Dear Marge What's all this about feet not being feet? I have been told that we do not blow if the ball goes onto the foot but to penalise if the foot comes into contact with the ball. Is this right? Has the rule changed? Confused. Dear Confused, Yes! - but there is no change to the rule or its interpretation. There was an attempt to make the no feet rule clearer where talk was about "ball to foot" and "foot to ball". That was confusing! Basically, if there is no advantage gained by the person whose foot touches the ball, then play on. An obvious example is the situation where a long ball has been sent up the field; a solitary defence player attempts to stop it but misses it and the ball catches her foot, or it bounces off her stick onto her foot. There are no forwards close to her and she has lost an opportunity to play the ball quickly so no advantage was gained by the ball touching her foot. In this instance play on. Use your voice to indicate play on. When other players are close and able to tackle for the ball then the best policy is to penalise the player. The only other time you need to penalise this player is if she deliberately puts out her foot to stop the ball. In this instance she has gained an advantage from using her foot. Other examples would include:
Only penalise, in these situations, if the player has deliberately used her foot to play the ball. Marge |
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