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AFL's missed opportunity on rule changes

Roar Rookie
24th February, 2015
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Roar Rookie
24th February, 2015
3

So the NAB Cup is upon us once again, and clubs are busy finalising their teams of predominantly rookie draftees and fringe second and third-year players for the first round of matches this weekend.

As always, the coaches’ main goal is to give their kids a run without any of them doing a season-ending ACL or similar, while at the same time trying out a few of the new game plans and structures that they’ve developed during the off-season.

It’s also around this time that the AFL tends to announce which rules it’s going to tinker with for the coming year, as part of its modern-day quest to perfect the imperfectible, inherently chaotic game that is Australian rules footy.

And on cue, last week the league confirmed it would be introducing two “interpretation changes” for 2015 – stricter policing of both the prior opportunity rule, and blocking in marking contests.

As with everything the AFL seems to do in this area, since it first started reacting to new and unattractive tactics like flooding in the early noughties, they appear to have fixed up one problem, while at the same time creating another.

Holding the ball decisions, or the lack thereof, were one of the fans’ major gripes last season. So lax was the interpretation by the umpires that players were not only being permitted to try and break tackles with oodles of prior opportunity, they were also then being given an eternity to try and dispose of the ball.

And oftentimes, the feigned attempts at disposal were laughable, as players were seemingly given carte blanche to drop and throw the ball away (simulating that it had either been knocked or ripped from them) without any danger of being penalised for incorrect disposal by hand or foot.

So the AFL is to be congratulated for listening to the fans on this point. A stricter, more consistent interpretation of prior opportunity – or rather, simply a return to how the rule’s always been policed – will make the game more intelligible for fans.

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But increased scrutiny of blocking in marking contests, as Wayne Carey has already stated, will be very difficult to monitor, and could cause even more frustration for fans and players alike if a ton of dubious, soft free kicks start being paid.

With the forward half of the ground now so congested, the umpires could have a devil of a time trying to pick out genuine blocking frees, while keeping track of everything else that’s going on in that already hectic space. More worryingly, they could start jumping at shadows – as they did with the hands-in-the-back rule when that interpretation was adjusted – and start paying phantom frees that were never there.

The AFL is to be credited for listening to the fans on one score. But time will tell if it’s created needless new problems with another interpretation change nobody was asking for.

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