Free kick differential over the last 15 years

[liz]

Hawks fans reckon Buddy has had a far better go from the umpires since he donned the red and white than he did at Hawthorn. It's hard to say whether that's true or not, but certainly his worst two season differentials were when he was a young player at Hawthorn. He's probably got smarter and less impetuous as he gets older.

As a general rule, most big forwards don't get protection from umpires when they are held in marking contests (unless their opponent is Heath Grundy, by the looks of things). Often their opponent can completely wrap their arms around them and they still won't get a free. Nick Riewoldt was an exception to the rule, and it seems that Ben Brown is fast becoming one, regardless of what Brad Scott reckons.

Selwood and Buddy aren't a great comparison for other reasons. Selwood attends far more contests and in more congestion as a midfielder, and his height makes him more likely to get high contact frees than any tall forward (even ignoring his penchant for creating that head high contact himself - at least some of his head high frees are genuine infringements by opponents, and he does tend to attack the ball at ground level a lot, even compared to most midfielders).

[Blood Fever]

Hawks fans reckon Buddy has had a far better go from the umpires since he donned the red and white than he did at Hawthorn. It's hard to say whether that's true or not, but certainly his worst two season differentials were when he was a young player at Hawthorn. He's probably got smarter and less impetuous as he gets older.

As a general rule, most big forwards don't get protection from umpires when they are held in marking contests (unless their opponent is Heath Grundy, by the looks of things). Often their opponent can completely wrap their arms around them and they still won't get a free. Nick Riewoldt was an exception to the rule, and it seems that Ben Brown is fast becoming one, regardless of what Brad Scott reckons.

Selwood and Buddy aren't a great comparison for other reasons. Selwood attends far more contests and in more congestion as a midfielder, and his height makes him more likely to get high contact frees than any tall forward (even ignoring his penchant for creating that head high contact himself - at least some of his head high frees are genuine infringements by opponents, and he does tend to attack the ball at ground level a lot, even compared to most midfielders).

Big aggressive forwards are treated differently. Think Lockett and Hall who got hardly any. Buddy not quite the same but similar. Hall and Lockett hardly ever went to ground. Buddy is hard to knock over as well.