This is mostly directed at our resident referee and is something that I'd like to understand better; was the high tackle from Elstadt actually high? I can certainly understand that Pollock had to give a yellow after showing Crockett a yellow for a similarly tame high challenge but I mean, in my eyes at lest, Elstadt stood up to the man front to front and there was no force excerted from the high arm. To put it differently- the arm that was high was behind the attacking player and not working against that player's own momentum. Or does that not come into play and any arm above the shoulders in a tackle situation is seen as a high tackle? I would certainly understand the ref needing to err on the less lenient side for safety and taking potential inconsistencies out of the equation but you'll get many games where players 'wrap up' rather than tackle others where the high tackle isn't called and it makes sense because the tackled player's neck isn't in any danger as the wrapping arms do not work against the player's momentum with their neck as an axis which is where the danger comes in.
As regards a high tackle, it is not about the "force" of the tackle or the momentum of the players involved. A high tackle from behind, contacting the back of a player's head is treated no differently to a front-on one, however, there is the "stiff arm" provision in the Law to cover the "coat-hanger" type tackle.
[TEXTAREA]LAW 10.4 DANGEROUS PLAY AND MISCONDUCT
(e) Dangerous tackling. A player must not tackle an opponent early, late or dangerously.
Sanction: Penalty kick
A player must not tackle (or try to tackle) an opponent above the line of the shoulders
even if the tackle starts below the line of the shoulders. A tackle around the opponent’s neck or head is dangerous play.
Sanction: Penalty kick
A ‘stiff-arm tackle’ is dangerous play. A player makes a stiff-arm tackle when using a stiff arm to strike an opponent.
Sanction: Penalty kick
[/TEXTAREA]
I have highlighted an important part of the Law that people often don't realise. They talk about the
"first point of contact" being on the arm or the chest and the tackler's arm
"riding up". Well that is still a high tackle and is considered no different to one that contacts the head directly. Kepp in mind, that it is the reponsibility of the tackler to ensure that he does not contact the ball-carrier's head. For this reason referees are taught that there is no excuse when a player
"ducks into" or
"trips into" a tackle and it ends up being above the line of the shoulders, although the referee won't usually yellow card a player when that happens.
IMO, neither of the tackles that got yellow carded in this match were worthy of that punishment, but if I had to pick a worse one, then I'd say Wyatt Crockett's was marginally the worst of the two. Once Pollock had set his stall out, and yellow carded Crockett, he really left himself no choice but to card Elstadt as well, especially as it was Vinny Munro's recommendation. It would have been interesting to see of there had been a player commit a significantly more serious head-high tackle, because having decided that these two were the standard for a yellow card, would Pollock have had the courage to give a red card for it?
