Good point David.
100% agree rule changes or
interpretations are ruing the game. i prefered the footy 10 years ago even if it may have been slower and less exciting. At least there wasn't bad decions of umps every week confusing the supporters.

Stop posting in capitals, you twit.

The thing with holding-the-ball is it is one of the rare decisions in a football game where the officials have to reward a team for doing something right. Usually it's all about punishing teams for doing something wrong. And there will always be grey areas with these decisions - such as in rugby union, where the referee has to watch a scrum and work out whether to reward a team for wheeling it, or punish one for collapsing it, or re-set it.

Nevertheless, I'm fairly happy with the way it's interpreted. Umpires can be blindsided to the ones where the tackler pulls the ball back in, but I think they're otherwise quite consistent - you just have understand the myriad of interpretations, which not enough fans bother doing.

I liked the old way. If you don't get rid of the ball when tackled either by kicking or handball, it's holding the ball. If you drop it, it's dropping the ball. It's too simple for the AFL though.

Its getting to the point where you can't understand what the umpires will call holding the ball on a week to week basis. But then again its like most rules nowdays. I think umpires should be subject to the same criticism as players and coahes. Maybe they will perform better