Contact rule question: If a defender places their hand under the ball...
The shooter / goal attack has taken up position to shoot. The defensive player takes up position behind the shooter, the three feet rule is applied and no other infringement is present. The defensive player places her hand beneath the ball, not touching the ball or the player. The shooter brings the ball down to take the shot and touches the hand of the defensive player.
Is this taken as contact and how strictly is this rule applied?
Lee-Anne
From an umpiring point of view there would have to have been interference for the contact rule to be applied e.g. ball being brought down forcefully onto the defensive player's hand causing loss of balance or pushing away of hand. If goalie is merely touching ball to hand, no real interference has occurred so play continues with no player penalised. You will find many different interpretations on this one during games with the most common being that the defensive player would be incorrectly penalised from a legal defensive position in front or behind goalie.
sportplan_netball
