Australian Football Hall of Famer Malcolm Blight has declared he will walk away from the game if prior opportunity is ever taken out of tackling.
Blight’s strong comments come in response to a take from former Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley, who suggested a reduction in prior opportunity would benefit the game.
“You won’t find as much congestion, coaches won’t want to take that risk of running through pressure… it’ll open the game up…” he told SEN’s Whateley.
Rewarding the tackler is a view Buckley has held from his coaching days and perhaps even longer.
But Blight – who made five Grand Finals in his coaching career and won two flags with Adelaide – was staunch in his position that prior opportunity is integral to the framework of the game.
“I’ve never seen so much tripe in all my life in football,” Blight began on Sportsday SA.
“I just not could understand how anyone that knows the moral fibre of our game, the way our game was setup... it was attack the football, get the football, use the football, kick a goal, go back to the centre.
“Our game is so unique, you go back after a major is scored and it’s 50/50 again.
“If the whole thing is about tackling, what about getting the ball?”
Blight was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2015 and then received legend status in 2017. A famous playing and coaching name, there are few with bigger statuses in the game.
But even with his contribution to the AFL, Blight says he would walk away if prior opportunity is removed.
“If we don’t have prior opportunity, I personally will walk away from this game. I will not stay in this game if you don’t give the person going for the ball, making the game prior opportunity, our game is stuffed,” Blight continued.
“This is one I just can’t fathom. Two players stand side by side and no one goes and gets it. I just don’t get it.
Blight added: “the other thing is, (tackling) is overrated. I think in coaching works now it’s overrated. If you get the ball first, you don’t have to tackle.”
In recent years, the league has addressed prior opportunity as part of several measures to reduce congestion in the game.
At the start of the 2022 season, the AFL announced that umpires would be “less lenient towards players who have had prior opportunity and do not immediately and correctly dispose of the football”.