Jack Ginnivan holding the ball tackle leaves football world divided

One of the AFL’s most divisive star’s once again found himself at the centre of another controversial moment on Saturday afternoon.

Jack Ginnivan ducks into tackle

Jack Ginnivan quickly became arguably the most divisive player in the league this season with his ability to draw free kicks.

The Collingwood livewire forward drops low as opponents come close and more often than not ends up with an arm wrapped around his neck.

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His tactics have divided legends of the game and left fans up in arms.

On Saturday afternoon Ginnivan’s tactic was in the spotlight against North Melbourne when he attempted to lure a free kick against North’s Luke Davies-Uniacke.

After a ball up deep in Collingwood’s forward line, Ginnivan received the ball on the boundary line from Scott Pendlebury and attempted to dance around Davies-Uniacke’s tackle.

Ginnivan dropped low and Davies-Uniacke’s left arm ended up around the neck of the Pies forward, but the umpire said he had ducked and eventually blew the whistle – pinging Ginnivan for holding the ball.

Fox Footy’s David King weighed in on the divisive moment.

“That’s the one, you can hear the umpire explain it and say ‘no you ducked’ and that’s considered his prior opportunity and he’s gone,” King said.

“He challenges the umpire to make a call and he can’t then question the call. He gets as many as he gives so I think that’s great umpiring.

“If you look here, he draws the free kick by lowering his height now I think that’s a free kick personally, I think there’s some skill in that but I’m happy that umpire has seen that the other day.”

High or holding the ball?

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Former Hawthorn star Campbell Brown praised the umpiring as he called out players for ducking and milking free kicks.

“Outstanding umpiring. Players that deliberately duck into tackles don’t deserve to be rewarded with a free kick. Really well adjudicated,” Brown tweeted.

Brown wasn’t alone in heaping praise on the umpires decision, with SEN’s Nic Negrepontis also throwing his weight behind the call.

“Outstanding umpiring. Hope that ducking precedent holds,” he wrote.

Of course not everyone was in agreeance with fans also questioning why Ginnivan was being so harshly judged for doing what Geelong’s Joel Selwood has been doing since he entered the league.

Fox Footy’s Jonathan Brown said he didn’t want players to be “encouraged” to drop the knees in a tackle in a bid to win a free kick.

“It’s not so much not in the spirit of the game, I just don’t want players’ ducking their head,” he said.

“The umpires are coached and advised during the game – they do talk about things that are happening. They obviously would have been made aware of that at half time that Ginnivan’s done it a couple of times in the first half. Be conscious of it.”

The AFL does know a bloke has been doing that for 15 years and hasn’t been called differently? So why the different rule book for Ginnivan? #AFLNorthPies

— James Mottershead (@mottersjames) July 9, 2022

Ginnivan was on fire early for Collingwood, but it was North Melbourne who stole the limelight at the MCG.

Putting the Pies to the sword and looking like they were going to cause the boilover of the season through the opening three quarters.

A five-goal to none final term however saw the Pies run over the top of North and claim the 13.10 (88) to 12.9 (81) victory and move into fifth on the ladder.