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AFL’s rules have constantly changed over the years, but why? What do we actually gain from changing the rules other than turning away lifelong fans and making it harder to teach new fans due to the complexity of the new rules?
A concern at the moment is there is too much congestion and this needs to be sorted by a rule change. The Laws of the Game committee have proposed a paid mark distance from a kick be increased from 15m to 20m. Instead, the Laws of the Game committee should have the guts to admit some of the rule changes made in the past have hurt our game and should be removed.
The problem is, we have had so many rule changes that we do not know what is a free kick and what isn’t. The best thing would be to stop rule changes and allow us to actually find out through watching and playing football what a free kick is, not trying to come up with a better rule. That is why we are now in our current predicament where coaches are confused as to what is a free kick.
Alastair Clarkson has said that we should leave the game alone and let it evolve. This is what footy fans want, to stop changing the game and actually let it develop on its own through coaches’ initiative and varying tactics. Eddie Mcguire has also spoken out, saying we should take a step back and relax. He pointed out that Monday’s Geelong versus Hawks game saw had 83,000 attend and on Friday we will have 95,000.
Natural adaptations are much better than mutations and the game we all love will be better off if we leave it alone. A step in the right direction is trying to make the competition as even as possible. With numerous upsets in the season already, we are heading in the right direction. A tight competition is much more engaging than a few clubs as top, few clubs doing ok and other clubs struggling. A closer, equal AFL competition will help the game, not numerous rule changes.
AFL still ranks as the most popular football code within Australia. Do not try to change something that ain’t broke.
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