A pair of AFL stars aren’t in agreeance with the league’s new holding-the-ball interpretation amid heated discourse across the football landscape.
A host of umpiring incidents have raised eyebrows over the course of the 2024 season, but multiple calls during Saturday night’s Geelong-Essendon contest have drawn considerable ire from pundits.
While instances of deliberate-rushed-behind and chopping-the-arms were put into the spotlight following the weekend, a holding-the-ball call paid against Essendon’s Jordan Ridley — who had an arm pinned but no prior opportunity to dispose of the ball — drew an intriguing response from Carlton captain Patrick Cripps and Collingwood defender Jeremy Howe.
Watch every game of every round this Toyota AFL Premiership Season LIVE with no ad-breaks during play on Kayo. New to Kayo? Start your free trial today >
Dillon defends standard of AFL umpiring | 02:44
Speaking on Fox Footy’s AFL 360 on Tuesday night, Cripps gave his opinion on the refreshed interpretation of holding-the-ball before emphasising an interpretation he would like to see more of.
“It’s not a crack at the umpires, it’s (about) the interpretation that’s being coached,” Cripps began.
“The arm being pinned is automatically basically holding the ball now, if you don’t get rid of it. My thing is, if people don’t have prior and they get their arm pinned, it should just be a quick ball-up.
“The thing I feel like, in the game, needs to be coached more is incorrect disposal and dropping the ball — even if you make an attempt — for me, should be the rule we’re getting after with holding the ball.
“The one with the arm pinned, I feel like at the moment you have to get rid of it, which is causing people to nearly hook people’s legs. You train that, because you see the free kicks — you’re naturally going to train that.
“We’re talking about de-risking concussion, but if you pin someone’s arms and cutting their legs and they fall, they’ve got no protection. That’s the only grey area, I would think, with that rule.”
Howe, speaking on the tackle of Jordan Ridley last Saturday, added another layer to Cripps’ point about players’ protection.
“If he (Ridley), mid-rotation, throws his leg at it, it then creates an imbalance and (he could) flip on his shoulder or potentially hits his head,” he said on AFL 360.
“Is that what we want to go for? Or potentially (umpires could) just ball it up a bit quicker. He had no prior, his arms are pinned straight away — if he swings his leg at it, he might go over the back of (Tyson) Stengle and land on his head.
“I’m in agreeance with calling it a bit earlier, especially the ones (where) the momentum is king of turning. And, the dropping-the-ball, incorrect disposal, literally what Patty said — I’m in full agreeance with that.
CEO’s remarks fuel the umpiring debate | 03:10
Cripps, who said he’s “clear” on the meaning of ‘prior opportunity’, pointed to a pair of examples from the Carlton-Geelong game in Round 15 where Matthew Kennedy was pinged for holding the ball whilst having his arms pinned and having no prior.
“It’s hard to get rid of the ball like that,” he told Fox Footy.
“I think both of them should be a ball up, or the second should let it play … We encourage the guys to win the ball, but what I don’t want to see is me and (Howe) running towards the ball and we both don’t want to pick it up because we’re regarding the tackler rather than rewarding winning the ball.
“I feel like the umpires are getting a real rough end of it at the moment because every week we’re talking about them, but I feel like these ones aren’t the umpires’ fault — this is how we interpret the rules.”
Howe added: “With the umpires, potentially there might be a couple of errors, but the interpretations couldn’t be any harder for them at the moment. I feel for them.
“If we’re chasing perfect clean sheets of every call being correct, I think we’re going to be disappointed for a long period of time.”