The Roar
The Roar

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AFL is a good game, here's how to make it great

24th March, 2015
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Roar Guru
24th March, 2015
118
1498 Reads

As a New Zealander who recently arrived in Australia, I switched on my TV one day and discovered the world’s most exciting game.

Frenetic action abounded, teams drove forward with constant momentum and few stoppages. There was passion, rugged contact and skill.

I was in sports fanatic heaven, until I discovered that this game is only played irregularly and a maximum of three games are ever played in a year.

It was the hybrid AFL/Gaelic Football match between Ireland and Australia. In a desperate effort to find this level of excitement again, I watched both Gaelic football and AFL and discovered that neither game was a patch on the hybrid.

Gaelic football seemed better, as in order to score in the soccer goal you couldn’t simply take a mark 50 metres out and boot it in. To get six points you needed to get in behind the opposition defence, therefore play often continued right into the goalmouth. But these goals were few and far between, bringing excitement levels back to those of soccer.

AFL had even fewer levels of excitement.

A lovely, flowing movement of passing, handballing and running would often sweep the length of the field and a kick would be centred to someone 50 metres out from goal. He would take a mark as the movement built to its climax… and all momentum died, all excitement fell away, as he turned around and trotted back 20 metres, blew his nose, threw grass in the air, wiped down the ball, did a little pre-kick ritual, before running in and kicking, only for it to fade right of the posts.

Even if it had been a goal, the excitement of the move was long gone, dissipated by the peculiar nature of the rules which reward a player for taking a great mark by allowing him to go backwards.

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This is the one great problem of AFL (although don’t get me started on AFL refs running the ball back to the centre after a goal). The game which has so much going for it in general play has an often tedious way of scoring the major points.

The ability to kick goals from 50 metres, while skilful and meritorious, actually often stops exciting phases of play from continuing.

AFL needs to make one small rule change to increase the excitement levels, by allowing teams in possession to continue to advance the ball to a better position, rather than taking the option of stopping the game to take an unopposed kick at goal.

Currently the defender stands on the spot where the mark is taken and the mark taker must retreat from that spot to take his kick. But think how that might change if, when a mark is taken, the defenders all have to retreat 10 metres in a circle away from the mark taker. Suddenly the option is there for the mark taker to play on unopposed for 10 metres. He can continue the move, without being tackled or impeded for 10 metres, or he can stand his ground and instantly look to kick to someone in a better position while the defenders retreat away from him.

Currently he has to retreat before he can look for someone in a better position. How much better if the defenders have to retreat rather than the mark taker?

Taking a mark within 10 metres of the goalposts would in effect mean a goal would be instantly scored play. Instant gratification – great mark, then barely seconds later a goal.

This simple tweak to the rules would open the game up, encouraging teams to play on to get into a better position to kick goals rather than stopping moves on the 50-metre circle.

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I know AFL is a traditional game which doesn’t take easily to rule changes, but this change would revolutionise the game, making it faster and far more appealing to an AFL philistine like me.

I might even become an AFL fan.

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