SOME of the criticism directed towards Joel  
Bowden this week has been ridiculous.

The Tigers defender committed the "crime" of deliberately rushing through two behinds to run down the clock as Richmond hung on to a lead over Essendon at the weekend.

The Tigers won by four points but the impressive victory has been overshadowed by the uproar from commentators and fans in the wake of Bowden’s supposedly unsportsmanlike behaviour.

Even respected footy writer Mike Sheahan has compared it to Trevor Chappell's infamous underarm delivery to win a one-day cricket game against New Zealand.

What hogwash. Bowden deserves a pat on the back for thinking through the situation under pressure and executing a plan that paid off.

Bowden had just come off the bench to play as the loose man in defence and knew how much time was left on the clock. Importantly, he also knew the rules, which is something that couldn't be said for many AFL players, no matter how professional the game gets. Bowden made sure that after he was called to play on he wasted as much time as possible.

It was a smart tactic and one that is unlikely to be used too often.

Rushed behinds are rare and usually they are a sign that the attacking team is on top and putting pressure on the defence that is forced into conceding a point.

The Bowden situation would come up once in a blue moon, yet if you listen to the critics it's the worst thing that's happened since Sydney invented flooding.

Some commentators want the penalty for a rushed behind lifted to three points while others want a bounce at the top of the square rather than giving the ball straight back to the defending team.

I think we've had enough rule changes to last a lifetime over the past five years and the last thing we need is to have officials tinkering with such a minor issue.

Sure, rushed behinds are conceded more often now because of the modern tactics where players zone off and players are forced to play on a lot more. But players won’t be rushing to the rule books to search for more loopholes because of this.

As for the irate Essendon fans, if the situation had been reversed they would have been saying it was a clever move. The simplest way out of it is to make sure you are in front with a minute to go, rather than having to try to scramble back and then blame the opposition when things don’t go your way.

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