Rules you would like to see implemented

[LordLucifer]

Feel like this just gets rehashed every few years, and like others I think a sensible reversion and removal will do far more good than anything else:

Recent Atrocities that should all be removed

• Stand Rule - Childish, unnecessary, under-8s level rubbish. If players want to play on let them.
• Deliberate Out of Bounds - The genuine rule is fine - if the ball is put out of bounds deliberately, then it's a free kick. But what has happening now is insanity. I'd argue 99% of the time players don't want the ball going out, and when you kick it 40 metres towards your scoring end, you're doing what you should be doing. And every supporter who cheers at games when your side gets one of these idiotic free kicks, good on you for being morons.
• 6-6-6 - Absolutely nothing rule that added zero to the game. The first year it was introduced saw the lowest scoring season since 1968 (and this was before Covid). If teams want to put 18 players in the backline let them. Kick goals from 50 metres out then.
• Below the Knees - Total overreaction, because one sneaky player (Lindsay Thomas) broke Gary Rohan's leg by sliding in feet first. Which virtually never happens to begin with. What it does do is punish the player who goes in and gets the ball first.
• Nominating Ruckmen - Same as the stand rule, it isn't junior football. If the players aren't ready tough. Ball it up and get on with it.
• Playing on after a Point - For more than a century, six year olds learned how to pretty much effortlessly kick the ball to themselves so they could play on after a point was kicked. No more. It's apparently too difficult for top level footballers. And they get a totally unearned stat.
• Marks taken in the goal square taken to the goal line - Yet another childish simplification. Kicking for goal should be a skill. If you take a mark next to the goal post you should be on a tight angle. You should also be easily good enough to kick it. Automatically moving the mark to the goal line just dumbs the game down.

Older Rules that will still work

• Holding the Ball - It's so easy. If they have a chance to get rid of it and don't, it's holding the ball. If a player willingly takes on a tackle - any tackle - and flings the ball out with one arm, it's not play on, and it's not a ball up. It's holding the ball. But conversely, if a player is on the bottom of a pack and actually trying to get the ball, he shouldn't be penalised when three opposition players sit on him. Also, the trend now where players are allowed to reach over the shoulder to hold it in - that's over the shoulder and should be a free kick. Also, if a player runs 30 metres, a chasing player lays a fingernail on their jumper, and he scrubs it along the ground........it's still a kick. It's NOT holding the ball no matter what noise the crowd makes. Equally important but vital last point - superstars get judged the same as everyone else.
• Push in the Back (marking contest) - again, so so easy. If your hands are on the back or above the shoulder, it's a free kick. No ifs, no buts, and I'll never forgive Gerard Healy starting this in the early 90s by arguing players should be allowed to put their hands on the shoulders when flying for marks. They shouldn't. Umpires even admitted much later that they got lazy and let a generation of fans think it's ok. It's not. I hate more than anything that Hawkins in recent years can openly push players in the back and not be penalised. He's good enough to not do that.

The final point is just as difficult, tell the umpires to actually officiate and not to coach, and talk to the players about 99% less. Let them develop an actual feel for the game and not be the stars.

Give this man a beer !!!

Everything you have written (and thank-you for doing so as it means i don't have to) is 100% goddam correct !!

The game has turned into sports entertainment with too many grey area rules that invite the umpires to be actual vocal characters in the production.

Time to stream it back and simplify things for the better.

 

[Mitchell Madness]

Think I posted here previously but can't find it. A 40/20 type rule that the nrl has.
If the ball goes, say from inside d50 to out of bounds on the other side of the centre square, it's a throw in not deliberate.

This would make teams keep players in position, rather than knowing if it goes out it will be coming back

 

[ferball]

Feel like this just gets rehashed every few years, and like others I think a sensible reversion and removal will do far more good than anything else:

