The show didn't mention this but just as an aside re-looking at the vision, Nahas was in that space initially on his own in front of the ruck contest (everyone else was manned up expect for Hannath who was 2m behind Maric and Griffin). Nahas then runs past the ruck contest to outside the pack (as Hannath runs in to double team Maric) leaving the space open for Ballantyne to run into and kick the winning goal.
Just on this point about Hannath and Griffin double-teaming Maric, One-Eyed: There was some speculation on another forum that they were doing this for much of the game, with Hannath basically blocking Maric's run at the ball, which is apparently illegal, but the umpire's ignored it. I must admit, I can't put myself through the agony of watching the game again to verify these claims. I just wonder what your thoughts are: Do you recall any incidents of this happening? And can you clarify what the actual rule is regarding what ruckmen can do to negate each other at centre bounces/stoppages??
They were doing it all night, and even shepherding our forwards out of marking contests for the third man to intercept mark uncontested. .
The ruck rule is so cloudy. The third man up is allowed to be blocked but cannot block himself. So they would nominate the ruckman, in this case Hannath, who is allowed to lock in with Maric to 'contest' once the ball is thrown and allowing a third man to go up. We could have used somebody to block the third man but unless a ruck was nominated that third man could claim he was the designated ruck and blocked or illegally contacted. Teams like Sydney are using both Mumford and Pyke around the ground and not nominating who the ruckman is and milking blocking and illegal ruck contact frees, abusing the new rule. That's why this new rule is so crap. You have a bunch of blokes standing around a stoppage and unless the umpire asks or nominates rucks like in Auskick then it's going to keep getting abused.
That pretty much sums up my thoughts dwaino.
The abuse of the third man up rule is what happened on Friday night. Even if you just look at just the stoppages after Whitey's goal up until Ballantyne goal, there were two-to-three instances of Maric being deliberately blocked/shepherded from going for the ball in the ruck contest which is illegal but the umps just let them all go
. After the centre bounce after Whitey's goal, Cotch dives in and locks it up. At this subsequent ball-up, Hannath just locks into Maric while having his back to the ball-up and while also making no attempt to go for the ball, allowing his teammate Griffin to jump up on his own and tap it 20m forward for Fyfe to run on and kick it long into Freo's forward 50 where Rance does well to spoil to force a throw-in. At this throw-in, Maric is once again blocked from going for the ball by one Freo ruckman as the other gets a freebie hitout (you can see in the footage Ivan is demonstrating with the his arms out trying to attract the umpires' attention that he is being illegally shepherded). In the last throw-in after the ball hits the post, Griffin is level with Maric as the ball in thrown back in and Hannath comes from 2m behind to force a two-on-one ruck contest which sends the ball into the open space we stupidly left open for Ballatyne to run onto and goal.
Out of all those stoppages, only the last one was legal. The others are illegal blocking and Maric should have been paid a free kick each time for shepherding in the ruck. What Freo is doing with their two ruckmen is blatant cheating. The umps had and have the power to stop it in an instant but they did nothing about it on the night
. In the old days, a coach or captain could go up to the umps at the breaks to question decisions/non-decisions but that's forbidden now as well
. As for going through the "proper channels" after the game - what's the point when you've got a total moron in Gieschen with his head in the sand denying anything is wrong
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