AFL goalkicking rules are back in the spotlight after Brisbane Lions premiership hero Logan Morris was robbed of a massive goal on the siren against Sydney on Thursday night.
Morris sent his teammates and the Gabba crowd into a frenzy when he snapped around his body to put the Lions up by 48 points at three-quarter time — or so he thought.
As he began celebrating an umpire standing metres behind him was already waving off the goal, having called play on.
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Morris kicked the ball one or two strides short of the line of the mark, according to the umpire.
“(Brisbane) said that he feels like he did everything right,” Mitch Cleary reported on Channel 7.
“The umpires will argue he didn’t go far enough to his right and kick over the man on the mark — that’s why they’ve called play on there.”
The incident comes just weeks after Hawthorn’s Nick Watson copped the same ruling after he was deemed to have veered off his line before converting with a drop punt.
And though the circumstances were different the Morris decision was still seriously unpopular.
“Well the rule says as long as you don’t improve your angle by going over the mark — he stopped a metre short,” Brian Taylor said.
“Now if that was a drop punt he would have been allowed that metre. But because it was around the corner for some reason they’ve penalised him. I think they’ve got that wrong.
“It clearly says in the rule book ‘as long as you don’t improve your angle by going past the mark’.
Luke Hodge described it as “a mockery” while Kane Cornes said “it might be the worst decision of the year”.
Hamish McLachlan said he “just found a phone and got on to” AFL football boss Greg Swann, who said “the latest update is you do, though, have to kick over the man on the mark”.
Taylor reiterated: “That’s not what the rules say.”
“That is logical but that’s not what the rule book says at the moment,” he said.
Hodge said the Morris attempt showed “how stupid the rule is”.
“The fact that he’s snapping it, so he’s not improving (by stopping short of the line of the mark) and he’s snapping it,” Hodge said.
“They couldn’t have been able to snap it anyway.”
Cornes jumped at the opportunity to fire off a criticism of the AFL.
“So we need another amendment and a modification tomorrow, which we’re going to have to get because the rules keep changing,” he said.
