News AFL to trial new zone rule in second-tier competition next season (Full rule changes inside)

Brezsa

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Mar 10, 2018
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The mark one is weird, 1m is such a strange distance, the umpire is going have to set every mark into a 1m area.

If I was coaching, outside of set shots, nobody stand the mark, stand a few metres back from it, gives thats player lateral movement. It’s pretty rare someone kicks into the man on the mark anyway.
 
So if a player goes from playing VFL one week to AFL the next, he is basically playing an entirely different sport?
Also, imagine how you would feel being a draftee this year as a project player knowing you will have to play an entire season being used as a guinea pig.
 
Oct 3, 2007
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If the AFL made no rule changes in the last 20 years the game would be considerably worse today than it is now. You would have constant deliberate out of bounds and as a result a lot more stoppages.

The game is in trouble, and I personally think 15 a side is the solution, but I am willing to let things play out and let the AFL try a few things at the VFL level.

Which year was it that the crowds and the fans lost interest in the sport forcing the AFL to start changing the rules of the sport?
Obviously there must of been a year where crowds dropped considerably, tv ratings dropped, juniors stopped playing? What year was that as I can’t recall the year that happened and the sudden need to change the rules of the sport?
 
The man on the mark rule has the real potential of wrecking games.

One rule change I would be in favour of is a 25m penalty for lesser indiscretions such as running in the protected zone where the offender is not impacting the play.
Absolutely agree with this.
The only other thing I'd like to see is the distance of a kick for it to be paid a mark increased to 25 metres. Any smidgeon of a doubt from the umpire and it's play on. Would reduce the amount of chipping around perhaps?
How many 10 metre kicks got paid marks this season? Heaps.
 

Roby

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So if a player goes from playing VFL one week to AFL the next, he is basically playing an entirely different sport?
Also, imagine how you would feel being a draftee this year as a project player knowing you will have to play an entire season being used as a guinea pig.

So instead of one year players not playing any Aussie rules it will be two years. What a joke.
 

TwiggleyFanClub

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So instead of the umpires wasting their usual 20 seconds at every ball in waiting for the players, the ruckman and the ruckman to nominate, now we will have to wait even longer for players to return to their zones?

Just waste another minute every ball in.

Am I getting this right?

- Reduce interchange in an attempt to gas players so they can't set up zones as effectively.
- Reduce the delaying tactics, so that teams don't have time to set up they zones as effectively, and also hand out 50s like candy to bust through zones at random.
- Extra 5m on kick-in to try to break through zones more effectively on the way out.

Then...
Force a zoning rule at all stoppages that will be milked beyond belief to:
- Introduce delays in play
- Allow players to get a bit more of a rest on the field
- Allow teams to set up their zones more effectively.

Can't imagine (ie hope like hell) the last one will get out of the VFL.


I can just imagine 2022:
- Power Plays (given a cool new AFL name, of course) that teams can call to force different zoning rules for a period of time.
- 3/5/X free 50m "penalties" that teams get to use at their discretion.

God help the game.
 
Aug 22, 2009
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That's not the worst part of it either, we are going to see so many cheap 50m penalties paid when the man on the mark takes a step to the side because when the player with the ball moves they won't want to be flat footed. The penalty will far, far outweigh the offence and its a really unbalanced rule.

I wonder if they actually trialled it down at some park.

If it’s a shitshow in the preseason games hopefully they just change it back.
 

All Aust

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Field umpires are going to be happy with the "me time" that comes with umpiring "standing the mark" given that the team with possession will be instructed to do all and sundry to initiate and appeal for a 50M penalty. This one has Quasimodo with skunk for the look and benefit of the game. Who even suggested it to Hocking?
 

mr bagcroft

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That's not the worst part of it either, we are going to see so many cheap 50m penalties paid when the man on the mark takes a step to the side because when the player with the ball moves they won't want to be flat footed. The penalty will far, far outweigh the offence and its a really unbalanced rule.
Exactly. Its total human mechanical instinct on top of 150 years of aussie rules instinct to move to the side, not foward, when the player with the ball does. Its a ******* farce. I dont think it will even make much difference. It will look stupid though, maybe thats something. These dickheads at AFL house, seriously, for the most part they are just ******* ex footballers given portfolio's...very dangerous.
 

mr bagcroft

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Which year was it that the crowds and the fans lost interest in the sport forcing the AFL to start changing the rules of the sport?
Obviously there must of been a year where crowds dropped considerably, tv ratings dropped, juniors stopped playing? What year was that as I can’t recall the year that happened and the sudden need to change the rules of the sport?
Probably circa 2005.
 
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Probably circa 2005.

So basically since they started this annual rule change policy you think people are losing interest?

My question was very simple, what year was the footy that bad that people stopped attending, stopped watching on TV that the AFL thought we must change the sport?

The answer is there was no such year, Fans have loved Aussie rules football forever, they watched and went every week with two possible emotions. Did we win or did we lose. Happy or sad. The sport was the sport, there was good games and bad games.

Fans never ever talked about the look of the game, they loved the sport and just wanted their team to do well.

The AFL told us to talk about the look of the game because they wanted to change the rules, as the AFL own the media they force their message through the media and hence people started to talk about something they had not spoken about for over 100 years. There was no one who really thought rule changes were needed except for the AFL. The fans by and large cared about only one thing, did we win or did we lose.

Now 20 years later we have a new sport called AFL which is a hybrid version of Australian Football and still to this day they are looking to change the rules.

The sad thing about it all is that todays supporters don't give a crap about the sport, the AFL know this and hence why they are doing what they are doing.
You will all continue to watch it and they know it.
 
Same grumble as most. Continuous poorly though through rules changes, not to mention interpretations, that make the game harder to umpire each year.

These changes mostly look stupid.

Although if you take AFLX as the desired end point then it makes sense.

Stupid dumb idiots running the game in AFL House.
 

Bungeye

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The game is in deep trouble!

All my friends follow NBA on Facebook and couldn't care about AFL. The only people keeping the AFL afloat are the supporters who have long family history in supporting the game.
The AFL know they're not attracting new fans to the game and need to promote high scoring to compete with the NBA.

An overseas friend said to me the other day
"The AFL is a poor man's rugby game".

I think that sums it up for the uninitiated.
 

Milkshaker

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Disagree. Fans are saying the game is stuffed because of slower ball movement and considerably lower scoring, which less informed fans are blaming on the AFL rule changes.
Nup. Multiple rule changes over the last 5 years. The reactions are a continuing culmination of frustration. 10 different people in the room see a decision in a different way yet we expect consistent umpiring?
 

Milkshaker

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The AFL is only trialing this at the VFL level. No need to protest when you have not seen the results of the trial and the AFL have not indicated whether or not they will bring it into the AFL.
Leave footy alone at all levels.
 
Feb 28, 2007
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Leave footy alone at all levels.

15 a side would pretty much future proof the game. Would make it impossible for even the best coaches to have a proper zone defence. There would be massive holes that would allow for much easier attacking plays.

The choice is having one big rule change and not needing to make further changes knowing it will work, or a million little rule changes in the hopes they work together to achieve the desired effect.
 
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