How to fix the congestion that's ruining the AFL

Can someone translate ‘do the math’. Is that Trump posting or what?? In Australia we say ‘maths’ which is short for mathematics ????

It’s an amazing discussion when Ross Lyon is nowhere to be seen. Last year he was heavily criticised for his defensive game. Now it is the rules not being interpreted properly. Oh & yes, last year the likes of WCE were praised for being attacking. Go figure. The only thing that has changed from last year is the Covid impact. So settle everyone, this is the season we should expect with such disruptions.

“best way to win a game of football is to kick goals” … unfortunately some coaches reckon the best way to win a game is to kick more goals than the opposition, if that means 3 goals to 2, jobs done

think it was the great john kennedy that said way back in the 70's, "if we played 18 ruckrovers we would win every game, but no one would come to watch us" , or something to that effect

It probably will.....but it will change the game far too much. No big men, athletes will dominate, no Lachie Neale type, no Lynch from Tigers type, just 190cm running machines. Free flowing..... contact & pressure free. It will be a totally different game. Isn’t that AFLX?

ITS THE COACHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES.Yes i know its all about winning,so be it,you want to play that garbage style do it,thank god my team doesnt do it,best way to win a game of football is to kick goals

Takes allsorts

I don't even watch the AFL except finals. Watch the GF from start to finish and that's it. Big difference from 20+ years ago!

And a separate note to let you know your conflations are wrong.

Thanks for letting me know what I don't do.

Rowdy... That's rubbish. You clearly don't watch enough of the other codes if you think they don't have the same issues. The six again rule in rugby league was made precisely to clear the ruck. The short arm penalty in union was created to quicken the play. The AFL does not suffer from snowflake syndrome. Hopefully you don't either. This instance that AFL's problems are more unique and more special than anyone else's is similar to a parent of a newborn who insists their baby's colic is more unique and special than other babies so they need more urgent attention.

Those sports dont have the same issues. Scleric refusal to look at making the sport cleaner for the players and better visually binds you to a moribund future. ----- Make no mistake RL is our competition. Let's be clear in where the sport is heading. Removal of the grey areas of game-governance and simplifying the playing dynamics will give us the advantage.

I agree completely. It's really about codifying the old principles: never get caught with the ball; given the choice between a long and a short option, take the long one; never kick backwards, etc. These things made the game what it was. So get rid of "prior opportunity" and penalise blokes that get caught with the pill. This will encourage blokes to knock it wider or deeper into space where there should be one of yours. Make the minimum distance for a mark 30 metres. This will cut down on fiddle farting. Make it mandatory to kick the ball forwards, except in your own attacking 50. This will cut down on defensive play.

Then footy is doomed

You've become a very nasty unit Spruce. You only have to look at the number of 'likes' on my posts to see your "no one agrees" stuff is an emotive scramble for an argument that you can't find.

That's why you are nowhere near any level of administration or management of the game. Leave the running of the game to those with brains. Your role is to sit on the couch, drool and talk about how much a legend Joffa is, and how Eddie McGuire totally never says racist things, and he's just a wind up merchant.

Ok boomer. Check the timestamps. I asked the question first. But to answer yours - 16,14 or 8 still won't solve the problem. They'll still crowd the ball like school children. For someone claiming I don't get its heartbeat or the subtlety of the game, you coming in with a sledgehammer suggestion to change the absolute fundamental of the game cause you are having a sook about the scoring is truly ironic. I guess you are still stumped by the fact AFL mathematically is the least congested of all codes of football, it being played on the largest field with the fewest players per sqm. Ouch, Boomer. Ouch.

Great to see that the footy world is zeroing in on the real cause of the modern congested mess that used to be a fantastic game. People are identifying that holding the ball isn’t being paid and this is leading to ball up after ball up which just creates more and more congestion. But the reason umpires aren’t paying holding the ball is because of the “ no prior opportunity rule” . Get rid of that rule and you will have a massive reduction in ball ups , less players hatching the ball , less time to flood and suddenly the game will flow again as the original creators of the game meant it to. They need to change the rule to The Choice Rule - if a player is deemed to have chosen to take possession, then he/ she must kick , handpass or they are penalised. it’s that simple yet the blind fat cats at the AFL are afraid to make the change because that would be an admission that the prior opportunity rule was always a very damaging change to the game . It didn’t exist prior to the mid nineties and the game was far superior then. Giving a player a chance to get rid of the ball is exactly what a footballer isn’t supposed to do. If you are caught with the ball, let’s bad play and you should be penalised. If you don’t understand that then you don’t understand the game.

i would argue that defenders require a specific award, like the Golden Fist that got proposed after Danny Frawley died.

Licorice. job done.