A dissenting voice on 50-metre penalties
The AFL likes to use a sledgehammer to crack a nut to force behavioural changes in the game, and the ploy is often effective, even meritorious in many instances. But it has been thunderously wrong-headed in others.
Take half a step backwards on the mark after being told to stand? Fifty metre penalty.
Take a step sideways when the player with the ball is running diagonally past you? I hadn’t said you could move. Fifty!
Get a kick wrong booting it up the ground out of danger, and send it out of bounds? You didn’t try hard enough too keep it in. Free kick.
And then this one from Stephen Coniglio against Carlton on Saturday. Put your arms out and say “how was that not a free kick?” for a tackle that had everyone asking their TVs at home, “How was that not a free kick?” The result? A free kick against you for dissent. The free kick is taken at the top of the goal square (because Carlton had just kicked a point) and the Blues kick the goal and take the lead in the game.
Nut. Sledgehammer.
The changes are largely for the better. Allowing the player with the ball to play on and get the ball moving has been good for the game. Penalising the player on the mark for moving backwards, and so not advancing on the player with the ball, is unnecessary. Not penalising him would not unwind the improvement in the game.
Making the player try to keep the ball in play as much as he can? Good.
But clearing a ball from congestion is also a good thing for the game. A player with no alternative than to give the ball to the opposition should not be required to simply hand the ball to the opposition. Getting the ball 50 metres up the field is largely worthy.
Dissent or bewilderment? Stephen Coniglio conceded a controversial umpire dissent free kick on Saturday night.Credit:Getty Images
Stopping umpire abuse? Who’s going to argue with that? Of course it’s a good thing. Stopping dissent after decisions? Of course. But it’s not unreasonable to ask a question, without using offensive language, after a contentious decision. Coniglio was penalised for putting his arms out as he did so. That there were umpteen instances of that gesture not being penalised in other matches is to be applauded, and maybe this suggests the umpire just got it wrong in that instance.
The problem with all of these issues is that nuance is tough to umpire. So the AFL tries to remove discretion and make it easier to umpire. But I doubt it does.
Of course, penalties will change behaviour when the penalty so dramatically outweighs the offence.
The overriding concerns for improving the look of the game outweigh the sense of injustice at the punishment being out of kilter with the offence. The worry for the look of the game is that it’s affecting the feel of the game. The Coniglio free kick felt like salt on a wound.
Taylor Adams swan dives over the top of Daniel Rioli. Source: Channel 7Credit:Channel 7
The 50-metre penalties for standing the mark find no balance between crime and punishment. The rule’s effect on the game has been good, but the punishment is still too great. A lesser punishment would still be a sufficient disincentive for the player on the mark to move. At the very least, the league should consider a 25-metre penalty just for standing the mark violations.
It is not all wrong. On Friday night, Collingwood’s Taylor Adams performed a swan dive over a Richmond’s Daniel Rioli to avoid clattering through him when he would otherwise have cleaned him up. Adams still accidentally caught Rioli and gave away a free kick. But until recently, players in that situation would have simply taken the player out. Now the player recognises their duty of care.
That behavioural change came about through suspensions for players for not showing a proper duty of care to their opponents.
Precocious Lukosius
There have been other false dawns for the rising Suns, but this felt like a coming-of-age moment for Jack Lukosius, if not for his club.
Five goals in his best performance as a forward – after being variously used at half-back and a wing – and among them the match sealer roosted from at least 65 metres. From 10 metres inside the centre square, he looked to be stalling when he pointed to goal. Then he unloaded a huge kick that sailed through for a goal.
Cats coughing up fur balls
Only once during Joel Selwood’s career did the Cats lose three games in a row. And they never lost four in a row.
They have now lost the first three games since his retirement.
Tom Hawkins against the Suns. Credit:Getty
Quite what is wrong with the Cats needs more space to examine than permitted here. Jack Henry is out, Tom Hawkins still looks way off fitness and Sam De Koning’s injury unsettled them on Sunday, but the problems look deeper than that. Geelong scored one behind from stoppages. Heaven knows where they’d be this year without Jeremy Cameron.
Polished Wood cracks
St Kilda’s Mason Wood has had a career searching for a home. Moving clubs, trying nearly every position on the ground, he showed signs nearly everywhere he went without ever finding the right place.
Finally, he seemed to find his place in the game with two-and-a-half very good games on the wing only to injure his wing, cracking his shoulder.
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