Mark (Australian rules football)

The four most prolific markers in the history of the Australian Football League – Nick Riewoldt (2,944), Gary Dempsey (2,906), Stewart Loewe (2,503) and Matthew Richardson (2,270) – also standout for each achieving a career an average of around eight marks per game.

[1] A 2003 AFL match, between St Kilda and Port Adelaide, set a record of 303 marks in a single game.

[3][4] In the early decades of Australian rules football, the minimum distance was substantially shorter, resulting in a type of play called a "little mark", in which a team could earn a mark by kicking the ball a short distance into the hands of a team-mate standing almost immediately adjacent.

[11] The combination of kick and mark as the primary means for advancing the ball has been a distinctive feature of Australian football ever since the first rules were created in 1859.

The original rules of the game, which were published in The Footballer newspaper in 1859, included the phrase "A mark shall be considered to be a clean catch of the ball, on the full, without it touching the ground".

Another source of the term may have been from the traditional Aboriginal game of Marn Grook, which is said to have influenced founder Tom Wills' development of the early forms of Australian football.

[15] However players who leapt for the ball could be pushed in mid air, risking immediate dispossession, if not injury.

At a meeting of the Australasian Football Council (AFC) in 1890 a motion was passed banning pushing in the back in a marking contest which was agreed to by its member leagues including Victoria.

Spoiling is the technique typically employed by opposition defenders to legally stop a player from catching the ball.

Deliberately taking, hacking or chopping the arms is an infringement committed by players which will result in a free kick.

[22] The rule was introduced by the AFL amidst on-going calls from fans and commentators to take action against the defensive tactic of flooding.

The rule does directly limit the effectiveness of defenders, but the AFL has never stated whether or not flooding was the reason for the change.

[22] Marking can cause injuries to hands and fingers, including hyperextension, joint and tendon damage, dislocation and fractures.

To overcome these injuries, some players will strap problem fingers together, whole hands, wear splints or gloves.

AFL players whose careers were threatened by such injuries include Robert Campbell, Fraser Gehrig, Brett Backwell and Daniel Chick.

Some players, such as Backwell and Chick, have opted for amputation of digits in a bid to extend their playing careers and continue to mark the ball.