I know what your saying, but the thing is it should be out of the game. Back in the day Hawkins would have been pinged for pushing Balta in the back on a number of occasions and if he was smart he would have stopped doing it.. But these days these things seem to be let go, and here we are with a young player who's career may be in doubt. It really annoys me that players get hauled over the coals for staging (which I don't condone by the way) when this aspect of the game hurts no one and has been with us since basically day one. Ted Whitten was a master stager, so was Big Nic, used to go down like he was shot and there were plenty of others as well. But the umpires knew who the stagers were and umpired accordingly. It just seems to me that these days the direction the umpires get and the role of the match Review Committee are in the wrong areas. Also these days the umpires don't really control the game, like they did in the old days.
You call that a rant? No problem as I agree with all your comments as they mirror my view. I have only been into footy for 20 years so I can't comment on the older players on pushing in the back and staging but pushing seems it is so common nowadays my guess that most umpires ignore most of the less blatant pushing ones so manage to miss some of the nasty ones as they al like this Hawkins / Balta / Soldo incident when to everyone watching knew it was blatant. In our team you can see the likes of Jack, Dusty, Tom , Dylan, Dave, Liam, Noah, Shai and Jason as the worst offenders routinely pushing in the back often with some force. It is something that should be taken from the game but I don't see the current umpire hierarchy doing anything so far too many players simply get away with it with impunity.
That's the thing. This is a 2 yr injury. Will take him 2 yrs to get back to his current level.
Hey UK ,my rant wasn't directed at you, sorry if you thought that. Yeah, what you say is perfectly true and we certainly don't what 'Soccer Level Staging' in the AFL.
Never even thought it was for a moment, it is just that I like a good rant especially on a subject I am interested in and even more so when it mirrors my views
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I know it was a football incident and plenty of other players shove opponents in the back and into other players but Hawkins is king, the tone was set in the 1st minute of play on Friday night when no free was paid for a blatant one handed shove in the back of Balta who was propelled like superman, (either that or Grimsey has taught Noah well
The Soldo incident just brings me to tears, and yes I blame Tomahawk.
Can't believe I actually agree with something Garry Lyon said On The Couch, he was going through players who shove players and came to Hawkins and said he is a recidivous .
Umpires need to wake up to it.
I think it was Gerard Healy.I know it was a football incident and plenty of other players shove opponents in the back and into other players but Hawkins is king, the tone was set in the 1st minute of play on Friday night when no free was paid for a blatant one handed shove in the back of Balta who was propelled like superman, (either that or Grimsey has taught Noah well
The Soldo incident just brings me to tears, and yes I blame Tomahawk.
Can't believe I actually agree with something Garry Lyon said On The Couch, he was going through players who shove players and came to Hawkins and said he is a recidivist .
Umpires need to wake up to it.
At least Soldo is not reliant on speed or agility. He shouldn't get any smaller or weaker. Perhaps his jump might be affected?
