window as the league faces pressure to clarify “confusion” that’s left coaches and fans frustrated.

The AFL has been urged to clarify its rules in the wake of backlash to several controversial umpiring decisions during Round 11 action over the weekend.

Opposing coaches Michael Voss and Damien Hardwick were flummoxed at the lack of holding the ball free kicks called in Carlton’s win over the Gold Coast on Sunday.

“We’ll follow some up and I don’t say that often,” Voss said after his team’s 29-point win.

Hardwick said: “There’s 131 effective tackles today and there were four holding-the-balls for both sides.”

Watch every game of every round this Toyota AFL Premiership Season LIVE with no ad-breaks during play on Kayo. New to Kayo? Start your free trial today >

Suns defender Mac Andrew caught Charlie Curnow in a tackle and spun him around, but Curnow wasn’t penalised for doing a full 360 and it was called play on as he threw the ball onto his boot.

Hardwick described that passage of play as a “very, very dangerous situation for both players”.

“I agree with Michael Voss and Damien Hardwick off the back of that game on Saturday afternoon,” Fox Footy’s Nick Dal Santo told news.com.au.

Charlie Curnow did a full 360 but Mac Andrew wasn’t awarded a holding the ball free kick. (Photo by Josh Chadwick/AFL Photos/via Getty Images)

“There was one in particular in the first quarter, when Mac Andrew was tackling Charlie Curnow. He couldn’t drag him to ground because of the risk of getting suspended and rightly so.

“But now you’ve got a player standing there and Charlie Curnow had an eternity to get rid of the football.

“We’re trying to make sure concussion doesn’t happen but the consequential flow on is you can just stand up in a tackle and no one can bring you to ground and completely dismantle that passage of play.”

Dal Santo believes if players are not allowed to tackle the opposition to ground in fear of suspension for risk of causing concussion — they still need to be rewarded for tackles that are holding the ball.

“We are forever as an industry trying to find ways to keep players safe but we’re now getting into these areas where it’s so difficult given the complexity of the game,” the St Kilda great said.

“This is another one the AFL will have to address, then communicate it really clearly to the umpires to be able to adjudicate and make those changes going forward.

“I would like to see the fans who watch it on TV and listen on the radio, included in the changes to our game. I feel like the frustration comes from confusion or lack of clarity on these things time and time again.

“I think we can evolve the rules to continue to keep players safe. But also, if we don’t want players to take people to ground then we need to adapt the rules to make sure they don’t have the opportunity to, and therefore blow the whistle earlier. We need to evolve.”

It’s not that umpires are putting the whistle away altogether — they are giving free kicks for innocuous moments that have a disproportionate impact on the outcome of games.

Izak Rankine was penalised late in Adelaide’s loss to Collingwood in Round 10 for running further than 15m without bouncing — a rule that is almost never enforced in today’s game.

Players are being careful not to do sling tackles. (Photo by Daniel Pockett/Getty Images)

Standing tackles are becoming commonplace. (Photo by Mark Brake/Getty Images)

Dal Santo added the “grey” area of AFL rules makes regular tinkering of interpretation a near impossible task for umpires.

“The umpires are also accountable to what the rules are stipulated,” he said.

“They’re only calling according to the rules provided to them by the AFL.

“It is extremely difficult to umpire the game given the amount of rules we have in a game that is so grey. It’s really difficult to make it black and white.

“This is an ongoing conversation. I don’t think it goes away until there’s clarity from those that govern the game.

“I’m a lover of footy, I think the game is always in a relatively good space. Good teams make good football. Poor teams make football difficult to watch at times. That’s always been the case.

“I think it’s getting harder to play the game given these new rules at times. In saying that, we always have frustration and we rotate that frustration week to week.”

Collingwood’s Lachie Sullivan copped a harsh time wasting penalty. (Photo by Daniel Carson/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

Elsewhere in Round 1, fans were up in arms when Collingwood’s Lachie Sullivan was pinged for time wasting in the dying stages of Friday night’s clash with Fremantle, which ended in a draw.

At a stoppage for a ball-up, Sullivan was penalised for handing the ball to teammate Nick Daicos instead of umpire Matthew Nicholls, who awarded Sean Darcy a free kick in front of goal.

The decision helped spark Fremantle’s late run of four goals to tie the score.

“I didn’t love the Fremantle-Collingwood call on Sullivan,” Dal Santo said.

“To the letter of the law, the umpire actually called it correctly. I just don’t like the rule. I don’t think that’s how that moment or any moment of a game should be adjudicated.

“If that’s in the first minute of the game, I don’t want to see that as a free kick against. I just don’t like that for our game.”

Originally published as ‘Had an eternity’: AFL rule has disappeared as ‘confusion’ makes game ‘harder to play’