Changes to the high contact rules are already having an impact in the AFL, writes Jon Ralph

IT might have taken five years longer than common sense dictated but footy fans can finally say goodbye to the knee-droppers, the duckers and the shruggers.

Rhys Mathieson is tackled high. Picture: Colleen Petch.

THE biggest blight on the AFL has finally been eradicated.

It might have taken five years longer than common sense dictated — and been slipped out under cover of darkness — but it is finally here.

Footy fans don’t love congested stoppages and could do without low scoring and the lack of high marks in the modern game.

What they truly detest is the knee-dropper, the ducker and the shrugger, the kind of player who goes searching for contact to draw high free kicks.

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Finally, the league has acted to ensure players who commit those actions will not be rewarded with free kicks for high contact.

And rest assured, a tighter interpretation is already having an effect at AFL training grounds across Australia.

Joel Selwood has carried the can for that footballing sin, correctly stating he would carry on doing it until the league changed the rules.

Rhys Mathieson wins a free kick against Melbourne. Picture: Wayne Ludbey

But while we grimaced when it happened, his brazen attack on the footy and courageous play meant some were prepared to forgive him for the single flaw in his game.

Now a new breed of players have entered the game who seem to make it their sole mission to draw high free kicks.

The AFL just had to act.

Brisbane’s Rhys Mathieson won just 113 contested possessions last year and yet was awarded 23 free kicks from high tackles in his 11 games.

As a knee dropper and serial shrugger he was rewarded for that action at a rate of one free kick every 4.9 contested possessions, far in excess of Selwood’s ratio of 11.75.

Western Bulldog Toby McLean and Brisbane’s Allen Christensen and Hawthorn’s James Sicily had all made an art-form of drawing frees from high tackles.

As Ashton Hams and Luke Shuey and a handful of West Coast players continued to draw high frees former AFL boss Jeff Gieschen simply told players to tackle better.

It made no sense given what started with a perfect tackle quickly became illegal with a knee drop, shoulder shrug then head thrown back in feigned agony.

The league announced the rule in a shroud of gobbledygook late in December, making reference to reasonable tackles and the player with the ball being more responsible.

New umpires boss Peter Schwab was much more plain on Friday, making public the changes clubs have already been alerted to.

“If the players’ legitimate attempt to tackle appears to be correct and that the high contact is caused by the player ducking into the tackle, dropping his knees or trying to shrug it off, then it will be a play-on call,” he said.

The result? Immediate.

James Sicily gets tackled high. Picture: Colleen Petch.

Brisbane won’t coach its players not to duck any more, but even at last week’s practice match its serial duckers had stopped the practice.

Why would you, when there is no reward any more?

Do you think Selwood will lose too much sleep over the adjudication or just adapt like the champion he is?

If a tackler attempts to take his head off with a reckless tackle he still receives a free and if not he hits the pack with such force he is still a chance to break free.

He should welcome the change because without the criticism as a serial shrugger its hard to believe he is anything other than the perfect footballer.