The definition of a mark reads, " the player must arrest the flight of the ball and have control ", the player is given leeway to protect himself on landing, with the mark already paid while he was in the air, being knocked from your grip by the force of landing does not negate the mark. once you stop the ball and have a grip off it ,the mark is paid. You must remember it is a 360 degree game, and you can play the ball in any direction over any distance to better your team. We start doing these spekky marks at school, nothing better than lining someone up to take a fly on top of them, of course you also learn the ignominy of being jumped on.
The reason it is called a Mark is because when the game was first invented(about 150 years ago) when the ball was caught the player would "mark" the spot and then go back and take a kick. Also remember that you are watching AFL and not NFL, the rules are entirely different as it is with soccer or rugby or even tiddlywinks. If the umpire deems a mark, so it is, you only have to have control for a very short while.
Unlike other sports where the game requires 100% accuracy from the umpires, Australian rules are ‘interpreted’ which increases the crowd participation. Yelling at the top of your voice when you perceive an infringement by the other side is every fans duty. Even at home in front of the TV. I believe mark originated from early days of the game when you marked where you caught the ball with the heel of your boot. It also had place kicks originally.
The term "Mark" originally came from Rugby, a massive chunk of Aussie Rules comes from pre-codified versions of Rugby and Soccer and a small portion from Aboriginal game "Marn Grook" but that is not verified as there's no evidence on any documents regarding any portion of the game from Marn Grook.
Actually when the sport first started, players wore a little cap. When they caught the ball, they would 'mark' the spot by dropping their hat down and that is how it got it's name
Surprisingly few people are hurt when taking a "speccie" (spectacular mark). If you land on your head or back ,it might hurt but you just get up. Nothing hurts when you have just taken a "screamer" or a "hangar".
I was a committed bench warmer and stepladder, I’ve always believed that when everyone is moving at the same time a lot of impact is reduced unless you are running from opposite directions, also as a kid who would run on the ground after a game, I always wondered how they manage to get any bounce of the well kept grass, it did explain how falling from height had less impact unless you fall awkwardly.
You're right, but it's a funny juxtaposition to how I broke my ribs. I was playing high school aussie rules and the opposing team had a guy that was honestly way bigger (as in wider, not taller) than you'd expect. Being high school league, he wasn't necessarily super good. The entire game this guy was just defending and knocking people around. But lo and behold, as the ball comes our way, he decides to try and speccie me. His weight overcame my then smallish frame, I fell backwards and he landed on my ribcage. Two broken ribs and countless months of excruciating pain when doing so much as breathing. I don't remember how long exactly it took to heal, but I remember still having horrible pain several months later.
Another thing i dont really see mentioned about the difference between nfl and afl in regards to controlling the ball after catching it is that the nfl style catching gloves are banned in AFL. The ban happened in the past decade and there was a bit of controversy when only a few players were using them and had some insane marking stats. There was an interesting segment on one of the footy shows here were a host put on one of the gloves and the ball basically stuck to his hand/was able to palm a soccer ball with ease. In my opinion the a mark or catch should be paid even when the ball comes loose when the player makes contact with the ground because theyve done 95% of the work by just getting hand on ball above everyone else and showing enough skill to control it to the ground. Obviously its up to interpretation by the umps and i can see that the grey area made by that interpretation can lead to some marks not being paid and vise versa but i love that footy just awards players for doing cool shit lmao
Hi from Sydney Australia 🇦🇺🇦🇺, look up on you tube this guy he was the king of marks, Warwick Capper, he’s long time retired but he was good and he would tell everyone how good he was.
The 2023 AFL season will be the 127th season of the Australian Football League (AFL), the highest level senior men's Australian rules football competition in Australia, which was known as the Victorian Football League until 1989. The season will feature eighteen clubs and is scheduled to run from 16 March until 30 September, comprising a 23-game home-and-away season, the longest in league history, followed by a finals series featuring the top eight clubs.
Any catch is a mark , provided the ball has travelled 15 mtrs through the air , untouched. No specification required. You can mark your opponents kick , you can manhandle your direct opponent out of the way and mark a kick intended for him ( provided you obey the manhandling rules) which are pretty much the same as for a receiver in the NFL. Remember , our game is not rocket science, although it might appear difficult to understand at first, it's really pretty simple .Footballers aren't known for their intelligence after all.