Recent Atrocities that should all be removed

• Stand Rule - Childish, unnecessary, under-8s level rubbish. If players want to play on let them.
• Deliberate Out of Bounds - The genuine rule is fine - if the ball is put out of bounds deliberately, then it's a free kick. But what has happening now is insanity. I'd argue 99% of the time players don't want the ball going out, and when you kick it 40 metres towards your scoring end, you're doing what you should be doing. And every supporter who cheers at games when your side gets one of these idiotic free kicks, good on you for being morons.
• 6-6-6 - Absolutely nothing rule that added zero to the game. The first year it was introduced saw the lowest scoring season since 1968 (and this was before Covid). If teams want to put 18 players in the backline let them. Kick goals from 50 metres out then.
• Below the Knees - Total overreaction, because one sneaky player (Lindsay Thomas) broke Gary Rohan's leg by sliding in feet first. Which virtually never happens to begin with. What it does do is punish the player who goes in and gets the ball first.
• Nominating Ruckmen - Same as the stand rule, it isn't junior football. If the players aren't ready tough. Ball it up and get on with it.
• Playing on after a Point - For more than a century, six year olds learned how to pretty much effortlessly kick the ball to themselves so they could play on after a point was kicked. No more. It's apparently too difficult for top level footballers. And they get a totally unearned stat.
• Marks taken in the goal square taken to the goal line - Yet another childish simplification. Kicking for goal should be a skill. If you take a mark next to the goal post you should be on a tight angle. You should also be easily good enough to kick it. Automatically moving the mark to the goal line just dumbs the game down.

Older Rules that will still work

• Holding the Ball - It's so easy. If they have a chance to get rid of it and don't, it's holding the ball. If a player willingly takes on a tackle - any tackle - and flings the ball out with one arm, it's not play on, and it's not a ball up. It's holding the ball. But conversely, if a player is on the bottom of a pack and actually trying to get the ball, he shouldn't be penalised when three opposition players sit on him. Also, the trend now where players are allowed to reach over the shoulder to hold it in - that's over the shoulder and should be a free kick. Also, if a player runs 30 metres, a chasing player lays a fingernail on their jumper, and he scrubs it along the ground........it's still a kick. It's NOT holding the ball no matter what noise the crowd makes. Equally important but vital last point - superstars get judged the same as everyone else.
• Push in the Back (marking contest) - again, so so easy. If your hands are on the back or above the shoulder, it's a free kick. No ifs, no buts, and I'll never forgive Gerard Healy starting this in the early 90s by arguing players should be allowed to put their hands on the shoulders when flying for marks. They shouldn't. Umpires even admitted much later that they got lazy and let a generation of fans think it's ok. It's not. I hate more than anything that Hawkins in recent years can openly push players in the back and not be penalised. He's good enough to not do that.

The final point is just as difficult, tell the umpires to actually officiate and not to coach, and talk to the players about 99% less. Let them develop an actual feel for the game and not be the stars.

Why is Lindsay Thomas sneaky for doing something completely legal that he goit a free for high contact for?

 

[Maddo11]

Let players start their run up for set shots wherever they like as long as they kick over the man on the mark, like is currently allowed after the siren.

With 4 umps it would be pretty easily implemented, just have one stand in line with the man on the mark behind the kicker.

 

[freddy mercury]

When players walk it over the line to force a ball in, has to seriously be looked at.

 

[KrashKraddock]

Fingernail touches shouldn't turn goals into points as happened with Petrarcha's kick in the final moments of tonight's Blues v Demons match. It's impossible to be sure even at this highest level with multiple video cameras, and totally impossible at grassroots where the central umpire might also be the goal umpire. If a touch off the boot or at the goal line doesn't clearly change the ball's trajectory then it doesn't matter. Or maybe even if it did. Soccer doesn't care about deflections off the opposing team, why should AFL? Ditto scraping the side of the post by a millimeter. Who cares? The only question is which side of the post did it go. Over the top of the post would score a point. Hey, if it bounced back into play, then play on. That would be interesting, but the game continues to get more anal not less...

 

[Hoops]

If a player gives away a free, holds onto the ball and points backwards for his team mates to get back, it should be automatically 50.

Players are given way too long to give the ball back in general.

Players shouldn't have to give the ball back, just place it on the ground straight away.

 

[Hoops]

Any encroachment in the protected area by a teammate is automatically play on. Asking them nicely to leave with no repercussions isn't working.

 

[Hoops]

Maybe push or tackle in the back should be allowed on a player who has the ball?

No push in the back, just hands in the back and that's for marking contests too. Anything else unless dangerous like driving your knee into someone's back on the ground is not needed.

