Frustration stemming from low rate of holding the ball free kicks as statistics reveal less than seven per cent of tackles rewarded

There have been almost 9000 tackles laid this year, yet less than seven per cent have resulted in holding the ball free kicks. FIELD MARSHAL examines what has caused the growing issue.

Taylor Adams wraps up Essendon captain Dyson Heppell on Anzac Day. Picture: Michael Dodge/Getty Images.

“Play on, he tried”.

How many times do you hear that a game? This year, we’re hearing it as often as we ever have. Points for effort, it seems.

In a game full of grey, holding the ball remains the rule mired in mud and the decision — or lack thereof — most likely to send fans rabid.

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What is prior opportunity? It depends if you’re asking Umpire A, B or C.

Consider these numbers. So far this year there have been 8777 tackles in 72 matches across eight rounds.

Of those 8777 tackles, only 610 have been deemed worthy of catching an opposition holding the ball. That’s 6.9 per cent of all tackles.

Really?

Has there really been 8,167 times where the player being tackled has disposed of the ball correctly or not had any prior opportunity?

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For all the theories tossed around about low-scoring and congestion, surely the fact the tackler isn’t rewarded often enough should be one of them.

How do you fix a problem like holding the ball? As former umpires boss Wayne Campbell said in 2014: “Holding the ball has been an issue for 50 years. I don’t think anyone has the absolute answer.”

Hawthorn’s Tom Scully wraps up St Kilda forward Matt Parker. Picture: Michael Klein.

Adam Saad puts the clamps on Collingwood forward Josh Thomas on Anzac Day. Picture: Michael Dodge/Getty Images.

Everyone from the AFL chief executive to the club bootstudder has thrown in their two cents down the years, but have we got a better handle on it?

Nick Dal Santo, a 322-game player for St Kilda and North Melbourne, said: “It’s causing frustration, more than anything.

“I sometimes feel sorry for the umpires because the game is hard enough to adjudicate as it is with the speed now and I feel like us, as viewers, don’t really understand the rule.

“You go back to Anzac Day and now we’ve got players stopping because they think they know the rule, but the AFL say ‘No, no, the decisions were correct’.”

Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley has long argued that prior opportunity should be scrapped completely, therefore encouraging the ball carrier to kick more.

Buckley is supported by Carlton coach Brendan Bolton, who last year said he was “really open-minded” to scrapping prior opportunity.

Jack Steele attempts to break free from a Jack Redden tackle earlier this season. Picture: Darrian Traynor/AFL Photos/Getty Images.

AFL boss Gillon McLachlan has supported a “weakening” of prior opportunity since he took the top job in 2014, while Gerard Healy has fiercely lobbied for it to be retained so that the act of winning the ball isn’t undermined.

Geelong coach Chris Scott has said eliminating prior opportunity would worsen congestion.

"There would be 500 free kicks a game,” Scott said.

"The notion that you can just sweat on a player and as soon as he takes possession you can knock the ball out with a tackle and get a free kick is counter to everything we teach young players."

Dal Santo said there needed to be a balance.

“When a player wins the ball in a contested situation he at least needs the opportunity to distribute it rather than, ‘You picked it up and now you’re gone’,” he said.

Hawthorn tactician Alastair Clarkson put holding the ball on the agenda after the Hawks were beaten in a 2016 semi-final in which they were awarded three holding the ball frees from 104 tackles.

But he has been vocal before and since that night, recently describing Aussie rules footy as “the most complex game in the world”.

And that, we can all agree on.