Quote Originally Posted by liz View Post
I don't agree with you on that point. In almost every instance where a player goes to ground to win the ball, they are not attempting to make contact with a player's legs. It's just got nothing to do with their intention at all. Their intention is to try and win possession.

But the rule is trying to change players' behaviour by encouraging them not to go to ground at all in those circumstances. It's the action of going to ground that is being penalised, not the outcome of whether forcible contact is actually made, or whether the opposition player is able to take evasive action. This is somewhat different to a player choosing to move towards someone already on the ground and causing the contact below the knees. I have seen instances of this and those are the ones that I think are incorrectly paid. It comes down to the time and space that the players have to adjust their movements. But in this case, the Demons player didn't have the choice of avoiding contact other than by jumping in the way he did. He didn't have time to stop.
I agree with you again that this would appear to be the AFL's policy goal. However, once again they seem to have undermined it with poor drafting. What you wrote is not what the Laws say. The rule makes no reference to a player going to ground.