Almanac Footy: A Protected Species?
The defender marks on half-back, looks up and sees no options. He makes no movement off the line at all, but within three seconds, often literally less, he is played on by the umpire. The defender kicks down the line, the ball is spoiled over that line, boundary throw in, the game meanders on.
The on-baller finds the ball bouncing straight to him, unexpectedly. He takes possession, and in a time measured only in milliseconds, is ‘pinged’ holding the ball, to the acclaim of thousands and the chagrin of an equal number. Did he have ‘prior’? Did he have even one second?
And now for something completely different……
The forward leads, is hit lace-out. 30 metres out, straight in front.
He turns around, scrapes a mark where he thinks his opponent should stand the mark, wanders back, scrapes another mark decreed by his goal-kicking ritual, puts the ball on the ground, pulls up his socks, removes his mouthguard and puts it in his sock, ‘milks’ the clock a bit more and then starts his approach. Slowly, from about the 50-metre line.
He misses. Sometimes he short passes to a closer forward, who then repeats the ritual.
He gets not a milli-second, or a second, or three seconds, he gets thirty seconds.
We’ll leave aside the fact that the whole point of the game is to kick a goal (sorry) and it’s easily the least trained for, but if anyone can give a rational explanation of why a forward is given a full and exclusive (and routinely and tactically abused) 30 seconds to do something which he is being paid a fortune to get right, I’d appreciate it.
And on goalkicking…..
That’s another story.
More from Lee Harradine can be read Here.
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About Lee Harradine
West Adelaide Life Member and Past President. Cricket and travel tragic. Author of 'Flags, Spoons & Knives' an insider's view of the West Adelaide Football Club.
Well said Lee. One of my pet hates is players “milking the clock” with a pretend set shot from 55 or 60 metres, when they are obviously going to pass or set it up to a marking contest. The 30 second rule (or 20 or whatever) should only apply if the mark is set inside the 50 arc. Outside of that you get the same 5 or 10 seconds as around the ground.