North Melbourne trains methods to encourage head high contact in tackles

UPDATE: NORTH Melbourne has been training its players on how to win free kicks for high tackles, but the umpires say they don’t single certain players out.

NORTH Melbourne players are coached on ways to draw head high free kicks, Kangaroos coach Brad Scott has revealed.

North goalsneak Lindsay Thomas has become the poster boy for exaggerating tackles to draw head-high free kicks after Hawthorn great Dermott Brereton accused Thomas of deliberately drawing head-high contact during last Friday night’s clash between North Melbourne and Sydney.

Thomas was awarded two free kicks on the night and both resulted in goals.

Brereton said the Kangaroos forward’s action in the second free kick, when he appeared to back into oncoming Swan Nick Smith, was “not in the spirit of the game”.

The AFL says both decisions were correct.

But Scott said as long as umpires pay the free kicks, his players will continue to train the method.

“We played a game over in Perth a few years ago where we gave away an inordinate amount of high-tackle free kicks,” he said on Fox Footy’s On The Couch.

“We spoke to the AFL about it and they were really clear on the fact even though the West Coast players contributed to the high contact, it’s still a free kick. So we decided then and there if you can’t beat them, join them.

“It’s a technique we work on to make sure we don’t give away free kicks and we train both sides of it, both in the tackle and laying the tackle

“It coaches our players to make sure they go low in the tackle so the players that are really good at drawing head-high contact, we use them as crash test dummies to make sure the others are going low, to work on their technique.”

In Round 6, 2012 the Kangaroos gave away eight high contact free kicks against the Eagles at Subiaco. They conceded the same number to the same opponent at the same venue in Round 21, 2010, Scott’s first season as Kangaroos coach.

Lindsay Thomas is caught high by Essendon’s Zach Merrett. Picture: Michael Klein

The Herald Sun revealed that Thomas had received only two free kicks this season for high tackles before the Swans game.

Scott said after the match the intense focus on Thomas was unjustified and last night launched another spirited defence of his player.

“I just told Lindsay to stay strong and to listen to the people that have his best interests at heart,” he said.

“There’s always going to be people who are going to single him out for whatever reason.

“He gets unfairly criticised in my view.

“Where Lindsay might be with his life I shudder to think if it wasn’t for AFL football.

“He’s done an enormous amount of work to turn his life around. He’s got a terrific young family.

“I think he’s a great success story but for whatever reason a lot of easy people think he’s an easy target and they have cheap shots at him.”

The umpires don’t agree, with field umpire Jacob Mollison said players aren’t singled out based on reputation.

“You’re not really too mindful (of them), because it does happen so quickly,” he told the AFL website on Tuesday.

“There’s a split second decision you have to make, and it really does happen too quickly to single out any particular player.

“We don’t want to single players out; we want to umpire every decision on its merit.”

Scott said he was opposed to players ducking or dropping their knees to invite attract high contact but understood why they did so when umpires are instructed to pay free kicks.

“I don’t like players accentuating contact but the reality is players have been incentivise to do this,” he said.

“It’s a tactic, it’s a technique the players put into place and the umpires have clearly said that ‘if you get taken high we’re going to pay a free kick’. So the players are going to continue to do it.

“I think if the umpires started calling play on the players will stop doing it very quickly but the AFL has taken a stance we’re going to protect the head at all costs.”