The AFL needs to move with the times

"Sure the opposition is down a player for the game, but that player is then out for however many weeks. (Minus a few if you’re a certain hawthorn captain)" Minus all if you're Nathan Fyfe or Adam Goodes.

Gazbo, you've hardly put a point forward here. You're really just saying they should make change for the sake of change- an argument that could also be used to bring in 9-point goals, 5-point rushed behinds, eliminate boundary throw-ins or maybe even throwing six clubs on the scrap-heap. Your point about court cases makes no sense, as a send-off rule won't stamp all violence and brutality out of the game, it will just bring in a new type of punishment for the player who commits it. When the AFL says a night Grand Final is inevitable, I always wonder why they say that when they could actually be providing the rationale for it. I suggest you adopt a similar attitude to any future articles you post here.

Rather than have a red card, which would spell a lop sided contest, you may as well just have a walk off and loss of game. That will appease this politically correct mob. So the scenario is, a player runs over the mark, gets a 50 paid, so he protests and gets sent off and therefore the whole team gets taken off and loss of game. Will be interesting if you are 50 points up and this happens. It will be physically dangerous to the officials and umpires if this were ever to happen. A 50 cent coin right between the eyes would be there reward.

LOL, some very good points there Mr F

Red and yellow card in every other AF league except the AFL which is over scrutinised at times but every game is telecast with multiple cameras, dirty players don't last very long.

What a lot of people forget in this red card debate is that; 1) Australian rules football already has a yellow card (sin bin) and red card (send off) in the laws of the game, they just don't apply those laws in the actual AFL competition and; 2) Under that aforementioned system, Tom Jonas would have only received a yellow card. Red cards are reserved for (paraphrased from law 20.2); - Striking/Making Contact with an umpire - Attempting to strike/make contact with an umpire - Using extremely abusive/threatening language towards an umpire - Behaving in a threatening manner towards an umpire - Kicking another person - A serious act of misconduct (eye gouging etc)

100%

And yet that hasn't happened regardless of how many GFs those two have been in. So it's not really an issue is it? The furore around the Jonas incident simply highlights how rare these acts are. There is no problem here that needs to be solved.

Bolex to your red card system your trying to make AFL the same as the rest of the sporting world well guess what we in Australia like our AFL the way it is stop trying to change our game.. its bad enough each season they change rules as it is. I agree with Gyfox this writer need to get with it!

Take out Mitchell in the first 5 min and Gunston in the first 10 min of the GF and join your team mates as a hero for your premiership medallion. How stupid is theAFL!

"The AFL is the only major code...." Think the NFL, basketball, baseball, cricket, tennis don't have a so-called red card rule. Not even a yellow card. I think the writer of this article needs to move with the times!

Now this, even for you Josh, is a spectacularly unresearched post!

Or the pain of 90 mins of no one scoring. We have maybe one incident a year where a send off might be appropriate. Not seeing too many blatant acts of violence in our modern, high speed, highly skilled game. It's just not warranted.

How did you end up here?

Other levels of the game have it because every square inch of ground is not covered by cameras. Also the send off rule protects the umpires as it allows them to get players that are threatening them off the ground - the send off difuses the aggressive situation. It isn't needed at the top level for those 2 reasons, maybe you should up your level of knowledge.

The AFL are stuck in the 50's that isn't news, we can tell every time someone who has a minority background plays their game.

AFL please don't change. Stay right where you are in your little southern states enclave. That way the rest of the world can be spared the pain of having to watch a 3 hour game of grown men struggling to kick or catch a ball.

The author describes the red card system as moving with the times - I would have thought it's a pretty archaic system. What else should the AFL do to move with the times? - demand that the boundary umpires carry around little flags to wave - introduce one umpire - get rid of the independent time keeper and siren and let the umpire keep track of time on his watch - stop play whenever anyone falls to the ground - take five minutes for effect each and ever interchange - only allow one player from each team to handle the ball, and only in his defensive 50

No one else needs to do that, the AFL do a good job of that with tinkering with the code which never ceases. Our code has already pinched things from other codes, watch a DVD of footy the way THE GAME was played in the nineties and see just how much the code and its language has changed with bits and pieces from other codes. It is easier in the AFL to take out a player than in other codes, although the AFL say they are doing everything they can for player welfare. When one considers ours is the most brutal of all the codes on the body, it took the AFL a long time to get hits to head and concussion right. Yet, in other ways, the AFL will do things mid stream like changes to the WADA code in 2015, and as the for the umpires and the flavour of the month deliberate out of bounds free kick rule or holding (throwing) the ball, there's simply no understanding how it works. Even the players are flummixed.

As I see it the AFL needs to face up to 5 main issues: 1. The prospect of injury, and serious injury at that, is real. (This can lead to the courts let alone tragedies.) 2. It is unfair on the day that a team is deprived of one of its players. What do you do in a GF? 3. This is assault in a world where we are trying to prevent things like so-called 'king hits'. Immediate consequences send better messages to players and public than Tuesday nights at the tribunal. 4. Assault could be used as a cheat's tactic, or by match fixers. 5. It is a very bad look for the sport. Often it is grown men who cannot respond to being beaten by superior skill except by assault. Sometimes it is absolutely cowardly. Some players don't seem to know how to pressure their opponent with bumps, taking their space, etc. but have to hit them to do it. Letting this happen looks bad and it can escalate (give some an inch and they'll find themselves taking a mile). The recent examples of Jonas, and even Rance, show the deterrents we have are not enough. What do we do if we don't have some kind of send-off rule? Maybe it's time the police stepped in? I don't know, but the AFL is leaving too much to chance.