A dummy or feint is an association football, rugby league, rugby union and Australian rules football term used to refer to a particular player deceiving the opposition into believing he is going to pass, shoot, move in a certain direction, or receive the ball and instead doing something entirely different, thus gaining an advantage.
Contents
Association football
In association football, a dummy (feint) is often used when dribbling, in offensive situations. Examples used in order to deceive an opponent into what direction you will move, include: the step over as used by Ronaldo, the flip flap (also known as "elastico") used by Ronaldinho, Lionel Messi and Ronaldo, the Marseille turn (also known as the "360" or "roulette") used by Zinedine Zidane, the rainbow flick as used by Neymar, the Cruyff Turn named after Johan Cruyff, and dragging the ball around a defender without it leaving your foot as used by Romário.
The next most common instance is also an offensive situation, in which a player, in a reasonable shooting area, fakes a shot to trick a defender coming in for a tackle and have him flinch away. This allows the player to go around the defender and shoot from a closer distance. This dummy can also be used on a goalkeeper in a one-on-one situation: a notable example being The Goal of the Century scored by Diego Maradona where, having run half the length of the field past several outfield players, he faced goalkeeper Peter Shilton and left him on his backside with a feint, before slotting the ball into the net.
There is another situation that is used often enough that "dummy" becomes a verb. In this scenario, a player goes toward the path of passing ball, pretends to trap it, lets it goes through the legs. This is to allow his team mate—who is also goes toward the passing ball but further down—can retrieve it. After letting the ball going through the legs, another scenario is that the player himself can run after the ball. This is very effective if the trapping is convincing because stop/start on the defending player is always slower than the player with momentum.
Rugby league and rugby union
In rugby league football and rugby union, a dummy has a similar meaning, but is generally confined to a player leading their opposing players into believing that they are about to pass or kick the ball, but instead retaining and running with the ball. This has the effect of drawing defending players to the apparent recipient of the 'dummy pass' or likely target area of the 'dummy kick'. One of the first rugby players to be credited in using the dummy, or at least bringing the technique to New Zealand was Tommy Haslam. Haslam played for Batley before the rugby schism and was a member of the 1888 British Isles tour of New Zealand and Australia.
Australian Rules football
In Australian rules football the term 'dummy' again has a similar meaning to other football codes. A dummy is used to evade a tackler by feigning a hand pass or foot pass to a teammate and then changing direction suddenly to escape the opponent who has been fooled by the move.