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No two sports on planet Earth are alike, but it’s safe to say there really isn’t anything like Australian rules football.
Thousands of tourists have endured miserable attempts to explain the game by fervent Aussies, but it’s a sure bet many of these flummoxed foreigners would have heard someone say; “it all begins with the umpire bouncing the ball.”
But that line could soon disappear from the crash course.
Umpires boss Hayden Kennedy made waves after calling for the centre bounce to be abolished, and revealing that the AFL umpires’ association would soon put forward a proposal to the laws of the game committee to have the practice abandoned.
Kennedy’s call had a number of reasons behind it. As a former umpire who retired due to persistent hamstring issues, Kennedy claimed the act of bouncing placed extreme – and unnecessary – strain on umpire’s bodies.
Additionally, several umpires who have otherwise exceptional decision-making abilities and fitness levels are facing an uphill battle to make it to the big time because their bouncing isn’t up to scratch, according to Kennedy.
Social media erupted with anger at the news, with fans bemoaning ‘yet another’ frustrating rule change and the death of a supposedly sacred part of the game, while also harshly criticising the umpires for being ‘soft’.
But even a cursory glance at the amount of hassle the bounce creates versus what it contributes to the game makes it very clear that its role in the game has become untenable.
While fans have been quick to suggest all umpires need to do is ‘harden up’ to avert the strain bouncing places on their bodies, I’m going to take the word of Kennedy, who just so happens to the be umpiring’s all-time games record holder.
Yes, AFL is a professional contact sport and umpiring at the highest level requires an extreme degree of physical exertion. But not to the extent where umpires sometimes require shoulder reconstructions over an act that only occurs at the start of each quarter and after a goal.
While it would, unfortunately, be folly to expect the footy public to feel something resembling sympathy towards the men in green, it can be agreed that at the very least this level of medical attention is disproportionately high.
As far as the umpire selection process goes, it seems fair that those who can perform their job better are rewarded. It seems only right that of two umpires with equal decision-making ability, the better bouncer is given the nod.
But if you asked football fans whether they’d pick an excellent bouncer with average decision-making ability over a superb decision maker who can’t bounce at all – you’d get a resounding no from just about everyone.
While bouncing the ball is often synonymous with umpiring itself, when you really press fans on what’s important in an umpire, their ability to bounce slides down the list very quickly.
When you consider the sheer amount of time it takes to practice and perfect the bounce – time that could otherwise be spent on getting better positioning, studying the rules further or just getting fitter – it starts to make less and less sense that this is criteria by which umpires are judged at all.
But football is arguably more about the heart than it is the head. While it may make logical sense to have the bounce scrapped, surely sentiment still counts for something?
There’s nothing wrong with wanting to keep the game the same as we best remember it, but the bounce isn’t nearly as sacred to the game as it’s made out to be.
Growing fan frustration with bad bounces led to the AFL allowing the recall of offline bounces in 2009, and subsequent frustration with the time taken to recall bounces saw field bounces scrapped in 2013.
Even now, there are few bigger groans that go around the ground after an offline centre bounce, and it’s one of the rare moments during a football match that fans totally switch off from what’s happening on the field as the players reset.
While this is all relevant to the AFL itself, the game of Australian rules football itself has survived just fine without the bounce around the country for decades.
If you attend a suburban or junior football match just about anywhere in the country, you’re almost guaranteed not to see the umpire bounce the ball. Admittedly these aren’t the same umpires we see at the MCG, but the game itself is none the poorer for it.
And of course, even a hint of wet weather sees the bounce abandoned without question in any competition, leading one to question once more just how important to the game it really is.
There’s no denying it’ll be a little bit sad to see the bounce go if and when that happens, and there’s nothing wrong with nostalgia in the world of football.
But the substantial disruption this small motif causes our game, especially behind the scenes, means it’s time to pull the pin on this tradition.