You can lose ALL your points for playing one too many people in Aussie Rules football | Weird Rules

The simplest mistakes can have the biggest consequences. No, I'm not talking about why I'm here in the first place, but an extremely weird rule that can wipe out your entire score if you have just one too many players on the field. What's more is in this sport, there are already 18-players on each side, so honestly how big of a difference is 19?

In Aussie Rules Football, if you field one extra person - whether by mistake or a substitute coming on too early for an injured player - the umpires can knock you all the way back down to zero. It's like that kid you played games with growing up who would get frustrated and make up a rule that started everything over. And no one likes that kid. I hope you read this, Tyler.

Researched and hosted by Ryan Simmons and Seth Rosenthal
Shot by Joe Ali
Edited by Joe Ali and Alex Hawley
Animations by Phil Pasternak

[SecretBaseSBN]

Legitimately think this might be the harshest rule that we've covered on the show. Like, this feels as though someone woke up grumpy and just wanted to be a jerk. Y'all got anything you think is worse?

[dsriggs]

Never thought I'd hear West Torrens Eagles chat on SBNation, but here we are.

[powerbug]

As an Aussie, saw the headline, had a laugh. Watched the video, didn’t do too bad a job!

Just for those unaware though, in the professional Aussie Rules league (The AFL) this rule is not applied and it’s just a free kick, but it is still a thing in all lower league competitions in the country.

[patlavery]

Another funny example of the 19 man rule was in the regional country league in Victoria, one team was winning by about 100 points with 8 minutes to go in the 4th quarter when the losing team called a head count, and it was revealed that the winning team accidentally had 19 men on the field, so their 100 point lead was reduced to a 25 point defecit.
In the ensuing chaos of this 120 point turnaround, a member of the team that was previously losing ran onto the field to taunt the opposition, who called for ANOTHER head count, it was found that THAT team now had 19 on the field, and their score was also erased.
Complete and utter madness.

[apathynoises]

In reality this rule is all but obsolete. In professional and semi-professional competitions teams do sometimes get 19 players on field for a few seconds because of mistakes at interchange, but instead of head-count usually one of the umpires will call an "Interchange Breach". The team that made the infringement will give up possession, and concede 50 metres. Or in other words, the opposition player receives a free kick, after walking 50 metres forward uncontested from where the ball is when the infringement is found.


Headcounts are more common in junior competitions (but still rare), but generally the penalty isn't usually wiping out the score completely. They might get a goal taken off, or have the same penalty as interchange breach (it differs based on each specific league)

[ashleawithers]

It’s hard to actually do this, as the interchange is heavily monitored now a days. A mistake on interchange results in a fine, such as players crossing the interchange line before the sub has left the field. Also, a 19th person can make a difference in an AFL game, as players are matched to an opponent and generally have to defend that player. So if there’s an extra player, they could easily sneak towards the goals without being defended.

[TimK]

There was a more recent incident around this in September 2018.
In the SANFL Semi-Finals, North Adelaide was discovered to have had 19 players on the field for about 5 minutes - during this time scoring 8 points, going on to win by 5 points. The player count wasn't done, because only the captain can call for the count and the extra player was off by the time it was noticed.
Woodville-West Torrens (They merged) protested the result, but rather than overturn the result the SANFL opted to let North Adelaide play in the Final the following week - which they went on to win, fine them $10, 000 and start the 2019 Season on -2 wins

[themightytk]

Just a note, players do know the exact score, and as far as i know they they've always been able to. There are large scoreboards at every stadium and even at local grounds. But correct regarding the time.
The clock actually counts up, similar to soccer, with time added for stoppages. So a quarter is 20mins plus stoppage time, but they don't advertise to the players how much time is being added. If you're watching on tv you can see the countdown clock though, so coaches and bench players always know and make the players on the field aware exactly how long is left.

[short]

Had to double take when i saw Razor Ray on an SB nation thumbnail

[N.I.R.A.T.I.A.S.]

0:34 And yet not even in the top ten harshest things about Australia.

Also, "Norm Dare" is such a 1970s football name.

[HarryCollett]

This happened last year!!!! It's rare but last year North Adelaide in the SANFL they had 19 men on the field for a minute or two. They managed to get their player off before a head count could be called. It was a deal in South Australia including a hearing with an ex-supreme court judge to decide whether they could play next week or have the result overturned. They won that game, then the next weekend won the grand final.

[Imawesomeking]

Im proud of SB Nation, as an Australian viewer and huge fan of this channel, I'm glad you guys recognise Australian sport. Lotta love from down under.

[Jon_]

A rule about as harsh is the rule in golf where if you don’t sign your score card you points are taken away. It’s like you never played the game at all.

[rohinkartik-narayan]

You mentioned Mario Party and losing everything, so allow me to point out that in Mario Party DS on Bowser's Pinball Machine, there is a string of 5 spaces *in a row* that if you land on them you lose all of your Coins AND all of your Stars. They are by far the most brutal spaces in any Mario Party game. I've seen it happen with people that had like 10 stars (DS is a very high-scoring game).

[baileyfry]

Craziest story o this was in the SANFL last year, preliminary final to make the grand final and North Adelaide made a 40+ point comeback, but for a 5 minute period they had 19 on the field and scored around 7-10 points, which was the margin they won by. However after the game they had 2 games deducted from next seasons tally and a fine. They went in to win the Grand Final.

[Troyza]

So happy we're finally getting the AFL related SB nation content we all deserve

[lachlanwright]

Being Australian and following this account religiously for a while, it's satisfying seeing my favourite sport take the spotlight for a video

[bigbrowntau]

2:48 You're right about the remaining time left, only the timekeepers know. Makes for some tense play, not knowing if that last second play has enough time to work. Players can look up at the scoreboard though if they want to know the score. Love your idea of pushing an opposing player into play then calling for a headcount!

[Xarxs]

To sort of explain why a single extra player ends up being a big advantage and why it was (and still is in smaller local leagues) punished so heavily without going too in depth about it; If you get tackled with the ball it reverts to something similar to a 50/50 basketball tip off, so a lot of the ball movement relies upon getting a free player or outnumbering the opposition around the ball (2v1, 3v2 etc). Having just one single extra player, means you've always got a free option to pass to on attack while on defense be able to attack the player with the ball while covering all his options to pass to.

[dits]

I was actually at this game your talking about as a West Adelaide supporter, it was the West Adelaide captain who makes the call to tell the umpire he wants a head count. It was chaotic as West Torrens players were fleeing off the ground in all directions to make it impossible to have the count. West Adelaide players were trying to stop them. At that stage of the game from memory, West Torrens were in front by a couple of goals, should have had their score wiped but went on to win easily as West Adelaide practically gave up. The rule book was thrown out of the window that day.