Half-back Line
The half-back line consists of two half-back flankers and the centre half-back. The role of centre half-back has remained largely unmodified throughout the years. The centre half-back dominates play to a significant extent, and hence is considered a key position in defence.
Ideally, the centre half-back should be a durable player, quite tall and well-built.Along with their half-back flankers, centre half-backs are the first line of defence, but also key players in winning the ball, and creating and assisting in attack.
Centre half-backs must have a great understanding of team structures, especially the strategies for kick-ins. They need to be able to compete and take contested marks, and also run off their opponent to win uncontested possessions and force their opponents to chase.
The half-back flank is very similar to the back pocket position. However, a true half-back flanker is more attacking and concentrates on rebounding the ball out of the defensive 50. Sometimes half-back flankers even forgo their defensive duties in order to be more attacking. When a half-back flanker is attacking, they play like a wing-back in soccer (or an attacking full-back), and if they are more defensive then they play like a traditional full-back in soccer.
Read more about this topic: Fullback (Australian Rules Football)
Famous quotes containing the word line:
“I fear I agree with your friend in not liking all sermons. Some of them, one has to confess, are rubbish: but then I release my attention from the preacher, and go ahead in any line of thought he may have started: and his after-eloquence acts as a kind of accompaniment—like music while one is reading poetry, which often, to me, adds to the effect.”
—Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832–1898)