Joel Selwood, the man who perfected the art of ducking, has offered his advice to Jack Ginnivan as the Hawthorn forward battles to be taken seriously by umpires.
Ginnivan’s technique hit the spotlight in the Hawks’ Easter Monday defeat to Geelong after he copped several apparent high tackles without earning a free kick.
It prompted accusations that the 21-year-old is copping unfair treatment from AFL umpires on reputation alone.
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AFL footy executive Laura Kane has since denied those claims but conceded Ginnivan missed out on “a couple” of free kicks under the current interpretation.
“We don’t have a different set of rules for a player, for a club or a team. We officiate our games all the same way,” she said.
The Collingwood premiership player’s habit of raising his arm in a tackle follows Selwood adding that tactic to his arsenal during his career with Geelong.
“The lifting of the arm, they don’t like seeing that at all, the umpires,” Selwood said on Channel 7’s Talking Footy.
But the retired great says there is one key difference that has resulted in Ginnivan “giving away” the benefit of the doubt.
“My advice to Jack, and being in that position a number of times … it wasn’t ever to not continue the play,” he continued.
“I always looked for an exit point but also at the same time you’ve got to drive your legs, you’ve got to be stronger than the tackler. Make sure that you try and fight through.
“Mine on many occasions was to try and continue the play. The last thing that I wanted to do was to stop the play.
“Here we see Jack is just a little too easy to tackle and falls down on the tackle.”
Selwood, who was once punished for a legitimate high tackle on Ginnivan, said it is “really important” for the young gun to train himself to keep his feet.
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Essendon great Tim Watson disputed Kane’s claim that umpires did not have a different set of rules for Ginnivan on Monday.
“There were other free kicks that were awarded to players for very, very similar incidents,” he said.
“I really do think that they have a barrier there when they see Jack Ginnivan that’s not applied to other players on the ground.”
Selwood disagreed, saying the ‘tax’ put on Ginnivan was in truth that he was simply ‘very unlucky’.
Watson, though, hammered home his point of view with a question looking ahead to Hawthorn’s clash with Collingwood at Gather Round.
“Who here doesn’t think that he’s going to get a free kick in the first quarter this weekend for a head-high tackle?” he asked.
Trent Cotchin replied: “So you think he’ll be umpired differently this week to what he has been? Maintaining the arm (technique)?”
Watson said “100 per cent he will be”.
“The umpires are going to have this in the back of their mind, too, when they go out to officiate this weekend,” he said.
“The other thing I might do if I was him, because it’s very obvious that it is him, maybe he should wear short-sleeve jumper this weekend?
“And he’s not so obvious being the only bloke out on the ground with a long-sleeve jumper.”
