Conman or conned man? Jack Ginnivan’s high tackle drama laid bare with stats, opinions

Jack Ginnivan is once again at the centre of a high tackle debate. MARK ROBINSON and SAM LANDSBERGER debate if he deserves more love as the free kick count stats are laid bare.

Play on: Jack Ginnivan of the Hawks gets taken high by Max Holmes but no free kick was given during the third quarter. Picture: Michael Klein

Jack Ginnivan’s problem is he’s half a conman and half a victim.

And in the moment the field umpire has to determine which one he is, the conman often wins out.

It’s mainly his fault, despite the AFL conceding on Tuesday the umpires had ‘’missed a couple’’.

Ginnivan is smart. Early in 2022, he ducked and weaved and raised an arm to help slide up the tackle, which allowed him to draw head high free kicks.

To provide clarity amid outcry from both sides of Ginnivan argument, the AFL reaffirmed that ‘’if the ball carrier is responsible for the high contact via a shrug, drop or arm lift,’’ play on should be called.

And if there was prior opportunity, holding the ball would be called.

Play on: Jack Ginnivan of the Hawks gets taken high by Max Holmes but no free kick was given during the third quarter. Picture: Michael Klein

There was the Ginnvian crackdown. Duck and you will be denied. Lift and you will be ignored, or even penalised.

Ginnivan is not so smart now. What was an exploitive move has been cancelled.

He has to learn to curb the instinctive arm lift because when the umpire sees it, and no matter if the tackle is legitimately high, it’s an automatic red flag that Ginnivan has contributed to it.

If he didn’t arm lift on Sunday, at least two tackles for head high would’ve been awarded to him.

He missed another head high when an arm was around his neck when on the lead, but there were a hundred missed tackles for head high contact in the conditions, not least the one to Mitch Duncan in a marking contest minutes earlier.

The fact is Ginnivan has to stop playing for free kicks so he can receive the free kicks he deserves.

It’s not the umpires’ fault. Could you imagine how difficult it would be for them to decipher the difference between being a conman and being a victim amid a flurry of arms?

Especially when the main man has cried wolf so many times.

GINNIVAN IS BEING CONNED, MAN

— Sam Landsberger

Jack Ginnivan is not a conman. He is being conned, man.

The AFL admitted that on Tuesday when football boss Laura Kane conceded the livewire was dudded twice on free kicks.

Umpires are obligated to umpire what is in front of them. No personal bias should come into their decision making.

They are not robots and it is human nature that they are looking at Ginnivan differently.

But it is unfair. How can Ginnivan receive 21 high contact free kicks in 2022 – the most in the AFL – and only five since?

Whatever you think of Jack, the drop from winning the most high contact free kicks in 2022 to the 135th most in 2023 doesn’t pass the pub test.

Joel Selwood was generously paid free kicks for high contact until the day he retired.

Joel Selwood was given free kicks for high tackles throughout his entire career, writes Sam Landsberger, despite being crucified by fans for it. Picture: Colleen Petch.

In 2022, the Geelong champion’s final season, Selwood received the second-most high contact free kicks behind Ginnivan.

Seconds after Ginnivan was denied a shot on goal on Easter Monday his teammate Dylan Moore was paid one for a similar motion.

Then again, maybe Ginnivan isn’t the only pesky small forward umpired differently.

Sydney dynamo Tom Papley gave away a high contact free kick in the dying stages of Sunday’s loss against Richmond.

The Swans had players out goal-side as they threatened to strike level with the Tigers.

But Papley was pinged and Nick Vlastuin calmly took a free kick as Richmond clung on.

If that was not Papley, would play-on have been waved?

Let’s be clear. Ginnivan is not a ducker. Instead he picks up ground balls low and stays low, which his former coach Nathan Buckley described as a skill.

Ginnivan’s dad once told this masthead it was time to talk about the players applying illegal tackles instead.

“The reason they don’t go around the hips these days is because all coaches want them to pin the arms so they don’t get the ball out,” Craig Ginnivan said.

“They want a stoppage and they want to set up again.

“That’s creating more danger because they’re going high in the tackle and then putting them to the ground with their arms pinned.”

Ginnivan has also privately been told he needs to add more strings to his bow. He can’t rely on free kicks as his primary scoring source.

But football greats including David King and Tony Shaw have put umpires on notice.

