AFL players put on notice over how holding-the-ball will be paid in the future
AFL clubs, players and umpires have been shown a series of clips highlighting that they will be penalised for holding-the-ball if they continue deliberately absorbing tackles. Will this fix congestion?
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AFL players have been put on notice that they will be penalised for holding-the-ball if they continue deliberately absorbing tackles without trying to dispose of the ball as part of the umpiring department’s monthly review.
Umpires were on Wednesday night shown a series of clips highlighting the trend of players not attempting to dispose of the ball after being tackled without a prior opportunity. Those clips were then forwarded to the clubs.
The note to clubs enforced that: Where a player is in possession of the football & has not had prior opportunity, a field umpire shall award a free kick if the player is able to, but does not make a genuine attempt to correctly dispose of the football when legally tackled.
AFL umpires coach Hayden Kennedy said the trend has risen since games restarted and stood out last weekend.
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“I knew we were calling for a ball-up…on a few occasions in rounds two and three,” Kennedy told thewest.com.au
“Then in the early rounds last week, it was at the stage where we decided it needed to be a chatting point for the whole group.
“Players must show a genuine attempt to dispose of the ball. In recent weeks, they’ve had the tackle, the tackle took them to ground and then we’re quick to ball them up. We need to hold off and see what happens, especially in a one-on-one.”
Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson bemoaned the lack of holding-the-ball free kicks from his team’s clash against North Melbourne on Sunday and has been an outspoken critic of holding-the-ball rules but none of the examples sent to clubs came from that match.
Kennedy refused to answer questions about Clarkson’s comments or calls for changes to the prior opportunity rules.
“We just umpire holding the ball according to the rules,” he said.
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“That’s what we do. I think we’re going pretty well with prior opportunity. It’s being umpired well according to the rules of the game.”
The issue of absorbing tackles was inadvertently highlighted when Greater Western Sydney veteran Heath Shaw wore a microphone against Collingwood on Friday night. Audio was broadcast of him instructing midfielder Callan Ward not to dispose of the ball when the Giants were outnumbered.
Ward was tackled by two Collingwood players, followed Shaw’s advice to retain possession and the umpire called for a ball-up.
“Hold it Wardy,” Shaw yelled.
“Well done. Good stuff. Real good. That’s a win.”
AFL SOFT CAP SLASHED TO $6.2 MILLION
- Glenn McFarlane
The AFL has told clubs it has set the 2021 soft cap at $6.2 million per club - a reduction of $3.5 million from what it was at the start of this year.
The news is a further blow for the assistant coaches and football department staff who have already stood down for the remainder of the 2020 season, many of whom had been hoping to return to the AFL system next season.
The league outlined their cutbacks on football department spending for next season in a phone hookup with AFL presidents and chief executives on Thursday morning.
The cut is around $500,000 deeper than the mooted figure of $6.7 million, which had formed part of the discussions in recent months.
The 2020 soft cap - which incorporates spending in club football departments - had originally been set at $9.7 million per club leading into this season.
But the coronavirus pandemic changed everything, with the competition shutting down from late March to June 11, amid the biggest financial crisis to hit the game.
Clubs had been pushing for greater clarity about their 2021 footy spend, in order to help with their planning and to provide more information to those football department staff who have been stood down.
Some of those stood down football department staff now fear their chances of returning next year has diminished significantly.
It is understood one provision of the 2021 soft cap would see a portion of the wages of female and Indigenous staff members to sit outside the soft cap to encourage clubs to maintain diversity in their football departments.
Clubs were also told the AFL had been working on fixturing for the next five rounds - with all Victorian teams on the road - but it is understood they may only publicly release two rounds.
DOGS GREAT BELIEVES DRASTIC MEASURE COULD SAVE GAME
- Chris Cavanagh
Western Bulldogs legend Brad Johnson says the drastic measure of implementing zones may have to be considered by the AFL as the game continues to morph into a product that looks nothing like it once did.
Johnson, who is a member of the Australian Football Hall of Fame, said it was quickly becoming clear that modern day football “ain’t that good”, with players no longer playing on instinct but instead adhering only to “controlled and slow” game plans implemented by defensive-minded coaches.
“I think Gerard Healy is the only one who has said the whole time that zone’s need to come in and maybe he’s onto something,” Johnson said.
“Because ultimately that’s the one thing you can do. You can’t otherwise change what the players can do within the realms of the field, except now after goal has been scored. You’d hope it would never get to that point, but it’s just the way the game is at the moment.”
Johnson said zoning and forward presses had evolved to a point where players no longer had the freedom they once did and the game was suffering as a result.
While stressing that coaches had not done anything outside of the rules, the six-time All-Australian and Fox Footy commentator said the game no longer looked anything like it did when he started playing for Footscray in 1994.
“If you look at all the other major sports around the world that have evolved and moved with the times, they still look like the game they were 50 to 100 years ago,” Johnson said.
“Ours does not look like that at all. It’s evolved with the times but it’s mashed into a sport that looks like about five sports brought into one with rotations and zones and all these things. I think now we’re working out it ain’t that good from a visual point of view.
