Agitation over free kick blitz

BY THE NUMBERS

A STAGGERING 12 holding the ball decisions were paid by umpires during Monday night’s clash between Adelaide and St Kilda – almost three times the season average.

The AFL last night moved to clarify that some of the free kicks were “unwarranted”, amid confusion from players and coaches about a new stricter interpretation.

AFL umpiring boss Hayden Kennedy reached out to Saints coach Brett Ratten and Crows counterpart Matthew Nicks yesterday, telling the pair that the league was striving for greater consistency around the rule.

The AFL circulated a memo to clubs after Round 4 that reinforced the need for players to make a “genuine attempt to correctly dispose of the football when legally tackled”, on the back of criticism from Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson.

Champion Data statistics show from Rounds 1-4, there an average of 3.4 holding the ball free kicks each game.

That average climbed to 4.9 a game across rounds 5 and 6 on the back of Clarkson’s comments.

However, with the exception of the clash between the Crows and Saints, the average dropped to 4.1 holding the ball rulings across the eight other Round 7 games.

St Kilda midfielder Jack Steele said on Tuesday he was no longer clear what was holding the ball and what was not after playing in Monday night’s game. “I still don’t know what to expect when someone’s tackled with the ball,” Steele said on SEN radio.

“You’ve nearly got to prepare for the worst and expect that it’s going to be holding the ball, because that’s what seems to be happening these days.”

Ratten said after his side’s 23-point win on Monday that he felt ball winners were being unfairly penalised.

“Sometimes it’d be pretty hard to be a ball player and try and put your hands on it,” Ratten said.

“We have to be careful that we haven’t got players just sitting there waiting to tackle players. That’s not how we want to play the game.

“It’s a fine line and you’ve got to be given some sort of chance to get rid of it.”