The Sydney Swans “Tunnelling” Tactic
Will this become the “hot topic” in AFL Football? It will be interesting to see how the AFL handle this because this type of thing is frowned upon in basketball and causes a penalty in Rugby. If you are not familiar with “tunneling” then take a look at the video and see what St Kilda are furious about, basically it is when a player takes the legs from underneath his opponent whilst still in the air. I had never heard of the term in football until I heard Craig Hutchison on SEN Radio talking about the posibility that St Kilda may lodge a complaint to the AFL. You can quite clearly see what Craig Bolton’s intentions are and it is definately not the ball!. Now this could be extremely dangerous and as you can see Nick Reiwoldt landed heavily on a couple of occasions. Now the Swans have a very small defensive group and this may be a tactic that they have been taught to combat their taller opponents. Now there is a correlation between the Sydney Swans and basketball as Pauld Roos is good mates with legend NBL coach Brian Gorgian.
What are your thoughts? Post a Comment and let the readers here at AFL Football Blog hear your opinions.
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6 Responses to “The Sydney Swans “Tunnelling” Tactic”
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I’m sure if anyone starts calling that a foul, people will hem and haw about how it’s the new “hands in the back” rule, but it looks plenty dangerous to me.
and St Kilda should be furious about it, it is obviously dangerous!
If the umpires had any brains and were able to think on their feet they should have paid free kicks to Nick on the game as its obvious Bolton had no eyes for the ball. Two free kicks and Bolton would have stopped.
So I dont blame Sydney, I blame the umpires…
@Dave, it does look dangerous and I think the AFL need to do something about it. I was reading an article and Craig Bolton was saying that it was not intentional. But from the footage it sure looks intentional.
Matthew Richardson has also expressed his concerns with the tactic. It will be interesting to see how the AFL handle this one.
@Kick2Kick
I agree that it should have been 2 fee kicks and that may have probably stopped it. We will wait and see if that is a free kick this week.
In Bolton’s defense, with the second incident the kick to Riewoldt was a shocker. Bolton was just running next to Riewoldt and Riewoldt reached back and across to take the grab, thus causing the contact.
On a second viewing both incidents look pretty insignificant in 100 mins of football.
Riewoldt is a good mark but he tends to land awkwardly as does Kossie.
i dont know how you could possibly pay a free kick even if the action is intentional. I may be incorrect but it appears to me that they are both moving towards the drop of the ball and bolton mantains a forward motion instead of engaging in a contest in pursuit of the ball Bolton is under no obligation to contest the ball as long as he does not cause illegal contact with his opponent which i dont believe he does. Football is continually evolving dont think its a big deal.
The AFL have voiced concerns about dwindling crowd numbers at games and the following on TV. Well it is fairly easily summed up in two words; Substandard Umpiring.
I have watched my last game of AFL today. I am so sick and tired of the shocking umpiring. Every week we are forced to watch bad, poor, baise and sub-standard umpiring. Are umpires so “precious” tht teams & the AFL are not allowed to critique their work?
I started to watch NRL last year and noted their umpires were nearly as bad, but hallalula the NRL realised the negative influence this was having on the game and this year totally changed the format, in one instance where a very bad decision was made by an umpire that cost a team the game, he was removed.
How long are the AFL going to let the status quo remain? till there is no-one watching!
After all I don’t know if umpires are criminal in their incompetence or to give them the benefit of the doubt just not able to handle the pressure & pace of the modern game.
The fair and consistant umpire appears to be a rare thing. For goodness sake get rid of these men, after all it is a job, and if they are not doing their job, put them on notice that poorly umpired games will result in them being stood down. Couches and the head of the football teams should have the right to complain to the media and AFL about the shocking decisions of umpires that have caused them a loss.
Now is the time to act, not leave it till the horse has bolted to shut the gate.