Vote for Richo's diving mark on the Herald-Sun site:
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/poll/0,,5015731-5034565,00.html-------------------------
Richardson grab forgotten amid aerial spectacles
Jon Ralph | June 19, 2008
DO THE AFL's Mark of the Year judges spend too much time fawning over players getting high?
Their apparent case of altitude sickness is the only excuse for yet another crazy judgment this week from a panel too often seduced by the comical and ridiculous.
The high mark is what distinguishes our game above all else, but it is far from the only feature.
Essendon's Matthew Lloyd and Melbourne's Aaron Davey took superb speccies at the weekend and were duly rewarded with two of the three Mark of the Round nominations.
Lloyd's mark had everything, while Davey belied his height to climb over Richmond's Matthew Richardson.
But then, somehow, the judging panel overlooked a Richo mark of such skill and courage Melbourne coach Dean Bailey recalled it unprompted as he tipped Richardson for the Brownlow Medal.
Richardson charged from half-back late in the third term, flung himself headlong into the path of oncoming traffic at top speed and hauled in a full-stretch mark.
For good measure, he then kicked his fifth goal from 50m to put Richmond 19 points up.
It had drama, heroism and technical skill.
Instead, it was overlooked for a junk-time mark by Sydney's Darren Jolly over St Kilda's Nick Dal Santo of the type manufactured in schoolyards Australia-wide.
Put simply, the panel was conned by Goliath conquering David.
As a sitting duck, Dal Santo pushed back with the flight in the goalsquare and Jolly took the high mark, as any ruckman should.
But a Mark of the Year contender? From a panel made up of members of the AFL football operations department?
Last year, Lloyd's tricky back-heel was nominated by the panel, then, somehow, awarded the Goal of the Year in a public vote.
That process is another story in itself, but if we can't expect the panel to get its nominations right, how can we criticise the public for not effectively judging skill, flair and context?
Without context, Leo Barry's Grand Final-saving mark was just a strong pack mark.
Rightly, it should be judged as the Mark of the Century.
Granted, we are talking Mark of the Year, not world peace, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't get it right.
Back in 2004, when Nick Riewoldt's incredible mark running back with the flight against Sydney was ignored for Ashley Sampi's MCG "hanger", the reaction was incredulous.
Fitzroy champion Bernie Quinlan was outraged.
"Whoever the bloody judges were, they have got no idea," he said.
"(Sampi's) was nothing exceptional, he just got the ride."
"I would have thought the people judging it would have had the right credentials to vote on something like that."
Four years on, it seems nothing has changed.
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sport/afl/story/0,26576,23887447-19742,00.html
