happydude
Brownlow Medallist
- Nov 20, 2009
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We well written and thought out post mateMy friendly discussion with happydude prompted me to take a walk down memory lane. It’s fair to say that we are in a different age demographic and that is the main source of our different views.
The game of Australian Rules was largely untouched for a century and it’s only with the greater emphases on tactics that third parties have felt compelled to make more rule changes in the past decade than they did in previous ten.
Plenty of people reading this post (Am I overrating my readership?) have been to the MCG. I normally sit in the Ponsford Stand but on occasion, such as last Thursday, I’ll reserve a seat in the Olympic Stand. As you ascend the levels I love the mural which depicts the original rules of the game. There were only 10! I chuckle at the rule referring to the handball and what is required for it to be legal. The reference to bouncing the ball when in possession if you want to go on a run makes this game unique. What is a mark is codified? Handballing, bouncing the ball and marking skills and others make Australian Rules the indigenous game. We didn’t want to play the game that they played ‘on the green fields of England.
This is why the modern game can irk me. The dumbing down of the skills has seen us slide ever closer to the game we didn’t want to play when we weren’t playing cricket.
I think rule changes can have a positive effect and I’ll offer a couple of examples.
The wind is howling outside my house at the moment and it reminds me of winter, Ted Whitten and the Western Oval. In the 60s it was legal to kick the ball over the boundary line on the full. The deliberate out of bounds rule was there but it wasnt used. I have vivid memories of Ted wasting time by lobbing the ball deep into the standing room crowd with impunity. It was a time wasting tactic and awfully boring to watch. So in the 60s (someone find the answer) the VFL changed the rule to what we see today. It took an eyesore out of the game. The supporters were happy. We got to see more footy as a result. No more time wasting.
In the latish 60s Peter Hudson crossed Bass Strait and joined the Hawks. These were the good old days when the Hawks were a very ordinary team with little success. Hudson’s ability to read the play, mark or take possession and then wobble a punt through the big Sticks is legendary. He’s one of the greatest players of all time.
Despite his ability to kick goals ad nauseum it didn’t result in a change of fortune until John Kennedy Sr devised a tactic to exploit the way the game was played and take advantage of Hudson’s goalkicking prowess. Positional play, particularly in Hawthorn’s half, was thrown out the window. Everybody was crowded around the ball (sound familiar?) leaving Hudson and his opponent deep in the forward line waiting for a clearance. The outcome was a Hawks premiership in 1971. Hudson kicker 150 goals and equaled Bob Pratt’s record for goals kicked in a VFL season. Hudson, poor bugger, didn’t break the record because the Saints came up with its own tactic for reducing his output.
This tactic was great for the Hawks but terrible for the look of the game. The VFL were proactive and introduced a change to the rules in 1973 when it introduced a centre diamond (later changed to a centre square) and restricted the access of players. It was about bringing the game back to a place that he had been and make it better viewing for the supporters.
As for poor Huddo, he seriously injured his knee before half time in the opening round of 1972. He’d already kicked 8 goals. While taking a mark which would have led to his 9th he was pulled over by Melbourne’s Ray Biffen (great name for a footballer) and twisted his knee. The Hawks chances of back to back sunk and Carlton took out the flag in 1972.
My point is that sometimes rule changes are necessary for the look and integrity of the game. You can’t leave it up to the coaches as they have never taken their custodial role seriously. The rules we have seen introduced this season will require further tweaking to restore the originality of Australian Rules footy.
I agree rule changes can be great and have a very positive effect, there are many examples of this for sure.
Too many changes, too quickly can also be a bad thing. Knee jerk reactions can also be detrimental to the sport. The substitution rule had a short life.
Sometimes the solution can be removal of rules rather than enforcing of new ones.
