When the coach doesn’t know the rules, what hope for players?Patrick Smith
The Australian
29 May 2017When a senior coach doesn’t know the rules, what hope is there for his players to be across them?
That’s the wash-up from Saturday night’s decision to award Essendon an easy goal for a deliberate rushed behind by Tigers player Jayden Short just before halftime at the MCG in Richmond’s 15-point win.
After the Tigers ended a four-game losing streak to remain inside the top eight, coach Damien Hardwick said he believed field umpire Curtis Deboy made an error in presenting Essendon’s Josh Green with a goal.
“I think they made a mistake, end of story,” he said. “That’s it for mine.”
The AFL has stood by the decision under the new interpretations of the rule. Under law 15.8.1, the umpires will work to one or more of four criteria when awarding a free kick.
1. A player cannot rush a behind if he is outside the top of the kick off line (9m) and its extension to the behind posts;
2. A player who has time and space in which to dispose of the ball cannot rush a behind;
3. A player who is not considered under immediate physical pressure cannot rush a behind (work on fact, not perceived);
4. From a ruck contest, if an opposition ruck hits the ball on the full through for a point, then this will be adjudicated as a deliberate rushed behind.
Saturday night’s free kick was paid against Short after he sprinted back towards goal from about 50m to a stationary ball that sat just short of the goal line.
Green was also in pursuit but was several metres behind Short when the Richmond player approached the ball and after giving up the chase, was not putting any physical pressure on the Tigers player.
Short slid in and appeared to knock the ball over the line without assessing his options to clear it.
The resultant goal gave the Bombers the lead at halftime in what was a tight contest right up to the final few minutes despite Richmond’s dominant second half and their 10 more scoring shots.
Hardwick should have known better than to call the decision wrong. As explained by the AFL to The Australian, the decision on whether the player is not considered under immediate physical pressure, is determined only by the umpire.
Hardwick was asked how the decision compared with a similar ruling in round two when Swans defender Callum Mills was penalised against the Western Bulldogs when he tapped the ball through the goals from the goal square without being under physical pressure.
“I am probably not there to judge, I’ll let them clarify that. As long as they have got a fair understanding of what the rule is there, that will be fine,” was his puzzling reply.
Essendon coach John Worsfold got it right when he said the decision was consistent with the direction the AFL had given before the season. “The rule was if you rush it from outside the goal square, it’s a free kick, if you rush it from inside the goal square you have to be under physical pressure, which means a hand on you, I’d assume, not perceived pressure,” Worsfold said.
The harsh penalty is another story. That argument of whether the penalty is too severe was put to the clubs in the pre-season and their reaction was not enough to lessen the result to a ball-up instead of a free kick. In February, the AFL said: “A player will still be allowed to prevent a goal from being scored when the ball is close to the line and no other alternatives are available.”
During the opening two rounds of the JLT series, the league trialled a more lenient penalty for any deliberate rushed behind, whereby a point would be awarded and the ball would be thrown up five metres in front of the goal square.
The AFL football department then canvassed clubs, but their response was not considered strong enough to revert to the more lenient of the two penalties.
“There are no plans to implement this amendment for the 2017 season, unless it was deemed a success and there was very strong support from clubs to do so,” it said.
“The free kick will be taken on the scoring line where the ball was rushed through as it was for 2016.”
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