I said it in a reply also but back when the game started in the mid 1800's, players used to wear a cap. When they caught the ball, they would 'mark' the spot with their cap. That's how it got named as a mark.
The origin of the term “mark” has a few possible sources. In rugby and the early days of soccer, a player would shout 'mark' and mark the ground with their foot. It was formerly a requirement in the Australian game to make such a mark but this is no longer the case. Sometimes a cap which formed part of the uniform was used to show where the fair catch was taken.
these are the best marks from around 3 months of play, if you want to see the best plays from the start of the televised era to ~2012, TOP 50 MARKS OF ALL TIME is a good place to start :)
A mark in Australian rules football is where a player cleanly catches (or is deemed to have controlled the ball for sufficient time by the umpire) a kicked ball that has travelled more than 15 metres without any other player touching it (prior to the player marking the ball) or the ball hitting the ground. Sufficient time will vary according to the conditions. If it's wet they normally don't have to control it for as long. Also if it's a spectacular mark it seems they don't need to control it for as long either. Sticky gloves that are used in NFL to catch the ball are illegal in AFL. Mark is just another word for catch. If the ball is marked the player can play on straight away or have ten seconds to dispose of the ball unless he's having a shot in goal, in that case he will be given thirty seconds.
As a New South Welshmen who grew up mostly on rugby league it took many years to get into AFL and the fact that they will award marks despite them losing the ball after landing bothered me the most but still a great sport
The mark is named after where you catch it. After which a defender can "stand on the mark" and you need to go back from it to give yourself space to kick etc. Compare to where the ref in NFL "marks" the spot of the next play and everything sets up from there.
Most of these are ‘speckies’ (spectacular marks taken above the heads of your opponent or team mate) and there are also ‘hangers’ when they seem to stay up in the air for awhile. A mark is when the player catches the ball cleanly (without anyone touching it between the kickers foot and your hands) marks can be taken anywhere from just above the ground to above your head.
Glad you enjoyed these speckies. The player kicking the ball does not have to call where he is kicking it. The "mark" refers to the place the ball is caught. In the old days (earliest days of the game - 1850s), the player marking the ball would call "mark" to indicate that he had caught it. He could then go back behind the mark (the place where he marked the ball) and take a kick. The opposition is allowed to have a player stand "on the mark". For a long time now, it is the umpire (what you called a referee) who determines whether it is a mark. To be called a mark, the ball has to be kicked at least 20 metres, with no player touching the ball on the way, and the player has to be deemed to have "controlled" the ball (obviously a bit subjective, but it is ok if it gets released as the player hits the ground, rather than the ball hitting the ground). You are allowed to push the other player, other than in the back, if the ball is within 5 metres. The player in front usually does have a better chance of taking the mark, but of course, the ones from behind is more spectacular and thus more likely to occur in a video like this. The mark of the year is announced on Brownlow Medal (the best and fairest winner for the AFL season) night, which was on the Sunday (usually it is Monday) before the Grand Final in late September. The winner was Shai Bolton (the guy in the yellow jumper towards the end of this list).
Once you catch the ball ( untouched .. by any other player), you walk backwards from your "MARK" ( sometimes a physical Mark in the grass turf made by the player with his boot so he knows where he must kick It from, I.e. the forward-most position), he then steps forward a kicks the ball unhindered, except by the opposing player on the "Mark", which he can't go over. "Mark". NOW you know.
Hiya Ryan. I guess that now you have to book a two week holiday in September 2023 and go and watch the grand final. Be sure to bring your beautiful family with you. You book a grand final ticket through the afl (Australian football league headquarters..I think) you would love it. Be sure, if you can, book seats behind either goalposts. You will see the game much better. I support the Geelong Cats (we won the 2022 grand final against the Sydney Swans). I love watching your videos and can't help laughing when you laugh and your facial expressions - just wicked. Enjoy😂😂
lso forgot to say about Marking. When a player is going for a mark it is legal to use your defenders back to springboard up, you can also use your own team mates as well. In any other part of the game you would be penalised for hitting a player in the back, but you can only in a marking attempt.
You usually just have to control the ball until you hit the ground. Some of those marks had the ball hit out of their hands after they had taken control of the ball but this is still a mark since they didn't drop the ball, it was hit out by a player or the jolt of hitting the ground.
