Running bounce

The earliest record of the running bounce is its use by the Geelong Football Club in 1862, as a means of slowing down the player in possession of the ball and to create more opportunities for a turn over.

Historians infer that the Geelong Football Club had, sometime prior to 1862, introduced a rule to touch or bounce the ball on the ground every few yards.

Geelong, asserting that the game was not meant to be played like rugby, began to enforce its rule of bouncing for matches between the two clubs.

[6] An early version of the Geelong-Melbourne rule had stipulated that "no player shall run with the ball unless he strikes it against the ground every five of six yards".

However the club believes that its rules differed from Blackheath's in that it specifically required the ball to be bounced and 22 players per side, though were otherwise similar.

The new rule was promoted as a way to slow down the player in possession of the ball and to create more opportunities for a turn over, thus helping to increase the number of disposals and encourage more dynamic team play.

Harrison himself was one of the fastest runners in the game, known for his ability to evade opponents while running the length of the field ball-in-hand.

Arthur Conan Doyle considered it "very sporting of [Harrison] to introduce the bouncing rule, which robbed him of his advantage.

The umpire signals running too far by rolling their clenched fists around each other – similar to false starts in American football, or traveling in basketball.

While the distance of 15 metres (50 ft) is explicit in the rules, the lack of markings on the ground makes it impossible for umpires to accurately judge these free kicks.

They generally accept the ball from a rebound, and have wide space in front of them to run into, giving teammates time to create options at half-forward.

[18] The requirement that a player performs a specialist skill in order to be allowed to run with the ball is common and necessary in many sports.

Introducing these skills prevents players from taking the ball in hand and running the length of the field unchallenged.