Judges Comments

A pop of colour in an otherwise monochrome image always draws the viewer's eye. In this regard we are focused, like the player on the left, on the flight of the ball.
There is a risk that if you position a strongly attention grabbing object near the edge of a frame that this is an exit point and I think this happens in this image
and we leave without fully exploring the frame. The photographer is also experimenting with a sports action genre and capturing a decisive moment and a
sharp focus would be important elements. I feel the image would be much stronger if the ball was at the point of being struck rather than at the top of its flight.