"They can't do it": Brownlow Medallist calls out the AFL's lost skill

Brownlow Medallist and former superstar Tom Mitchell believes that the art of handballing has been lost within the AFL.

One of the most crucial facets to the game of Aussie Rules, the handball is easy enough in its execution, with hundreds of handballs executed on a nightly basis.

However, Mitchell argues that simply hitting a target via handball is far from adequate, as the frequency and ability to use both hands to fire out a pinpoint ball continues to dwindle.

One of the game's best ball handlers in recent history, the former Magpie, Hawk and Swan has been far from satisfied with the skill of today's game.

“My thing as a player was ball handling and handballing,” Mitchell told SEN Locked In.

“That was my strength, so that’s what I focus on. I think most players in footy have an opposite foot kick that can get them out of trouble. A little dink, or a get out of trouble long, I think that’s the bare minimum.

“I see too often players can’t handball. They can’t handball opposite hand, and I think because they’re in the AFL, it’s assumed, ‘you’re an AFL player, you know how to handball’. They don’t. A lot of guys don’t.

“Next game you watch, go and look at how many handballs not only miss by half a metre, but how many handballs are floaters.

“I watch this closely, because it was my strength. It’s what I loved to do. I was mentored by Diesel Williams who taught me how to handball properly.

“You see the best handballers – Lachie Neale, Will Ashcroft, even Scott Pendlebury – you can tell someone is a good ball handler within two minutes of having a handball with them.

“The way they have control of the ball, the little finesse, taps and dinks, all of that stuff. Even guys that can just control the ball with one hand, Marcus Bontempelli style stuff.

“Even a handball that hits the target, I don’t think is necessarily a good handball. A lot of them float, and that split second that it takes to get there invites the pressure to the next handball that floats.

“It doesn’t get spoken about because the handball hits the target, but the difference between a Lachie Neale or an Ashcroft that fizz it through the air, it spins, it gets there quick and it’s on the right side… it’s a skill that’s so important in the game.

“I think we recognise the ones that miss by a metre or that hit the ground. How do you miss that, you’re three metres away? But the difference in the spin, the penetration through the air, the fizz… there’s a difference between a quality handball and an average handball.”

Beyond the skill present - or absent - in the AFL today, Mitchell believes that the talent of tomorrow are failing to hone in on the game's lost art.

“I’m telling you, so many draftees, particularly when they come in, they can’t handball left hand,” he said.

“They can’t do it!

“I think it’s assumed in the talent programs and in the AFL that they know how to do it. It’s an easy skill, but if you look at the quality of it; the uncoordination in the arm swing, the flatness and speed of the ball…

“To me, it looks uncoordinated to some players.”