The sky is falling!: Chicken Little

The 'Chicken Little's of the footy blogosphere ("It's the end of the bump!"; "Wait 'til a team loses a Grand Final on a deliberate rushed behind decision!") can safely look to Joel Bowden as the progenitor of their current hysteria.

In the 2008 Grand Final, Brent Guerra and others sought strategic advantage from the rushed behind — seeking to free up targets for a kickout. It was a measure of Geelong's defensive pressure that the tactic was employed. At no time did the Hawks' antics in their defensive goal square materially effect the game, save to make a part of it incredibly ugly.

Joel Bowden on the other hand, sought to avoid losing a close game by wasting time on the clock, using rushed behinds. As I have opined previously on AussieRulesBlog, time wasting elsewhere on the field attracts a 50-metre penalty, and it seems perfectly logical that timewasting in the goal square should be treated no differently. The effect of a 50-metre penalty from the goal line, even between the goal and point posts, would be to put the player taking the free kick on the goal line dead centre between the goal posts.

It is to the credit of the AFL that they have softened the effect of the rushed behind timewasting penalty — The Bowden Rule — by ruling that the free kick be taken from the spot where the infringement occurs. The one area that remains unclear is whether the attacking team could also be penalised for deliberately rushing a behind. Admittedly, with immediate kick-ins, it's more difficult to imagine a scenario where there would be purely tactical advantage for the attacking team taking this action, unless the countdown clock is publicly accessible.

The Bowden Rule does not unduly disadvantage defenders. Anyone wanting to champion the rights of defenders would do better to look to incidental contact with the forward's arms in a marking contest! The Bowden Rule has shown, in the pre-season competition, that defenders have an opportunity to demonstrate their creativity in moving the ball from deep in defence. In addition, the acid is put on all opposing forwards to apply genuine defensive pressure rather than rely on zoning.

There are so many positive aspects to the Bowden Rule. Well done AFL!