06-30-2022, 12:37 AM
Consistency is overrated. Apply it religiously and it will set start a chain reaction that will result in perverse results. Fatprick Smith used to argue that the AFL’s changes to the bump rule to protect the head (with which he agreed) required the AFL to bring in similar changes regarding marking contests. He believed that a guy like Naughton who flies into a pack should be banned if his hip or knee contacts the head of anyone in the pack. For him, outlawing the Byron Pickett pick-off should lead to a ban on pack marks.
Excluding spoiling from the deliberate out of bounds penalty isn’t confusing. Only the dimwitted players think they’re allowed to intercept a handball by punching it 10 rows back. And it’s not such a regular occurrence that it needs to be addressed. You could even argue the ability of a defender to spoil over the boundary provides a disincentive to teams that hit up targets close to the boundary to reduce their exposure on turnovers. But such justifications aren’t necessary. All we have to do is recognise that a rule change doesn’t have to result in the domino effect forcing a chain of consequential changes. Enjoy the messiness of the game rather than seeing it through the eyes of an OCD sufferer.
Excluding spoiling from the deliberate out of bounds penalty isn’t confusing. Only the dimwitted players think they’re allowed to intercept a handball by punching it 10 rows back. And it’s not such a regular occurrence that it needs to be addressed. You could even argue the ability of a defender to spoil over the boundary provides a disincentive to teams that hit up targets close to the boundary to reduce their exposure on turnovers. But such justifications aren’t necessary. All we have to do is recognise that a rule change doesn’t have to result in the domino effect forcing a chain of consequential changes. Enjoy the messiness of the game rather than seeing it through the eyes of an OCD sufferer.