“It’s quite funny that we celebrate fast play these days, rather than it just being a natural part of the game that’s expected. Because most games are so controlled and slow. That’s why everyone’s loving the last five minutes of games, because it’s fast because at that point the team behind wants to win. Well, come out in the first five minutes and do that.”
The average winning score in Round 4 was 69 points, with Geelong beating Melbourne despite scoring only 47 points on Sunday.
“You feel for the young players entering the game because they don’t play this way through the junior levels when they’re coming through and all of a sudden they have to be moulded into a type of player who has to fill a role or a position and the instincts are taken away,” Johnson said.
GIL CALLS BALL ON STATE OF GAME CLAIMS
- Gilbert Gardiner
League supremo Gillon McLachlan has backed calls for tighter interpretation of prior opportunity and holding the ball.
While McLachlan said he did not agree with Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson’s brutal assessment of the state of the game, he could see merit in penalising the ball carrier more often, and said he intended to speak with football operations counterpart Steve Hocking.
“I haven’t spoken to Clarko. I don’t agree with Clarko on the state of the game. There was some cracking games on the weekend and there was some average games. That’s football. That’s sport,” McLachlan said.
“I do agree with him to an extent on the holding the ball. I’m probably going to get myself in trouble here.
“You need prior opportunity. You can’t have guys taking the ball and not having prior opportunity.”
McLachlan said current players “are so skilled and so quick”, they were able to exploit the ability to take the tackle rather than be penalised.
“They can take the ball, assess the options so quickly, and if they don’t like it, they’ll take the tackle. Well, they’ve had prior and they should be pinged. That’s my view,” he said.
“I think we need to be tougher on holding the ball. I think that prior opportunity needs to be tighter, because our players are so skilled and they’re assessing it and taking the tackle. But I’m just a voice. I’m one person out there — what would I know?
“I’m thinking about calling him later today. I’ll ring Steve. I don’t know. He’s the footy boss.”
Meanwhile, Clarkson holds grave fears for the state of the game with the mastermind coach declaring Hawthorn’s win over North Melbourne as a “terrible spectacle” putting the game in “a dreadful space”.
In an impassioned appeal, the Hawthorn coach desperately pleaded with league headquarters to open the game up by rewarding the tackler rather than the ball carrier.
As Geelong counterpart Chris Scott put forward a suggestion to reduce team sizes to 16 players to reduce congestion, Clarkson said the rules and their textbook adjudication had resulted in a game style that is difficult to watch.
“We had 69 tackles and I don’t think we had a free kick from a tackle. Sixty-nine tackles. And not one of them can be adjudicated holding the ball?,” Clarkson said.
“It’s just like, what’s happened to our game? You can’t have that many tackles and not one of them be incorrect disposal. And you wonder why the game is an arm-wrestle and that you can’t get any open footy.”
“Tonight’s game was just, god … if that’s the spectacle that we’re trying to search for in our game, then our game’s in a dreadful space. But we’re better than that and I think we can do a hell of a lot better by opening the game up a little bit and adjudicate some of those holding the balls, for both sides.
“Please umps, just pay ‘em. Open the game up.”
Clarkson said he would not contact the league to express his frustration, declaring it had been an issue he had raised for at least the last four years.
“No (I won’t call them). They’ll listen to this press conference no doubt and hopefully they hear it loud and clear,” he said.
“The game … the scores.
“The AFL can’t be happy with it that … Geelong and Melbourne, who I both rate as sides – both sides I think could play finals this year – and it’s two goals each at halftime? Fair dinkum.
“It’s great in a sense that no one knows who’s going to win, but in terms of the spectacle of the game, I’m concerned right now with where we’re going with it.”
Scott said reducing teams by two players would be a simple fix for the game’s congestion woes.
“If your issue is congestion, and you want the ball to flow better and make it harder to defend, reduce the numbers on the field,” Scott said.
“Increase the numbers of rotations and the ball will ping around it and will be so hard to coach and so hard to defend.
“I’m not advocating for it, I’m just saying based on what I’ve seen, if that is your issue, then that is your fix.”
But Scott said the AFL chiefs, including his brother Brad, who works at league headquarters on game trends and strategy, should have full control over the decision rather than worrying about input from coaches.
Clarkson said umpires had little option other than to protect the ball carrier, as per the league’s directive.
He maintained that the current style was not by coaching design and that he and other coaches desperately wanted to play more attacking football.
“It just mounts for a very, very frustrating game,” Clarkson said.
“Footy can’t be played in the manner that we liked, when it’s being adjudicated like it is at the present time.
“And it’s not the umps’ fault – the umps are just doing what they’re told to do. But I think our game across the board is not seeing any exciting brands of footy, passages of play, there’s hardly any goals score. Fans love goals, fans love high marks.
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“But we’re just not seeing anywhere near enough.
“What a shame we’re not encouraging our players to actually play the game properly. Terrible spectacle.
“I’m sorry for shitcanning our own brand, and our own club and our own team in this space. But I was so disappointed in the way we played and I was so disappointed with the way that the game is being played right at the present time.
“It’s frustrating, and it must be frustrating our fans.”