- Rushed behind
In
Australian rules football , a rushed behind occurs when a defending player touches the ball before it passes through the goalposts.According to the rules of scoring, this will result in the attacking team scoring a behind (worth one point), rather than a goal (worth six). Therefore, a defending player who realises that an attacking player is kicking for goal may try to merely touch the ball in flight in order to spoil the attacker's chances of gaining six points. It may be a less risky tactic than trying to prevent the goal outright.
In an attempt to discourage the practice the AFL has recently trialled the awarding of 3 points instead of 1 point for rushed behinds in [pre-season games.
Two high profile incidents during the
2008 AFL season have prompting calls for the rules to be changed to reduce the number of rushed behinds. In Round 16, Richmond'sJoel Bowden rushed two behinds in a row to use up time towards the end of their game against Essendon, reducing the margin from 6 points to 4 points, but enabling Richmond to win the game. [Cooper, Adam and Clark, Laine; [http://wwos.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=601183 Bowden raised anomaly: Lions coach] ; 21 July 2008] Then the2008 AFL Grand Final saw Hawthorn rush a record 11 behinds against Geelong. [ [http://footystats.freeservers.com/Daily/Stat08-R01a.html FootyStats Rushby Hinds] ] [Connolly, Rohan; [http://www.realfooty.com.au/news/news/11-rushed-behinds-rule-change-needed/2008/09/28/1222540247221.html 11 rushed behinds: rule change needed] ; 29 September 2008]References
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