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Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...
, a rushed behind occurs when the ball passes through the goalposts and was last touched by a defending player. A rushed behind scores one point for the attacking team, but it also prevents the attacking team from scoring a goal, worth six points. A rushed behind typically occurs when a defending player touches the ball after it has been kicked and as it heads toward the goal; by touching the ball, the defender ensures that the attacking team scores only one point rather than the full six. It may be less risky for a defending player in possession of the ball to deliberately concede a rushed behind rather than try to prevent any score outright. A deliberately rushed behind results in a free kick to the opposing side unless under extreme pressure. Rushed behinds are statistically credited to no player; scoresheets will simply include the tally of total rushed behinds credited to a team's score. This is comparable to extras (aka sundries) in
cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...
. It is impossible for a defending team to directly concede a "rushed goal" worth six points. In other words, if a player kicks what would be the equivalent of an own goal in soccer, only one point is conceded.


Free kick for conceding a deliberate rushed behind

Since 2009, it has been illegal in AFL matches for a defender to deliberately concede a rushed behind when he is not under any pressure from the attacking team. In the event that a defender does this, the umpire awards a free kick to the attacking team on the goal-line at the spot where the defender conceded the score. The defender may still deliberately concede a rushed behind if he is under pressure from an attacker. Two high-profile incidents during the
2008 AFL season The 2008 AFL season was the 112th season of the Australian Football League (AFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Australia, which was known as the Victorian Football League until 1989. The season featured si ...
were largely responsible for the introduction of this rule. In Round 16, Richmond's Joel Bowden rushed two behinds in a row while kicking in to use up time towards the end of their game against Essendon, reducing the margin from 6 points to 4 points, but enabling Richmond to win the game. Then the
2008 AFL Grand Final The 2008 AFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football match contested between the Geelong Football Club and the Hawthorn Football Club, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne on 27 September 2008. It was the 112th annual grand fi ...
saw Hawthorn rush a record 11 behinds against
Geelong Geelong ( ) (Wathawurrung: ''Djilang''/''Djalang'') is a port city in the southeastern Australian state of Victoria, located at the eastern end of Corio Bay (the smaller western portion of Port Phillip Bay) and the left bank of Barwon River, ...
. Prior to the 2008 season, a variation had already been trialled in pre-season matches in which a deliberate rushed behind conceded three points instead of one; this was never introduced into premiership matches. The new rule change, especially its early implementation, caused a lot of confusion, as many players were unsure what constituted pressure as far as the umpires were concerned, leading to some players illegally conceding behind without pressure and giving up a free kick and near-certain goal; conversely, some players would refuse to concede a behind out of fear of giving away a free kick—even if such a concession would have been legal in that context. The rule intermittently came back into focus again between 2016 and 2018, as a change to the rule renewed the confusion. AFL Legend Kevin Bartlett said in May 2017 that the rule "lacks common sense", referring specifically to an incident where Jayden Short was in a footrace to the goal line with Essendon’s Josh Green. Green, unbeknownst to Short, gave up the chase, but Short conceded the behind anyway and was penalised with a free kick due to Green not applying adequate pressure in the umpire's mind to legally allow Short to rush a behind.


References

{{Australian rules football terminology Australian rules football terminology Australian rules football tactics Laws of Australian rules football