In the first four rounds of footy, it’s been difficult at times to watch teams handball the ball around a dozen times in the space of about twenty metres and eventually turn it over. So many sides this year have gotten themselves into trouble by handballing it when a kick would have moved the ball on quicker. We are aware that sometimes just kicking the footy up the ground isn’t always an option with teams usually flooding back; however wouldn’t it be better to turn the footy over in the forward 50 as opposed to turning it over in the defensive 50 and potentially giving away a shot at goal.

Last week Gary Ablett put on a masterful performance against Adelaide amassing 46 possessions. We are not taking anything away from Ablett’s performance, he was simply unbelievable but in his way to gathering 46 touches, 33 of those were handballs. Nathan Buckley was one of a small group of players in recent times that consistently gathered significantly more kicks than handballs during a game of footy. We are not saying that current players aren’t as skilled as players from yesteryear but that the game has changed so much that they have no choice but to handball more.

It was well known that both West Coast and Geelong were handball happy during their premiership winning year and of course other teams began to play a similar game to try and compete with them. When handballs are used in the right situation, the footy can be a delight to watch as teams move the ball from one side of the ground to another in an instant.

Hopefully this fad of handballs wont be around for too much longer, no doubt teams will come up with another match winning game plan that will be emulated across the league.