AFL 2024: Carlton defeats Port Adelaide 107-71 in start of new holding-the-ball rulings
The AFL’s holding the ball changes have won a powerful ally who hailed its impact on Thursday night — but not everyone is convinced, with one Blues player conceding he was “confused”.
Carlton defender Mitch McGovern says he is still confused by the holding the ball interpretation after the first game of the AFL’s new directive to umpires.
Port Adelaide and Carlton faced off in a Thursday night blockbuster as the guinea pigs of the AFL instructing umpires to reduce the amount of “reasonable time” players have to dispose of the ball when tackled.
The change, one of the big rule swings to be enacted mid-season, came after frustration and confusion reigned among players, coaches and fans over what exactly would be classed as holding the ball.
But while players were expecting an onslaught of holding the ball calls with the new interpretation, it did not eventuate.
There were eight free kicks called for holding the ball at Adelaide Oval on Thursday night — before the game the season average was 8.2.
Carlton’s 75 tackles were significantly up on the Blues’ season average of 64.4 prior to the clash, but the Power’s total of 60 was down from its season average of 65.6.
While there were instances of the AFL’s new interpretation playing out, with players penalised if they had an arm free or tried to take on the tackle, there were still some instances of this not being adjudicated on Thursday night.
McGovern told this masthead that he was still confused.
“I’m a bit confused to be honest, it was a weird one,” he said.
“It is always going to be hard for the umpires but I think they did a good job.
“Oh yeah absolutely (he was still confused about the interpretation), now we just put our hands up as a defender and ask “is this holding the ball?” It’s a hard one to adjudicate.”
Teammate Sam Walsh said on Fox Footy he understood why he was called holding the ball.
I had to bite my tongue on one or two of them that I got pinged for,” Walsh said.
“No, it was pretty good; I feel like they were probably a bit quicker with the whistle tonight.
“If you drive well (through the tackle) and give that first option, it’s still well adjudicated.”
Who would have thought that forcing the ball carrier to make quicker decisions would result in a more up tempo, open game of footy? 🤷â€â™‚ï¸
— Nathan Buckley (@ncb_cfc) May 30, 2024
Great adjustment ðŸ‘ðŸ‘ðŸ‘
Former Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley posted on X that he thought the change had opened up the game.
“Who would have thought that forcing the ball carrier to make quicker decisions would result in a more up tempo, open game of footy?” he wrote.️
“Great adjustment.”
BLUES’ EMPHATIC STATEMENT AS AFL’S NEW RULE TAKES HOLD
A final-term flurry inspired by Carlton dynamic duo Sam Walsh and Patrick Cripps propelled the surging Blues to a commanding win over Port Adelaide on Thursday night.
Michael Voss’ men led by seven points at three-quarter time and accelerated away with a stunning eight-goal blitz to improve to an 8-4 record.
Those predicting the new holding the ball interpretation was going to result in a glut of free kicks being called would have been left disappointed early on at Adelaide Oval.
And while the footy world did see what the AFL was trying to do with its massive mid-season change, there were still too many moments that still had heads being scratched.
Port Adelaide and Carlton faced off in a Thursday night blockbuster as the guinea pigs of the AFL instructing umpires to reduce the amount of “reasonable time” players have to dispose of the ball when tackled.
The change, one of the big rule swings mid-season, came after frustration and confusion reigned amongst players, coaches and fans over what exactly would be pinged as holding the ball.
Was this going to result in whistles running red-hot? Holding the ball free kicks in record numbers?
We had our first test 20 seconds in when Power forward Todd Marshall was spun and got rid of the ball almost immediately rather than take the tackle on.
The result, no free kick from the umpire.
But it did set the scene with players looking to be quickly getting rid of the ball when they were tackled.
“We saw Marshall get rid of it really quickly there so that might be a good sign,” Geelong legend Joel Selwood said on Channel 7.
The first call from the vocal home crowd for a Blues player to be pinged was half-hearted, maybe they thought by just appealing they could get a sneaky one?
For the first seven minutes of the match there was no real flashpoint that demonstrated what the AFL’s intentions were.
