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AFL rule changes are coming: The good, the bad, the indifferent

13th September, 2018
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13th September, 2018
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The AFL is an extraordinary beast.

On Thursday it was reported across all major media outlets, otherwise known as AFL lackeys, that the AFL Competition Committee was ready to put forth its rule change recommendations to the AFL Commission later this month.

The proposed rule changes have been bubbling along as a key issue all year, thanks to more congestion-heavy games and lower scoring than many key stakeholders, particularly Channel 7, have liked.

The AFL has been in a rush to make changes, carefully and strategically leaking their plans throughout the year in order to warm up the football public.

September is supposed to be a celebration of football, with all focus on the clubs that make finals and the games to be held throughout. Already, we’ve had four hot matches in the first week of finals, which have produced myriad storylines and narratives about players and clubs, both winners and losers, alike.

But of course the AFL has to use this time to leak its changes. Rarely do they get their timing right, and once again they have failed dismally.

But onto the rule changes themselves.

Firstly, the positives.

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Runners will likely only be allowed on the ground between goals. This is a win. There’s really no need for them at all, so any scaling back is a start.

Water carriers should also be seen less. Let’s leave the playing arena to the players, wherever possible.

There is talk of simplifying the rules, and halving the length of the rule book. This is to be applauded. There is a ridiculously high amount of rules in the game, making it impossible to adjudicate for umpires.

There are so many rules that could be gotten rid of, so it’s pleasing to hear that they will scale them back. Perhaps a reason the game is in the state it is, is because of the never-ending rule changes over the last decade or two.

Now, onto the areas that people are going to have problems with.

Starting positions at centre bounces, named 6-6-6, has been spoken about at length, and appears certain to be implemented. Four players will have to start in the centre square as they currently do, two players will be assigned to the wings, anywhere on the sides of the square.

Along with this, six players will have to start forward and back at each end, including one in the goalsquare (we’ll get to that in a moment).

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Given that the large impetus for these rule changes is to cure congestion, and the least congested part of any game is the centre square bounce, you can rest assured that 6-6-6 will do absolutely nothing.

AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan

(AAP Image/Julian Smith)

The biggest proposed change, by far, is extending the goal-square, doubling it from 9m to 18m.

The idea behind it is to prevent forward-lines locking the ball inside 50 with their forward pressure, by giving the defender kicking out after a behind more options.

The modern game sees teams highly focussed on repeat inside 50s, and this draws a crowd into one half of the ground, if not one third of it. It’s harder than ever before to transition from defensive 50 to attacking 50.

By extending the goalsquare, the AFL is trying to effectively widen the ground and give the team kicking out more usable space. The ball can go a bit deeper into the middle and bit a bit wider out to the flanks and wings.

What this should do is spread the defensive zones across a wider area, opening more holes in said zone. So it won’t just be about the long ball, but short passes should be easier to achieve, which means marking instead of ground balls, which in turn eases congestion.

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It could work. But we can almost guarantee there will be unintended consequences, even if we don’t know what they are.

It’s staggering the AFL wouldn’t trial these for at least a full round of pre-season matches first, rather than a few lower level games and training sessions. People respond viscerally to change, and a new goalsquare will be confronting to many.

The AFL isn’t necessarily in the wrong to want to improve the spectacle. Coaches have made the sport much more dour and defensive than it used to be. The great pity is that most of them seem to grasp that attacking and free-flowing football is more likely to have success. Instead, they try and mitigate risk when they have weaker lists.

Richmond gained a competitive advantage in 2017 by doing nothing more complicated than taking the game on. It catapulted them from 13th on the ladder in 2016 to a storied premiership, and has them warm favourites to go back-to-back.

No doubt the head people at the AFL are serious about their role as custodians of the game, and believe they have its interests at heart.

But they don’t have the trust of the football community. They usually stuff things up. Their motivations don’t always appear pure. Worst of all, they almost always look like they are making things up on the run.

Either way, change is coming, for better or worse. Let’s hope it’s the former.

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