Super Goal

A Super Goal is an innovation used in the Australian Football League's pre-season competition in the sport of Australian rules football.

The Super Goal was introduced before the 2003 Wizard Cup, and is awarded nine points instead of the regulation six. For a goal on the run to be considered a Super Goal, the grounded foot of the player must be outside the 50-metre arc. If the goal is kicked from a set shot, the mark must be outside the 50 metre arc.

If a fifty-metre penalty takes the spot of the mark from outside the fifty-metre line to inside it, teams are given the choice to either take the full 50m penalty and kick for six points, or to move the spot of the mark right onto the fifty-metre line and kick for nine points. This is to prevent teams from deliberately conceding a 50-metre penalty to, for example, prevent a team which is seven points behind from scoring a nine-point goal at the end of a close game. In the same situation prior to the rule change for the 2011 NAB Cup, the full fifty-metre penalty was automatically imposed and a nine-point goal was awarded regardless of how close to goal the kick was taken from.

The Super Goal is also used in EJ Whitten Legends Games between Victoria and the All-Stars, although the distance from which they must be kicked is reduced to 40 metres.

In recent pre-season competitions, a video umpire has been in place to determine if the score was a super goal or not in the event that the field umpire could not make the distinction himself. Amendments are generally made during the game, though a Super Goal awarded to Brisbane Lions midfielder Luke Power in the 2007 NAB Cup semi-final win over the Geelong Football Club was amended after the siren to a regular goal. Though this did not affect the result of the game, it caused confusion amongst betting agencies which had taken bets on the final margin of the game. Nevertheless, the umpire has not always been used for contentious decisions occasionally resulting in the incorrect score being awarded.

The umpire signal for the 9-Point goal is for the Field umpire to give the 'All Clear' and raise 9 fingers to the goal umpire. The goal umpire then raises both arms into the air and waves 2 red flags.

Another innovation related to the Super Goal is the sponsor NAB paying $1000 to the club a player first joined as a junior for every Super Goal he scores in the NAB Cup. However, the Brisbane Lions rookie Colm Begley, who kicked a Super Goal in the 2007 semi final, joined the Lions as an international rookie, having played Gaelic football through his youth. There is lighthearted debate as to where the $1000 should go.

The system favours the players who have the ability to kick the ball long distances, with Essendon's Scott Lucas, Melbourne's Paul Wheatley and Collingwood's Ryan Lonie among those to have enjoyed the rule more than most.