. . . . . . "30.0"^^ . "Holding the ball"@en . . "3234816"^^ . "\u2014 South Australian champion Dan Moriarty on the no-drop rule"@en . "The Canberra Times, 1989."@en . . . . "The News, 1946"@en . . . "\"In my day [the early 1920s], when a good player got his hands on the ball, it was almost certain he would get a kick some way or another. He could drop the ball when grabbed by an opponent, or play it in front of him and snatch it up again, all the time battling physically and with his wits to beat his opponent. Nowadays it doesn't matter how good a man is, as soon as he is touched he has to get rid of the ball, often hurriedly and without direction. The game is called up too much and there are too many pauses.\""@en . . . . . . . . "Holding the ball is an infraction in Australian rules football. The rule results in a free kick being awarded against a player who fails to correctly dispose of the football upon being tackled by an opponent, although not under all circumstances. The rule provides the defending team a means to dispossess a player who is running with the football, and prevents players from slowing the play. The holding the ball rule dates to the formative years of the game. It has a long history as one of the most contentious rules in the game and one of the most difficult to umpire consistently, in large part due to the several points of umpire discretion involved in its interpretation."@en . "Most football supporters endorse the view that the holding-the-ball-holding-the-man rule is the most contentious in the law book governing the national code."@en . . . . . "The Advertiser, 2014."@en . . "20.0"^^ . . "High on the list of criticisms is one of the game's perennial debates \u2013 the holding the man/holding the ball rule."@en . "Holding the ball is an infraction in Australian rules football. The rule results in a free kick being awarded against a player who fails to correctly dispose of the football upon being tackled by an opponent, although not under all circumstances. The rule provides the defending team a means to dispossess a player who is running with the football, and prevents players from slowing the play."@en . . "The Advertiser, 1951."@en . "Holding the ball remains Australian football's most complicated and annoying rule."@en . . . "right"@en . . . . . "The Advertiser, 1927."@en . . . . . . . "1096101454"^^ . . . . . "Perhaps in no sport is there a rule which has given rise to more discussion, or caused more difficulty in its interpretation than this law of the Australian game."@en . "29880"^^ . .