THE age-old craft of palming the ball at centre bounces is becoming a dying art because ruckmen are being allowed to smash into their opponents without penalty, two decorated ruckmen say.
Dual premiership Crow Shaun Rehn and Brisbane best and fairest winner Matthew Clarke say ruckmen with eyes only for the ball are a dying breed.
They say ruckmen are jumping into their opponents to deny them a free run at the ball. By this method, a team can negate a dominant ruckman by starving him of space.
"It was a bugbear of mine in my last couple of years of footy," Rehn told his Adelaide radio station 5AA audience on Sunday.
"You'd be looking at the ball and a (former Western Bulldog) Luke Darcy would come in and plant his knee in your chest and the ball would fall behind him.
"For my mine, it's the way the umpires interpreted it which had created that problem."
Rehn, who endured three ACL injuries on both knees during his career, says the problem is even worse today, and has called for free-kicks to be paid for the "two clear actions" of jumping early then tapping the ball from a standing position.
Rehn and Clarke argue a ruck clash should be treated no differently to players manoeuvring for a mark.
"If it was a marking contest and you take your eyes off the ball and then you make contact, it's a free kick every time, every day of the week," Clarke said.
"As soon as your eyes come off the ball in my mind that's an instantaneous cue for the umpire.
"I've had this debate with the umpiring fraternity, and by the letter of the law it's not against the rules to look at your opponent and then jump into them apparently.
"It's a frustration. I think it's detracted from the game.
"I think it's taken away the spectacle of the centre bounce."
The issue is complicated by the 10m centre circle introduced in 2005 as a measure to counter a mounting toll of knee injuries among ruckmen.
The rule change decreed ruckmen must start their run-ups within the 10m zone, to reduce their speed and so lessen the impact at bounces.
"I haven't been a fan of it from the minute it was introduced," Clarke said.
"It was introduced to reduce the PCL (posterior cruciate ligament) injuries. "(Melbourne's) Mark Jamar went down with one last week. And in my mind, you get more collisions because of the circle because it's very easy for one opponent to line up your opponent off three or four metres."
Clarke forged a career with Brisbane, Adelaide and St Kilda as an old-school "knock" ruckman of note.
In his role as Adelaide's ruck coach, the 258-game player has asked the AFL to revisit how centre bounce contests are adjudicated.
"I don't think it's going anywhere though because the PCL injuries have decreased," he said.
"But I think there's an opportunity there to make it better still by umpiring it with a little bit more consistency.
"I've sent tapes to the AFL umpires, whereby clearly ruckmen are jumping in and landing again.
"If that doesn't constitute blocking your opponent's run at the ball, which you're not allowed to do, then I don't know what does.
"But that's the rules. You've got to play to the whistle. So at some point in time if you're getting beat you're going to adopt the same tactic so you don't get beat, because it's a professional gig and it's your livelihood.
"So that's what we'll do."
Collingwood coach Mick Malthouse believes the 2005 rule change has been a success.
"The circles in the centre of the ground for the ruckmen to contest the ball have been a revelation," Malthouse wrote in his column for The Australian last month.
"It was considered the ruckman's curse to run in and charge at one another at the bounce.
"Eventually something had to give. That something was often the posterior cruciate ligament. Once this injury was sustained, the player had to virtually readjust his entire approach to the bounce to become a non-jumping ruckman, therefore limiting his game.
"The introduction of the circles have eased this problem and maybe saved many a ruckman's career. This was a good rule change."
The statistics back Malthouse's argument.
The AFL says there has been a "dramatic and significant" drop in PCL injuries since the 2005 rule change. And its 2010 annual injury report recorded no PCL injuries.
