sticking with their opponents to negate their play this is called "tagging" or "run-with" players. Direct Direct football, often referred to as playing up the guts, contested footy or corridor footy requires moving the ball on the shortest possible path from goal to goal, i.e. without going to the boundary of the field. This puts the ball into areas crowded with players. Direct football can result in frequent physical contests, and forwards are not always able to mark the ball. As a result, crumbers (small players at the fall of the ball) become more important are often instructed to run to pick up the loose ball In direct football, the role of ruckmen and midfield centre clearances become critical. Possession Modern professional football has seen the advent of possession football, making the game similar to Association football. In Australian football it is often referred to as playing keepings off. The aim of possession football is to avoid kicking the ball to a player under pressure, denying the opposition of opportunities to take possession. There are generally two ways that teams execute possession football in the modern game, marking and by handball. Kicking The rules governing catching a kicked ball allow for "possession football". A player who catches the ball (called taking a mark) gets a short time period where they can kick the ball without being tackled or interfered with. Teams will sometimes kick backwards to allow a teammate to take a mark. This prevents the team losing possession. The AFL has experimented with rules in the NAB Cup to prevent this anti-competitive play. Handball Although the rules allowed for the handball most Australian rules leagues handball was largely a secondary skill to the kick. The handball has become a far more widely used skill in the contemporary game. Tempo football The term Tempo football was coined by commentators to describe the tactic of controlling the tempo of the game. Australian rules is a game in which teams can score very quickly and gain a psychological advantage to overwhelm their opponents. When a team looks like getting a run on, opposition sides sometimes play tempo football to deliberately slow down the game. This may include forcing a bounce (either through scrimmages or forcing the ball out of bounds, flooding or through playing possession football and timewasting). Once in possession, they may then speed up the game with direct or running