AFL Umpires To Be A "Lot Stricter" On Ducking

New umpires boss has spoken.


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Players who duck or drop their knees while being tackled will no longer receive automatic free kicks in 2017.

Incoming umpires boss Peter Schwab has said the AFL has made their rules on ducking and rushed behinds, two of the more controversial rules in the AFL last season, more simple and a "lot stricter".

Schwab spoke on Friday and moved to clarify the rules around ducking.

“What we’re trying to do there is if the players’ legitimate attempt to tackle appears to be correct and that the high contact is caused by the player ducking into the tackle, dropping his knees or trying to shrug it off, then it will be a play-on call,” he said.

“Again it’s asking for the umpire to make that decision so we’ll just see how we go on that.”

Rushed behinds will also be cracked down, with any behind rushed from further than nine metres out automatically penalised.

"The deliberate rushed behind has a lot of criteria for the umpires," Schwab said.

"It sounds simple in principle but when you go through it there’s a lot of examples about how the ball’s taken over the scoring line. So we’ve had to work out some criteria to help us.

"We know there is perceived pressure with players but the umpire will look at it and say, ‘Well, I think the player had a lot of time to do something and elected to take it over’."

The rules were announced late last month.

27 January 2017




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