There's some differences regarding catches in NFL and AFL. NFL players get some perks. a) NFL balls have some grip, AFL balls are smooth. b) NFL players wear gloves that have plenty of grip, AFL players do not. c) NFL balls slightly smaller in girth.
@@theiaofseed Yeah agree with the pointy comment, especially for one handed catches. But your "you don't mark a ball at its widest point" comment, many players must beg to differ. Most of the marks with clean hands in this video are caught at the widest point or extremely close to it.
The mark is where you catch the ball. The defender then defends (stands on) that position. So the defender stands there and is called the "man on the mark". The person with the ball must kick it from a position in line with this "man on the mark" and the goal. The ball must go over the man on the mark or you can "play on" and kick around the side of him. Note, you can not play on when time has expired. Collingwood often get Mason Cox to stand on the mark because he is tall.
You only have to be judged by the umpire to have control of the ball. It’s all about making the effort to get first hands to it. You’d have to be a pretty hard taskmaster to expect to keep control on the way down with all the carnage
Need to remember the all-important 'rule of cool'. As long as you make it look awesome enough, some of the technical rules will be relaxed (how well you control it, whether you've pushed your hands into their back, etc).
Hi Ryan.. Did you notice at the @ the 2.48 Min. mark of the video"The Stadium Roof".. This is a retractable roof at Docklands Melbourne...Cheers Alan Geelong..
The "marking" of the spot takes place after the ball is caught. When you make the catch (mark), you are awarded a free kick from the spot the ball was caught.
Part of the job of the umpire isn't just enforce the rules but to keep the play going. We don't want pauses in the game where the players get swapped or teams decide on their play, so the umpires make snap decisions in dynamic situations, like when to pay a mark or when to play on
At about 4:15, the marking player had control for long enough to establish that he had taken the mark, before the ball was dislodged by his landing, and the umpire is the one who has the final say, hence paying or not paying the mark.
Its counted as a mark if it sticks in the hands for a second where the player has control of the ball. If its dislodged as the player lands its still counted as he had control of it at some point. Its the umpire that makes the call . No you arent supposed to be able to use your hands in the back of the opponent but again the umpire has to adjudicate it so sometimes they miss things.
You don’t need to bring the ball to ground as you would in NFL you just need to take control, the moment control is taken the mark can be paid. That being said I don’t reckon that some of these fit that criteria either but umpires are human too and can make mistakes.
A mark is simply the term used to describe a legitimate catch. You can be o your own or in a pack, catch it on your chest or leap in the air, makes no difference, it is still a mark. The more spectacular marks, where players climb high over the tops of others have slang terms such as Hanger, Specky, Screamer and one of two others than some will use but those three are most commonly used. To be awarded a mark in Aussie Rules, the Umpire must form an opinion that the player has had AT LEAST, some control of the Football. It's not about keeping control, as it is in the NFL )for example) So, this is very much a grey area in Aussie Rules Football. What one umpire may well consider enough control to award a mark, another umpire may not and simply call play-on. You will always find marks that have been awarded that will always creating talking points, with different opinions being shared and argued about. The one thing you will usually find is that the higher degree of difficulty involved in the marking attempt, the more forgiving an umpire will usually be. For example, if you are 10 metres in the clear and you drop a straight forward pass, then no umpire is going to award that sort of effort. If, however, you are climbing up over the top of a pack and find yourself heading for the ground headfirst, spilling the ball in the process, then the chances are that the umpire will award the mark based largely on effort. Awarding marks based on effort and only minor control essentially rewards the players for effort and that then encourages players to pull-off spectacular marking attempts. If the umpires didn't reward these types of spectacular where ever possible, then it would risk seeing players becoming more subjective in their marking attempts and the games losing that spectacular part of the game.
If the ball is clearly clutched in the hands, but gets shook loose by a landing, or an opponent knocking it away, it generally is adjudged a mark. They have to have shown that they had control over it for a good moment, is all. Fumbling all the way down, then gets knocked loose, by opponent or ground, not a mark. If a dodgy one is adjudged a mark, or a good one not, you can usually tell from the reaction of the crowd, - they'll let the ump know!
With the mark that you were questioning over control. In the last replay, you can clearly see the opponent attempt to strip it after the mark was completed. He never juggled it, but plucked it which is considered a mark. Even if it came out on impacting the ground, it would be very likely to be paid a mark. So basically, the opponent spoiled the mark after the fact. You will find intricacies like this in AFL rules throughout, which makes it all the more challenging for the umpire to interpret. And it makes for good, or bad verbal from the crowd.
