New Kick in Rules

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May 8, 2007
10,578
14,811
vic
AFL Club
Richmond
I don't think the kick in rules have made any significant difference to the game - I haven't noticed any great strategy changes.

But geez, it looks terrible. It's supposed to be a formal restart of the play after the game stopped because of a score. And we get somebody just wandering off until he decides to kick it. All sports have formal restarts after scores, or if the ball goes out of play - and there are rules about how it is done, and if performed by a player, there are usually set ways it happens - think of a goal-kick in soccer, a kick-off in rugby. Even in basketball, a player has to pass the ball from behind the end-line.

Yes, it's an extremely minor thing (as I said, it hasn't changed the game much at all, and there are much more important things to worry about). But aesthetically, it's rather depressing.
 

Simon_Nesbit

Brownlow Medallist
Sep 26, 2001
11,709
8,190
Tasmania
AFL Club
Hawthorn
I do like the 9m rule (giving player with ball kicking in more time and space), but otherwise agree totally. The point of the goalsquare is now lost (other than lining up directly in front).

I still don't see what is wrong with the 'solo' as a means of recommencing play.
 

Final Siren

Mr Squiggle
Aug 18, 2009
4,229
17,495
AFL Club
Richmond
This rule has had the opposite effect to that intended, making it harder to rebound out of D50 than ever before, as clearly evidenced by how rebound goals after a behind have dropped off a cliff in 2019. In the process, it abolished the enjoyable traditional kick-in mechanic of kick-to-self-to-play-on, as well as completely destroying the meaning of the goal square, which now seems to exist solely as a box to put a Toyota logo in.

So we have a rule that was introduced to fix a "problem" that was debatable in the first place, made it worse, and ruined a couple of other pretty good things along the way. Get rid of it.
 

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D-N-R

Club Legend
Apr 4, 2005
2,995
3,438
AFL Club
West Coast
Other Teams
WCE
It seems to me that the defensive set up has simply dropped back 10 metres. It was suggested that there was a whole load of space behind the previous defensive set up which teams could use. Unsurprisingly, that 'extra space' on the wing is now full of players.

The goal square isn't quite redundant. It still allows players kicking out a safe space to make up their mind, and change their mind before being called to play on.
 

Finn Jim

Team Captain
Apr 2, 2019
333
1,115
AFL Club
Collingwood
They must have felt bad about making the goalsquare meaningless, so they introduced another rule requiring folks to be in it for center bounces! D-N-R's description is quite apt though.
 

Tex9798

Team Captain
Sep 25, 2016
415
615
AFL Club
Adelaide
It seems to me that the defensive set up has simply dropped back 10 metres

Also teams are more willing to just concede kicks to the pocket, feel like we see more short kicks from a kick in than before.

No idea if that's actually true.

But I agree this has had no tangible impact on the game, just a pointless rule.
 

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