The Festival of the Rushed Behind

[Lucky Knickers]

The constant rushing behinds by Hawks on Saturday really annoyed me.
I thought it really took the shine off a game that was shaping up to be great contest in the first half.
I didn't like it - was excessive.

[ShockOfHair]

It's a bad look. Even Alistair Clarkson agrees. The betting seems to be that somethign will be done over summer - perhaps bounce the ball in the goalsquare.

It's one more unintended consequence of the anti-Swans rules.

[stellation]

I understand why they were doing it, but I agree it got silly.

I wonder what the team rule was? Apart from obviously not wanting to kick to a contest inside the defensive 50, I also can't remember them kicking across goals at all? On at least one occassion Guerra appeared to rush a behind under pretty lame defensive pressure then proceed to instantly play on and kick to a man who had been open, but across the goals, the whole time- the forward applying pressure probably would have cut him off from running across the goal line.

[hammo]

While you can argue about the ethics of rushing behinds, I thought it was superb tactically and it didn't detract from the game at all from my perspective.

If you look at the Swans final few games when at times our defence was really under the pump, how many goals did we concede through our defenders being indecisive, fumbling, or errantly hand-passing near our own goals? Quite a few that I recall. It's a problem easily solved by conceding the one point rather than 6.

[floppinab]

I think a bit has got to do with hard it is too see through the light and shade on the MCG during spring.
Those behind goals camera angles tell a story. Very hard to spot a target in the shade coming out of defence during the second quarter IMO.

[AnnieH]

While you can argue about the ethics of rushing behinds, I thought it was superb tactically and it didn't detract from the game at all from my perspective.

If you look at the Swans final few games when at times our defence was really under the pump, how many goals did we concede through our defenders being indecisive, fumbling, or errantly hand-passing near our own goals? Quite a few that I recall. It's a problem easily solved by conceding the one point rather than 6.

Right on!!

[dimelb]

While you can argue about the ethics of rushing behinds, I thought it was superb tactically and it didn't detract from the game at all from my perspective.

If you look at the Swans final few games when at times our defence was really under the pump, how many goals did we concede through our defenders being indecisive, fumbling, or errantly hand-passing near our own goals? Quite a few that I recall. It's a problem easily solved by conceding the one point rather than 6.

Agree. And then the game moves on pretty quickly. Except when it's the Swans kicking in.

[ROK Lobster]

It's a bit like buying a vowel on wheel of fortune. Where else on the ground can you buy a free kick for a point?