The MARK is two things 1. The spot where you took the mark Is where the Opposition stands whilst you take your free kick. 2 You "Mark [catch] the Ball"
Some times you just leap up for the ball and get a ride, some times when you know it is there, you can pick your opponent to jump on and especially for shorter players you can also move your opponent under the ball while getting more height for advantage
If you catch the ball from a kick 15 meters away regardless witch team kicks it's called a mark, you get a few seconds depending where on the field your at. You should watch "What is AFL" it's a good vid so you understand the basics of the game . Good luck with your venture and if your a sport's fan you'll grow to enjoy this awesome game that's been played since the 1800's
If you watch carefully as they leap up for the ball, you'll see that they do not put their hands on the other player's back or shoulder - that is not legal, it's called 'In the back' and the other player would get a free kick for being pushed out of the competition. It's fine to use them like a ladder though! Just don't use your hands! :)
I'm surprised to not see an explanation for the type of 'Mark' you keep commenting on. Its called a "Speccy" (Spectacular Mark) So that's what you need to be looking for.. Also, I a 38 yr old woman, still remember my first in game mark. I was about 11 & think of it fondly.I've always known the rules and I can tell you every year my team (pies btw)has won the grand final. But I swear I'm not 'into' Aussie rules.. I think we are just built with it in our DNA down here.
Marks taken ‘running back with the flight of the ball’, are regarded as the bravest marks. Because you can’t watch the ball and see what your running into.
You normally have to control the ball to ground for it to be a mark, if the ball pops out when you hit the ground it is still called a mark, of course the umpires(refs) are only human and can make mistakes, he might get caught up with in the moment or not see the ball come loose before the player brings it to ground and still call it a mark.
The people that pay the mark is the umpire which when they blow the whistle it would give you a reaction of that it’s a paid mark. And the umpires not only blow the whistle when it’s a mark because there could be a free kick
You can’t push each other on the opposite team in mid air or during the game not in mid air because that would be a free kick which would automatically be giving to the opposition
When someone takes a mark, and decides to take their kick in place, the closest opposition player has to stand on the spot where they took the mark, while the marker backs up a minimum of 10 metres to take their kick, and no other player from either side can be between the kicker and the man on the mark; indeed, games have been lost because the man on the mark overstepped the mark, giving up a distance penalty to the kicker for his sins.
When I was growing up in the state of Victoria, I KNEW that AFL was the best game ever invented. I'm sure a lot of Aussies (especially Victorians) still think that. You'll enjoy this compilation if you haven't seen it already. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-7AjcFfBvIcs.html
Hi Ryan, l know this is an old post but wanted you to also check AFLs biggest hits and brawls. Also check out Aussies other game Rugby League the NRL. That's great too. Thanks.
I’m sure everyone has explained everything to you, by now 😂 I have to say, I reckon the vid of “how to play” that you watched was very/overly technical! I know how footy is played and even I was going “huh? Whaaaa?”
I reckon you should be a Magpies fan. You like the attacking birds. It's the Collingwood Football Club. (Shut your pieholes non-Maggies fans). You should look up Sav Rocca. He could kick that ball over 60 metres - awesome goal kicker! He retired from AFL at 32 and joined the NFL, and was a punter playing for the Philadelphia Eagles and Washington Redskins.
Google Jonathon Brown from Brisbane Lions. He was fearless and took some somescreamers. "Hitting your mark" has nothing to do with the game. You "take" a mark. A mark is a clean catch and some are better than others.
No such thing as "incomplete" in Australian Rules Football. Having the ball subsequently knocked from your hands when you hit the ground or in a collision with another player doesn't come into it as long as you had sufficient control over it at the moment you caught it, in the umpire's opinion. Of course there are some "line calls" which can go either way, and the crowd reaction will make it obvious whether they approve or not!
you cannot push with your hands... only you r body, and high flying marks where the flying player steadies himself with his hands should also be a free kick to the player being jumped on, they often over look steadying with the hands to help make the game exciting and encourage the high mark. Injuries during marking contests are rare, big bumps are more damaging. To qualify as a mark the player marking the ball should have control of the ball for 3 seconds....
