Time for a guide to understanding umpires decision making in SANFL games:
1 Let's start with a positive. The over-riding principle of SANFL umpires is to give the player with the ball every opportunity and to protect him wherever possible. That's a great start. Properly used, it gives certainty to players and is a sound base for the rest of the game. Unfortunately, if something can be stuffed up, it will be. You can almost hear the umpires brain cogs at work......" No way am I paying holding the ball, the umpires coach will kill me."
Therefore, rule 1 - Holding the ball in a contest is now redundant. Now, I'm not saying this is a bad thing, but it's a fact and that's that. Players now know this and will take on the tackler, knowing that they can get thrown around 3 360's, still have time to look for an option and then drop the footy and it'll be a ball-up. That's singular, not plural.
(Good way to pick someone who doesn't watch much SANFL? - Wait for them to talk about 'prior opportunity'
Attempt to get rid of it in a tackle? You're kidding, just hold on to it.
Now I have to say that I applaud the umps letting players just chuck it out of a pack though, to keep the game moving.
2 Holding the ball when you're tackled after 3 bounces is still paid. Quite rightly, it's one of the best rules there is for the crowd.
3 I was wrong to say holding the ball in a contest is redundant. Almost so, but it's OK to pay it now and again against West Adelaide
4 Deliberate out of bounds - forget it. Never paid, except once a season, usually at Broadspectrum Oval against Westies
5 Running too far. Still in the rules, which say 15 metres. Will be paid if you run over 30 metres. Ignore commentators who triumphantly count steps. Any footballer who doesn't cover 10 metres in less than 10 steps isn't playing league footy. I'm with the umpies here, forget the 15 metres.
6 So if there's no holding the ball, what do you get a free kick for? Now we come to the safe haven of the SANFL umpire.........
'Too high". The umpire's friend. Difficult to disprove without a replay and even then open to interpretation, go with this one at all times. 'Hanging on' has fallen out of favour a bit, but 'too high' has rocketed up the charts with a vengeance. Get your head chopped off - 'too high' and rightly so. Have someone drape their little finger(nail) across your shoulder - 'too high'!!!
'Too high' now accounts for about 80% of free kicks in SANFL, except for West Adelaide, whose players deserve to have their heads chopped off.
Now I would have thought that we rarely think about why a free kick should be paid. We read the rules book, instead of thinking about a reason. Surely it is to restore a situation where an opponent has illegally gained an unfair advantage. If someone is touched on the shoulder and it makes no difference to the play, why should there be a free kick? I know, I know, because the rules say so.
Stuff the rules, I say.
