So according to the rule book Paddy could have actually kicked the ball as far as he likes and still be paid themark
[/quote]“Kicked by ANOTHER player”
Hmm. Depends on whether his kick cancels clause B or not. I’d like to think that’s written in the “interpretations” somewhere, but I somehow doubt it is.
[/quote]What if Paddy volley kicked it back to the guy who kicked it to him in the first place?
I think the umpire nailed it, prior to Paddy making contact with the ball clause A and B have been satisfied. Paddy’s contact with the ball satisfies clause C.
But, on reflection, I suppose DJR’s doubt is reasonable. If clause B is nullified the moment Paddy’s foot touches the ball and it is no longer classed as “Kicked by another player”. However if the umpire was fully cognisant of Paddy’s kick not travelling 15 metres, he was actively interpreting it as Paddy marking the previous kick because no one else had touched it and it hadn’t touched the ground.
Quite likely, as DJR indicated, this has never been officially resolved.
If it is a legitimate way of marking the ball, will we ever see a player palm the ball out of the air, kick it intentionally to a more advantageous position to kick a goal and then complete the mark?
Because some Blitzers have appeared to have gone full Essington mode, these are definitions and interpretations from the most recent public and readily available PDF of the AFL’s rules (2013)
Kick or kicking: in relation to disposing of the football, means making contact with the football with any part of the Player’s leg below the knee.
12.1.1 scoring a Goal Subject to Law 12.2, a Goal is scored when the football is Kicked completely over the Goal Line by a Player of the attacking Team without being touched by any other Player, even if the football first touches the ground.
15.6.1 when awarded A Free Kick shall be awarded against a Player who: (a) Kicks the football Out of Bounds on the Full;
So, reading all that it is quite clear that a “kick” constitutes any contact, whether intentional or otherwise, between the ball and a player below their knees.
We also know that for a mark to (correctly) be paid, the ball must be kicked by another player.
Given that the ball made contact with Ambrose’s foot which constitutes, by the AFL’s own definition, as a kick he should not have been paid a mark.
Oh goody, the umps need to read the player’s mind.
Since we’re talking other sports, I spent quite some time this morning doing hackey and foot catches (in a couple cases, because I was late to the fall of the second boomerang, I had to hackey the rang up before sitting down to make the foot catch). Which I was very happy with, thank you very much.