His next match – against his old Collingwood teammates in Adelaide on Sunday – is now must-watch for the umpiring itself.

Will they blow their whistles?

Or stubbornly deny this clever if not polarising goalkicker the free kicks the AFL has already admitted he deserves?

STATS OF GINNIVAN’S FREE KICK SAGA LAID BARE

Jack Ginnivan and Nick Watson ahead of the Hawks’ Easter Monday clash at the MCG. Picture: Dylan Burns/AFL Photos via Getty Images.

Jack Ginnivan had tumbled from the top of the high free kick charts to near rock bottom in two years as the AFL admitted the Hawk should have been paid two extra frees on Easter Monday.

On three occasions Ginnivan was denied high contact free kicks at ground level that would have gifted shots on goal – but umpires failed to blow their whistles.

AFL footy boss Laura Kane conceded to the Hawks on Tuesday that Ginnivan had been dudded.

Ginnivan did not receive a single free kick against Geelong and has won just one free kick for high contact in three games this season.

This masthead can reveal that Ginnivan has essentially been blanked by umpires in the past 18 months.

In 2022 he led the AFL for high free kicks. He received 21 that season, but was paid just four last season, which ranked 135th in the league.

This year his one free kick is dwarfed by Jack Viney (seven), Sam Durham (five) and eight players who have each received four.

The former Magpie’s tumble down the free kick charts aligns with an AFL rule clarification sent out to clubs in July, 2022.

In that message to clubs, the league said umpires would deem it ‘play on’ if a player chose to drop their head from a higher position to draw contact, used an arm to push a tackler higher or dropped at the knees in a bid to create a high tackle.

Ginnivan’s dubious treatment has not only centred on his contentious raising the arm while lowering his shoulder motion in tackles.

An attempted spoil from Sam De Koning clearly caught the former Collingwood goalsneak over the shoulder, but in that incident umpires again waved play-on.

Hawks coach Sam Mitchell said after the Geelong loss the Hawks would review the tape and speak to the AFL about his treatment if it was deemed necessary.

The AFL has repeatedly said that no player is given special treatment by umpires.

Hawthorn teammate Dylan Moore drew 17 high free kicks in 2023 and received one just seconds after Ginnivan was denied a call in the second quarter on Monday.

Mitchell has spoken to some of his players about the stigma around drawing free kicks and how it can result in the umpires judging players more harshly.

Jack Ginnivan has been at the centre of debate – again – about high free kicks. Picture: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images.

Ginnivan burst onto the scene in 2022 and kicked 40 goals in 23 games, many of them drawn from frees.

He has since bagged 15 goals in 17 matches.

But Sicily said Ginnivan was playing in the right way.

“I think it’s him as a person,” Sicily said.

“He is playing the ball and he is smart enough to do whatever he wants and he is going to make sure the tackler is pretty honest with how they tackle. Most of the calls are borderline and sometimes we will get the rub of the green and sometimes we won’t.

“In terms of me trying to stamp that out of his game, I would never do that to a player. That is not my job.

“We want people to believe in themselves and play the way they want to play and we just support. I don’t think anything he is doing is out of line, he is just playing the ball.”

Sicily, who has drawn high free kicks in the past, said the Hawks “would like to be getting a few more” free kicks from those plays.

“He is going for the ball, he has got the ball in his hands, the umpires have a job to do and however they see it is however they see it,” he said.

“We would like to be getting a few more no doubt but we will just see what the wash up of it all is.

“If he gets free kicks, it is shots on goal which is good for me as a backman. He is going for the ball and has the ball in his hands so it is not like he is not trying.”

The Ginnivan no-calls split the football media, with St Kilda great Leigh Montagna and Hawthorn legend Jason Dunstall both saying Ginnivan’s habit of raising his arm when he felt high contact was a pointer for umpires to not blow the whistle.

Dunstall said the small forward “did create that rod for his own back” by ducking into tackles in his earlier days at Collingwood, when he drew a bevy of free kicks that turned into goals.

“Now it’s gone to the other end of the spectrum, so they (the umpires) need to find that happy medium,” Dunstall told Fox Footy.

Three-time Hawthorn premiership captain Luke Hodge called for umpires to review the tape of Monday’s game after Ginnivan was not given a favourable whistle.

Originally published as Conman or conned man? Jack Ginnivan’s high tackle drama laid bare with stats, opinions