Australian ball further

By AL GRANING

Some of you will remember my columns of Aug. 17 and 24 touched on the game of Australian Rules Football, affectionately called &uot;Footy&uot; by those involved in the game.

I received correspondence from Rob deSantos of Columbus, Ohio, who is Chairman of the Board of the Australian Football Association of North America. Last week I received an e-mail from Keith Whitehouse of Perth, Western Australia, who had read the columns.

Keith is involved with Australian Rules Football in Australia and has offered a few corrections and clarifications to my sketch of the rules, or laws, of the game. He noted in Australia Goal Umpires are not known as &uot;goalies&uot; as I stated. That term may be an Americanized version.

Rob deSantos did not mention that difference in his correspondence. Keith also offered the following clarifications:

4The goal posts are evenly spaced, with the outside pair equally distant from the inside pair, and all of the gaps are the same.

4The Australian game is usually played with seven officials, rather than the 18 as I wrote. My information came from some web page and could have been a misprint.

4The box in front of the goal posts has no relevance to scoring, and its function is to serve as a space from which the opponents free-kick the ball after a score, rather than the ball being put back into play with a bounce ball by an official.

Mr. Whitehouse is now corresponding with Mr. DeSantos and is very interested in the development of Australian Rules Football in the States.

I remain with a single question about that game: How can a country like Australia, which has outlawed private ownership of guns because of violence, condone a game so violent? I pray America never follows suit.

Now, back to the familiar ground of American college football. A question arose during the Southern Miss-Houston game when some thought a safety should have been awarded to USM.

A Houston back, when attempting to return a kickoff, appeared to step out of the end zone into the field of play, then retreat back in to the end zone before taking a knee. The officials ruled a touchback.

Most are aware the goal line is considered a plane rather than a line, which means if any part of the ball breaks that plane while in control of an offensive player, a score is ruled.

Conversely, if any part of the ball remains in the end zone while in control of a defensive (or receiving team) player, the rule is the ball never left the end zone. While the Houston player did step out across the goal line, the officials ruled a part of the ball remained behind the goal line, therefore ruling the play a touchback rather than a safety.

I understand that State Coach Croom was upset with the officiating by the visiting Conference USA crew during his game against UAB Saturday. This again reinforces my opinion that neutral crews should be assigned to officiate major intersectional or interconference games.

And that’s official.

Al Graning is a former SEC official and former Natchez resident. Reach him at

AlanWard39157@aol.com

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