 

[Hoops]

If a player is on top of another player and drags the ball under the player he is on top of to get a free. The free should go the otherway.

 

[TheOptimum18]

Players shouldn't have to give the ball back, just place it on the ground straight away.

This is currently a 50m penalty

 

[magpie_marty]

Not sure if this is a rule,
But how many times do you see a kick in from a behind and an extra ball on the ground?

 

[HairyO]

15m kicks and 15m per bounce being treated identically.
Rather than one being 8m and the other 25m.

 

[Hoops]

This is currently a 50m penalty

yes, but this is a rule i would like to see implemented.

 

[terrybull]

A mark is extended to 30 meters.

 

[faucon]

Given the mess at the end of last nights Crows Swans game (umpire incorrectly calls a goal a behind as he thinks it touched the post), the rule should be if the ball crosses the line between the goal posts then it's a goal! Doesn't matter if it touches the post! Keep it simple as video review doesn't always work.

 

[GoldbergsGold]

6 6 6 is great, when foxfooty replays a close match from 10 years ago and the team in front starts with literally their entire team in the back half you see how dumb things used to be

They still do flooding, nothing has changed. Scoring is still way down from the 2000's.

Same with the 'stand' rule you need to re watch a match from before it was introduced to appreciate what a good change it is imo

It's the opposite, I appreciate seeing players being able to move around and psyche out the opposition player behind the mark, I miss seeing that psychological pressuring aspect. Why would players unnaturally standing still in a sport that's all about movement, adding zero pressure to the opposition be appealing?

 

[GoldbergsGold]

Really the only things that ought to be outlawed are baseball slides

Do you mean upholding that terrible sliding tackle rule that penalizes the player going for the ground ball first?

 

[GoldbergsGold]

Surprised with all the terrible rule changes to supposedly increase scoring, they never got rid of backwards marking, which would limit tempo football.

 

[Footy_Fan2007]

Player A not letting player B up after a free kick has been awarded - needs to be an automatic 50.

 

[Footy_Fan2007]

On the money. 6-6-6 has proven to increase inside 50s and scores (goals/behinds) from center bounces. It has led to these classic quick chains of goals from center clearances. The 2021 GF was a perfect example of this. Beautiful football.





The stand rule is also good. It's gotten rid of these dirty delay-of-game tactics around the mark. Many years ago, teams used to set basketball-like screens to block the defender on the mark. Hawthorn and Collingwood were the worst offenders of this. The AFL stamped it out of the game. I see the stand rule as continuing to clean things up.

If the marker/kicker isn't allowed to move sideways, the man on the mark shouldn't be allowed to either. The kicker should have a protected zone where they can't be crowded by the opposition.

The only thing I hate about the stand rule is the umpire continually yelling out “Stand” like he’s telling a dog to sit.
Surely a longer blow of the whistle is enough.

 

[Maddo11]

Player A not letting player B up after a free kick has been awarded - needs to be an automatic 50.

Or standing up straight away but leaving the ball on the ground between the legs to waste time some more

 

[Fadge]

Rules that I'd like to see implemented?

Ones that are simple and able to be consistently applied.

 

[BigPond101]

The only thing I hate about the stand rule is the umpire continually yelling out “Stand” like he’s telling a dog to sit.
Surely a longer blow of the whistle is enough.

Yeah they need a way to mute that, shouldn't be too hard for a billion dollar media company since my $500 Sony headphones can already mute selected noises.

The first round everytime the ball went inside 50 you could hear an umpire scream "END ZONE!!!" which made me want to blow my brains out but it's stopped now either by AFL directive or they've got a system for muting it in the production truck

 

[aCunningPlan]

Yeah they need a way to mute that, shouldn't be too hard for a billion dollar media company since my $500 Sony headphones can already mute selected noises.

The first round everytime the ball went inside 50 you could hear an umpire scream "END ZONE!!!" which made me want to blow my brains out but it's stopped now either by AFL directive or they've got a system for muting it in the production truck

I am amazed how little communication you hear from the umpires honestly. When I'm umpiring on Saturdays, I'm screaming YOU! or STILL ME! every two minutes. I get they need to clearly hand off to the end zone umpire when the four system can see kicks over one of the mid-zone umpires to the end zone.