SOMETHING all-too-familiar happened in AFL circles this week.
AFL legend and resident grumbler Kevin Bartlett (again) bemoaned the state of the game through the media, right before League headquarters unveiled three more rule changes.
Arguably, no sport changes its rules more often than Australian Football.
That process has only accelerated under Steven Hocking, since he was appointed as the AFL’s football operations manager in August 2017.
Interchange rotations were cut from 90 to 75; footballers standing on the mark will have their movement restricted further; and players kicking the ball in after a behind will have a 15-metre space rather than 10.
The interchange reduction is based on the expectation more player fatigue will help ease congestion, a theory that polarises opinion – but will be put to the test in 2021.
Bartlett, a five-times VFL/AFL premiership Tiger who played 403 games, will undoubtedly be encouraged.
In an attempt at humour back in April, the 73-year-old shared a video on Twitter of him preaching the virtues of a stricter interchange cap … to his cockatoos.
It started off with a ripple now it’s a tidal wave of support. The AFL commission can’t sweep interchange reduction under the carpet any longer. This is a movement like we have never seen before in the games history. #feathershavespoken. Kb pic.twitter.com/KJJDP3yC8P
— Kevin Bartlett (@KevinBartlett29) April 27, 2020
Hocking’s hope for the restriction on players’ lateral movement on the mark is encapsulated in four words: “more Dustin Martin moments”, like from this year’s Grand Final.
In simpler speak, the AFL’s football operations boss wants to manufacture more space for players to be more creative with their ball movement.
The social media reaction to all this has also been familiar.
Fans, players and media have largely decried the latest round of changes, complaining about the AFL’s constant need to fiddle with the game.
There was even a suggestion that unwinding prior rule changes might be a wiser choice than altering more of them.
We must always take social media with a grain of salt and not assume everything on there is reflective of the general population, because those forums attract the vocal minority.
However, it shouldn’t be ignored either.
The AFL just experienced possibly its most unusual season in history, because of the global COVID-19 pandemic, with truncated quarters and fewer days between games.
Yet even before that there’s been a hyper-focus on the lack of scoring. Bartlett certainly contributes to that.
At the same time, the League’s wording at the end of its in-depth analysis into the state of the game in 2018 was careful to avoid the goal of a scoring spike.
As with Hocking’s Dustin Martin reference, that time it was all about creating more space for more attractive ball movement.
Obviously, the AFL secretly hopes if this eventuated that scoring would increase as well.
But back to the point at hand. What does it say about Australian Football that the rule-makers feel its necessary to change the laws on essentially an annual basis?
Is it the game that’s broken, or do Hocking and co. need to leave it the hell alone?
That’s effectively what this debate fizzles down to.
The no-nonsense Hocking, a former footballer himself, has decided – with a level of consultation, and with the AFL Commission’s approval – that the changes will produce a greater spectacle.
The League’s stakeholders, at least from what we see on social media, aren’t so sure.
At some stage that must count for something.
Marc McGowan is an experienced sports journalist who’s covered Australian Football and tennis at the highest level. Now a freelancer, he worked most recently for AFL.com.au and has been published in The Herald Sun, The NT News, The Daily Telegraph, The Courier-Mail, The Australian and Australian Tennis Magazine. Marc completed an Honours degree in Communications from Monash University and has won awards for his feature writing.
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