Saw this article today in the hun. Didn’t know how to find it on the website to post a link so I took a pic.
View attachment 17841
It’s only been a season or so and already this “brilliant” rule from SHocking needs tweaking. What concerns me is the 5th paragraph where it says if a player feigns to handball they will will told to play on or reset. If that means that the league decides on one option, fine. If it means they will leave it up to the umpires discretion on which option, then that’s *smile* and will make the rule even worse than it is now. I can just picture it now. Richmond has a shot for goal from around 50 out. We pretend to handball, umpire calls play on, player gets tackled, we get penalised. A minute later at the other end, opposition in the same scenario, pretends to handball umpire says no, go back and have your shot, they goal. You know it will happen.
I have a better, much more radical solution. Get rid of the *smile* rule. It was brought in the help the handbaggers get a flag. Goal achieved. If you step over the mark, penalised. If you move sideways or backwards on the mark, no penalty. Like it should be