Blitzing a space with the ball - order of operations

[celticgriffon]

Hi everyone,

A coach gave me a call earlier today as they had an in-game question.

They declared a blitz action but the only place they could do the blitz was from the space which held a ball (stationary on the pitch).

The coach wanted to know if he could throw the bltiz first then grab the ball, or if he had to grab the ball before throwing block dice.

Looking at the rules it does say a player which moves onto a space with the ball MUST pick up the ball and then can carry on.

My intuition says the pick up roll has to be made first. But I can see logic behind throwing the block, and then picking up the ball and then carrying on with the follow through if required (frenzy for example).

I would love to get an official ruling. I told the player they had to attempt the pick up first, but I would like to know for future reference.

Cheers,
Michael

[Shteve0]

Pick up first, yep, for the reason you've given - he enters the square and must therefore attempt topick up the ball before declaring the block element of the blitz action.

[Darkson]

Pick up first.

[spleggy]

pick up first

remember that failing a pick up is always a turnover, so the would-be blitzer might well not get to make the actual block (especially considering the ball would likely be in one or more opposing tackle zones!)