And then there was a moment that AFL umpires boss Stephen McBurney might have a nightmare about on Thursday night.
Carlton star Charlie Curnow was swung around by Alir Aliir but was not pinged.
Former Blues and Collingwood star Dale Thomas said it was an opportunity missed.
“We talked about it a lot pre-game if that was going to be called holding the ball, the whistle was slow I thought there was an opportunity to provide some more clarity as to what the rule would look like there,” he said.
Five minutes later we did get clarity on what the AFL was looking to do.
Again it was an Aliir tackle on Curnow, the Blues star’s arm was held and the Power defender awarded a free-kick.
The previous week Curnow got away with a similar incident while being tackled by Gold Coast’s Mac Andrew.
On Thursday night he wasn’t getting away with it.
And it looked like because of this players were getting rid of the ball a lot more quickly than usual.
It could have just been the two sides, with both putting on high quality performances with their quick ball movement.
Former Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley was a fan calling it a “great adjustment”.
“Who would have thought that forcing the ball carrier to make quicker decisions would result in a more up tempo, open game of footy?” he posted on X.
But quickly confusion reared its head.
Just seconds into the second quarter, Power star Jason Horne-Francis was tackled by Carlton’s Adam Saad and while it seemed certain under the new interpretation that the Blues would get a free, the umpire said the ball was “pinned”.
“My understanding was as soon as that arm was free and it looked like there was going to be a sling then there was going to be a whistle blown for holding the ball,” Thomas said.
But the crackdown was quickly back on.
Kane Farrell was tackled and swung by Matthew Owies and took too long to get rid of the ball.
He was caught holding the ball and for his frustrations was hit with a 50m penalty for dissent.
Nic Newman had an arm free when tackled by Jackson Mead 11 minutes into the third quarter and was duly pinged.
Thomas said that was the new interpretation in action.
“If the arm is free and you have a chance to get rid of it it will be a free and that was how it was adjudicated,” he said.
But just when it looked like we had a clear idea of what was going to get adjudicated as a free-kick, confusion reared its head.
Midway through the third Marshall was swung in the tackle and disposed of the ball.
The whistle was not blown despite it being exactly what the AFL said would be tightened up.
You would have thought umpires would have overcorrected the ruling, not undercorrected.
Sam Walsh was correctly pinged in the fourth when he was tackled by Ivan Soldo and Willem Drew at a stoppage and still had an arm free, while the Power were convinced Curnow should have penalised when he was swung and didn’t get rid of the ball immediately.
If Thursday night was anything to go by, there’s still going to be plenty of frustration and debate on what will and should be penalised for holding the ball.
Post-game, Michael Voss mad ehis feelings known after his strong comments last week.
“There were a couple that I thought that were for the better. There was one against Charlie (Curnow) and I just thought that was safer for the player and there was one against Matty Owies that I thought that was how it should be adjudicated,” he said,
“In the current landscape of football, with all the current things that are really important and what we say are important to us I thought they were both correct.
“In terms of the prior opportunity I thought it was closer to what it should be.”
Power coach Ken Hinkley had less to say on the matter.
“I didn’t really notice it to be honest. I was anticipating that there would be a bit of it.
“But I didn’t notice too much.”
SCOREBOARD
POWER 3.2 4.8 7.9 10.11 (71)
BLUES 3.2 5.5 8.10 16.11 (107)
PHELAN’S BEST POWER: Horne-Francis, Wines, Georgiades, Soldo, Houston, Butters, Aliir. BLUES: Walsh, Cripps, Newman, Cincotta, De Koning, Curnow, Weitering.
GOALS POWER: Georgiades 4, Soldo, McEntee, Marshall, Burgoyne, Finlayson, Horne-Francis. BLUES: Curnow 3, Williams 3, McKay 3, Cripps 2, McGovern, Kemp, De Koning, Cincotta, Acres.
INJURIES POWER: Nil. BLUES: Nil.
UMPIRES: Foot, Stevic, Broadbent, Fleer
40,532 at ADELAIDE OVAL
PLAYER OF THE YEAR
JASON PHELAN’S VOTES
3 Walsh (Car)
2 Horne-Francis (Port)
1 Cripps (Car)
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