under the stricter interpretations of the rule, a problem emerged in that players were finding that standing back and allowing an opponent to win the ball before immediately tackling him to win a free kick was more profitable than attempting to win the ball and risking being tackled himself. This practice, known in those times as "malingering", was and still is considered undesirable, as it was believed that a rule which discouraged players from winning contested ball was against the spirit of the game. The banning of the flick pass in 1925, forcing players to use the more cumbersome punch pass, exacerbated this by making it more difficult to dispose of the ball. Several attempts were made during the 1920s to standardise and clarify the rules. In 1920, the Australasian Football Council amended its wording of the rule, replacing the word "caught" with "held" when describing the act of tackling, to attempt to make it clear that the defending player must do more than simply touch the ball-carrier to win a free kick. The rule was then rewritten entirely in 1928, when it was removed from the original Rule 8 (which by this time had been renumbered) and was added as a stand-alone rule. The new rule, intended to be less stringent, read: "A free kick shall be given against a player who, while being held by an opponent, and being in possession of the ball, does not at once kick, handball or drop it so as to relinquish possession of it. The free kick shall be given to the player who holds him. A player shall not be deemed to be held within the meaning of the foregoing paragraphs unless he is held firmly enough to stop him or to retard his progress." No-drop holding the ball An undesirable style of close-in play had emerged by the 1930s: a player with the ball would be tackled, would drop the ball at his feet, wait for his opponent to release him, then bend down and regather the ball, with this sequence of events repeated over and over with both men trying to win a free kick – either for holding the ball or holding the man – rather than actively trying to move the football. These contests then attracted other players and formed scrimmages which slowed the game down. To eliminate this style of play, the concept of "no-drop holding