AFL Rd 11 2024 Post Game Postulations Carlton vs Gold Coast

[LP]

There is no law stating the free kicks should even resemble even.  All it shows is a trend of how likely one team was to infringe vs another although you could argue how its possible that the team who had the lions share of the play, and won most of the ball, and had way more posessions and less tackles ended up with more free kicks against.

If umpires do what Hardwick suggests, blow the whistle early rewarding the tackler, then it must be the case frees are lopsided if possessions are lopsided.

What would you rather watch, blokes attacking the footy and being protected in doing so, or snipers hanging back and tackling after somebody else has done all the hard work to take possession of the footy?

Our game has a long history of rewarding the players who attack the footy, but it recent times it's flipped to be more rewarding for the sniper. I'm finding it difficult to watch, because blokes like Cripps and Walsh are basically held before they even take possession, then dumped if they win the footy. A bloke like Cripps who 9 out of 10 times takes front position at stoppages should be earning heaps of free kicks, he hardly gets any. Yet midgets who throw themselves into his shoulder get rewarded for high contact!

In the past good taggers would spoil, get a fist in the way and stop possession, now many are being coached to allow the opponents to collect the footy before wrapping them up in a tackle. It's deliberate tactic, not just to win the footy but to take an opponent out of the chain of play.

I want to see players side by side, toe to toe, focussed on winning the footy.

PS: Hardwick started all this moving the ball forward at any cost, the kicking in danger and the tackling and dumping of players, because he had a small fast on ball crew that could spread easily with just one extra number. It was easier for them to hunt the man than the ball, if they pick up the pill and get trapped on the inside they can't run and spread, so they hang back and snipe.