Playing On
A player taking a free kick is allowed to take his kick or handpass unimpeded unless the umpire calls play on. Play on will be called if:
- the player runs off his line; i.e. off the direct line between the man on the mark and the centre of the goals.
- the player runs over his mark; i.e. if the man on the mark has not set himself and the player runs towards his goals. This often happens deliberately if the player is pressing an advantage (such as setting up a goal kick while the opposing players are not yet in position to defend).
- the player takes too long to take his kick or handpass. Typically, this is after about eight seconds for any free kick around the ground, and thirty seconds for a set shot at goals. Some players abuse this disparity in their forward lines by taking thirty seconds to take a set shot, then playing on or passing short anyway.
The umpire has sole discretion over whether he believes the player has played on. Once a player plays on, he can be pursued by any opposition players. While the man on the mark can advance to hurry his disposal, he is most vulnerable to being tackled from a player pursuing from behind.
Read more about this topic: Free Kick (Australian Rules Football)
Famous quotes containing the words playing on and/or playing:
“New York has never learnt the art of growing old by playing on all its pasts. Its present invents itself, from hour to hour, in the act of throwing away its previous accomplishments and challenging the future. A city composed of paroxysmal places in monumental reliefs.”
—Michel de Certeau (1925–1986)
“While you’re playing cards with a regular guy or having a bite to eat with him, he seems a peaceable, good-humoured and not entirely dense person. But just begin a conversation with him about something inedible, politics or science, for instance, and he ends up in a deadend or starts in on such an obtuse and base philosophy that you can only wave your hand and leave.”
—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)
“Lovely,
this plowman’s son
with the good-looking wife
has gone so thin over you
that the woman,
though jealous,
is playing the go-between herself!”
—Hla Stavhana (c. 50 A.D.)