Reality Check!
Team Captain
If you were a GWS or Sydney fan watching the finals against the Bulldogs, you would probably have been tearing your hair out seeing the players in red white and blue be brought down, only to slap it out or deftly drop it to a running teammate. It reminds me of Kevin Bartlett's running bounces when he knew he was about to be tackled. I'm not doubting the talent on the Bulldog's team, and the rebuild under Beveridge has been incredible. But I can't help but think their success last year was built on exploiting the grey areas of disposals by hand. Ironically Hawthorn cops a lot of bashing for having a good go from the umpires, but their premierships were built on precision passing with elite foot skills. I won't deny that at times a few of their disposals by hand have been dubious, but that goes for every team. The Bulldogs are simply capitalising on this, and you can't deny it when you go back and watch their games last season.
So what is to be done? Well we need to more broadly define what an illegal disposal actually is, because let's face it, this is currently the only sport where commentators will say 'WOW what a great fumble!' Here are my suggestions...
- Knocking the ball with an open palm is always illegal, if not in a ruck contest OR if the ball cannot be marked. If a player is uncontested and slaps the ball instead of marking it, play on. The only exception is if you manage to recover the ball yourself. A player is a allowed to slap the ball to get it to sit up better for him, but if a teammate recovers it first then a free kick is awarded to the opposition.
- Placing the ball on the ground and leaving it there, even when not being tackled is dropping the ball.
- If a player has possession for at least ONE second and loses the ball in a tackle it is considered dropped, regardless whether the defending player slapped it out of him or not. If the ball didn't come out straight away in the tackle and the player is immobile the umpire goes red hot on a ball up.
I know any mention of rule changes is going to be open with heavy resistance and criticism, and I'm open to the fact that these changes might make the game worse instead of better. I'm just of the opinion that the grey is overshadowing the black and white of this particular rule, and I won't be surprised if the Bulldogs once again exploit this to meme themselves into another premiership.