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The AFL is set to unveil new goal post technology with the innovations to be rushed through in time for the beginning of round four.
In one of the game’s most audacious moves, the league will adopt technology from cricket’s Snicko, HotSpot and Zing bails to assist with contentious decisions on whether the ball has touched the post.
The ruling was reached yesterday after a monster six-hour meeting between league bosses at AFL House.
With concerns growing around goal-based decisions due to over-analysis, powerbrokers ultimately decided to go against decades of tradition and act proactively.
Just like the zing bails used in cricket, the goal posts will light up if they detect contact from the ball – with Snicko and HotSpot acting as a backup.
This radical introduction will provide further adjudicatory powers to the league’s ever-struggling batch of goal umpires, while also advancing the game’s gradual migration to complete and utter rule by robots.
Despite the hasty announcement, the AFL has been locked in secret negotiations with cricket authorities to adopt Snicko and HotSpot since September.
While there were some sticking points during talks, the AFL was finally given the green light to utilise the software on Wednesday by the governing body of world cricket, the BCCI.
Following the approval, the AFL employed top-level software designers to construct its own version of the technology, which is similar to cricket’s except coated in Toyota logos.
The software was subjected to an arduous 25 minutes of testing under a series of match situations, with scenarios ranging from Brendan Fevola kicking grandstand speccies to Brendan Fevola kicking grandstand dribblers.
The AFL wasted no time installing the eye-catching ‘Bling-posts’, on the back of cricket’s ground-breaking discovery that sport fans are “easily impressed and distracted by bright, flashing lights.”
Speaking at yesterday’s announcement, an excited CEO Gillon McLachlan said he was looking forward to arming umpires with “additional mountains of inconclusive evidence.”
He also heaped praise on the game for its swift and decisive implementation of the technology, lauding his own “breathtaking ingenuity.”
“Plus with great brand synergy and sound cost-to-benefit ratio, this move is also a real win for the fans.”
Emails have been sent to all 18 clubs informing of the decision, except in the case of the two South Australian clubs who were advised by mail in case they ran out of juice.
UPDATE:
Now that it’s after midday we can reveal that this is indeed an April Fool’s piece. SHOCK HORROR!
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