At their most basic, sporting contests involve two people pitting their skills against each other: trying to run faster, using ball skills to deceive the opponent, out-bodying their opponents with strength. When the competition gets serious, players will use whatever means necessary to gain an advantage. People spend increasingly more attention to nutrition, equipment and sports psychologists for the mental edge. And then there are other advantages that might not be strictly within the rules of the game – if your opponent is faster, you might hold their jumper to slow them down. The umpires don’t always see this type of infringement, so players exaggerate the contact to “play for the free kickâ€Â. This is part of any game of sport from social competitions to the elite level.
Some players are better at it than others, but anybody who plays sport has at some point exaggerated an incident to win favour with the umpires. Some players are so good at it that the moment they walk on to the field they are chatting jovially to the umpires to ensure they get favourable decisions. Then there are the situations where players “take a diveâ€Â; when there is no actual infringement, but the umpire sees a head fly back and in the split second they have to make a decision. If the incident happens close to goal, it can change the course of a match. In the 2006 Soccer World Cup Italy received a dubious penalty in the dying seconds to win against Australia; and then went on to win the tournament. Of course Italian supporters may not have thought the penalty was dubious, but to the average Australian part time soccer spectator it was outrageous.
And the beauty of taking a dive is that it can’t really go wrong. In AFL, it seems perfectly within the laws to play for the free kick. There have even been a few incidents recently where players admit it at the tribunal. West Coast Eagle Chris Judd was cleared of an eye gouging charge because the player said there was no contact to his eye – despite a few players standing around clearly being heard on tape to say ‘he’s eye gouging!’ Even more sinister was West Coast’s Daniel Chick reporting Fremantle’s Josh Carr for punching him, when the video showed there was actually no opportunity for this to have happened. Dobbing is still against the unwritten code of conduct in AFL. And while anybody has the right to bring a grievance to the attention of officials, it does seem farcical to hear the tough men of football crying to the umpires that ‘he poked me in the eye.’
I don’t think watching player’s stage for free kicks or falsely crying foul to the umpire adds anything to sport. Clearly, dobbing and diving are difficult issues to deal with. However, if cases of clear dobbing or diving were reported to the tribunal and punished with warnings, fines and ultimately suspensions, it would clear this out of the game to some extent. At least, there would be an end to the farcical situation where players admit that the entire scene on the field is acting rather than competing.
