New push rules will decide matches
13 February 2007
Herald-Sun
Michael Stevens
IN ROUND 9 last year, Magpie Anthony Rocca flung Robert Murphy to the ground, ending the young Dog's season with a knee injury. There was no free kick and no report.
Under new rule interpretations this year, however, Rocca would most likely be fronting the tribunal.
And Nathan Buckley's spectacular match-saving mark against Port Adelaide in Round 20 last year would also have been outlawed under this season's changes.
Both incidents would have come under much closer scrutiny under several new rule interpretations this season, in the AFL's attempt to have more contested football, continuous play and more high marking.
Buckley would have been penalised for putting his hands on the back of opponent Troy Chaplin to propel himself into the air and mark.
Umpires chief Jeff Gieschen said yesterday that the Rocca sling, which saw Murphy need a knee reconstruction, "would have been looked at" by the match review panel.
While the stricter policing of hands in the back in marking contests has drawn the most flak, the only new rule brought in this season was to protect players from being bumped forcibly from front-on when their head was over the ball.
Gieschen said this was introduced after concern by the AFL Medical Officers' Association that any hits to the top of the head were conducive to spinal injury.
The other stricter interpretations relate to rules already in place.
They include:
TACKLING after the ball has spilled free.
COMING off the centre square to take out an opponent.
HANDS in the back.
Gieschen said the essence of the new interpretations were to protect the players and provide a safer work environment.
When a player had his head over the ball it was up to the tackling player to have a duty of care to effect a legal tackle or bump from the side.
"We don't want to stop players from being bumped, that's part of the game, but what we do want to stop is players with their head over the ball being bumped from the front," Gieschen said.
Driving a player into the ground shoulder or head-first after the ball has spilled free will be heavily scrutinised.
Whereas umpires in the past would have merely paid a free kick downfield, now they will be instructed to report players, and heavy tribunal penalties will apply.
"It's a tough game as it is . . . the speed of the game and the amount of physical contact these days is unbelievable . . . but to be injuring players and putting players out for a few weeks with a broken collarbone outside the spirit of the game, is just not on," Gieschen said.
Collingwood's Brodie Holland copped a six-match suspension in last year's elimination final for coming off the centre square to bump Brent Montgomery.
Similar incidents will not be tolerated this year.
"If at the first bounce of a Grand Final someone comes off the line and takes out Chris Judd or Ben Cousins or Brett Kirk or Jude Bolton, and he's off for the rest of the game, and all he was doing was watching where the ball was going to land . . . I'm not sure whether our game needs that," Gieschen said.
"The AFL is very strong on that. Players can come off the line and they can come in and meet players and they can come in and go for the ball as hard as they like.
"But where you're coming in to clean up an unsuspecting player . . ."
On the issue of hands in the back, Gieschen said this year's stricter interpretation of an existing rule would mean zero tolerance in marking contests.
"What you can do is use your forearm, your shoulder or your chest to hold an opponent out," he said.
Gieschen said he initially felt the hands in the back interpretation should have been trialled in the NAB Cup pre-season competition.
But after having briefed the clubs, he now felt the interpretation would be embraced because it would stop inconsistent umpiring decisions.
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