Why was the 3rd man up rule introduced?
Why was the 'stand' rule introduced?
Why was the 50m penalty rule first introduced?
Why is the 'protected zone' introduced?
Why was '6-6-6' introduced?
Why are we constantly talking about introducing new rules to stop congestion? To stop excessive stoppages?
Why are we constantly screaming at our TVs for umpires not paying throws? Why is 'Incorrect Disposal' so confusing?
Why do players drop their knees to draw high contact, and get rewarded for it??
Every one of the above, and many many more, are due to coaches exploiting rules and finding loopholes. Almost all of the issues with the game today are caused by coaches coaching to win, and not considering the broader game itself.
I have no issue with that. That's their job. Their job is to win. But there is no denying that they thumb their nose at the game itself when trying to find ways to win. Almost always, their tactics are not aligned with the greater good and are not in the spirit of the game.
Again, that's fine, It's their job. But it has to be called out. Changing rules to counter these tactics, introducing new rules to stop new tactics, blaming umpires, and all the other hair brain ideas that everyone has to 'fix' the adjudication mess we are dealing with, are futile. They will continue to be futile as long as coaches continue to put winning ahead of the game itself.
How can that be changed? No idea. I don't even think it can. But it needs to be publicly called out and accepted as the fact that it is, so the people in charge can start looking at ways to fix it without continuing to destroy the game even further. The AFL are simply playing catch up trying to constantly address the mess that coaches create.
The flood. 3rd man up. The rolling maul. Low scoring. The Selwood shrug. The Bulldogs throw. The Dylan Grimes knee drop to draw high contact. Using runners to clog up space. Time wasting by not giving the ball back. Excessive rotations to allow players to run all day. Exploiting the 'man on the mark' to prevent fast ball movement. Deliberately kicking the ball out of bounds. Deliberately rushing behinds. The list just goes on and on and on. These are/were all legal tactics, that have forced the AFL to react and introduce either new rules or adjust interpretations to counter them.
No matter what rule the AFL introduce, coaches will find ways to get around it. They will find ways to clog the game up. They will find ways to increase congestion and prevent 1 on 1's. They will find ways to ensure key forwards don't dominate games. They will find ways to ensure that scoring is low. It all starts with the coaches.
Damien Hardwick, on national TV has stated that he coaches Tom Lynch to crash into unprotected players standing under the ball. Lynch sent a player off the ground with 12 stitches and blood gushing from his head - and his coach publicly applauded that action. He literally stated that that is exactly what he wants Lynch to do. Ken Hinkley came out the following week and agreed, and said that's what he coaches Dixon to do also. And the thing is, it's legal. Lynch didn't even give away a free kick for the one I mentioned!
So again, another example of coaches coaching to win - and not being aligned with the greater good of the game and being completely unaligned with the direction that the AFL want the game to go. We don't want guys getting concussion. No one does. But here we have coaches saying 'f*** that, I'll do whatever it takes to win'. That is fine, but it needs to be called out that these guys are literally causing the problems we see in the game today - because when the AFL then start introducing reactive rules to protect players' heads, we all lose our s**t!
Don't want to pick on Hardwick, because he's just one of many that do it, but he is the most hypocritical bloke in football. He tweeted something about the non-call for the time wasting 50m last week.
Richmond have used a specific tactic over his tenure, that involves taking an opposition player to ground after a free kick is paid, to waste time. The art to it is, that they don't take down the player who was awarded the free kick - because that would be a 50m penalty. They take down a player close by, often very aggressively too. The umpire blows the whistle, talks to them, then starts play. The perfect crime. They've wasted time, held up the opposition from playing on allowing their defence to set up, without giving away a 50m penalty. It's a blatant exploitation of the rule. Cotchin is masterful at it.
So for Hardwick and the rest of us to pot the umpires for getting a call wrong in relation to time wasting, is just bullshit. It's coaches like him that are the very reason the rules get introduced in the first place, and it's the loopholes they exploit that make the rules so hard to adjudicate. Of course it's confusing!
Nathan Buckley giggled about a runner clogging up space late in a quarter the other night during a game, and said that that's a common tactic that he used. I mean f***, here we all are getting worked up about congestion and slow ball movement - and you literally have coaches using runners to cause congestion and slow the ball movement!!
So if anyone has an idea to prevent coaches from f***ing the game up, I'm all ears. But until we come up with something, we're just gong to go further and further down the path of shitness that we've been on for 20 years.
Why was the 'stand' rule introduced?
Why was the 50m penalty rule first introduced?
Why is the 'protected zone' introduced?
Why was '6-6-6' introduced?
Why are we constantly talking about introducing new rules to stop congestion? To stop excessive stoppages?
Why are we constantly screaming at our TVs for umpires not paying throws? Why is 'Incorrect Disposal' so confusing?
Why do players drop their knees to draw high contact, and get rewarded for it??
Every one of the above, and many many more, are due to coaches exploiting rules and finding loopholes. Almost all of the issues with the game today are caused by coaches coaching to win, and not considering the broader game itself.
I have no issue with that. That's their job. Their job is to win. But there is no denying that they thumb their nose at the game itself when trying to find ways to win. Almost always, their tactics are not aligned with the greater good and are not in the spirit of the game.
Again, that's fine, It's their job. But it has to be called out. Changing rules to counter these tactics, introducing new rules to stop new tactics, blaming umpires, and all the other hair brain ideas that everyone has to 'fix' the adjudication mess we are dealing with, are futile. They will continue to be futile as long as coaches continue to put winning ahead of the game itself.
How can that be changed? No idea. I don't even think it can. But it needs to be publicly called out and accepted as the fact that it is, so the people in charge can start looking at ways to fix it without continuing to destroy the game even further. The AFL are simply playing catch up trying to constantly address the mess that coaches create.
The flood. 3rd man up. The rolling maul. Low scoring. The Selwood shrug. The Bulldogs throw. The Dylan Grimes knee drop to draw high contact. Using runners to clog up space. Time wasting by not giving the ball back. Excessive rotations to allow players to run all day. Exploiting the 'man on the mark' to prevent fast ball movement. Deliberately kicking the ball out of bounds. Deliberately rushing behinds. The list just goes on and on and on. These are/were all legal tactics, that have forced the AFL to react and introduce either new rules or adjust interpretations to counter them.
No matter what rule the AFL introduce, coaches will find ways to get around it. They will find ways to clog the game up. They will find ways to increase congestion and prevent 1 on 1's. They will find ways to ensure key forwards don't dominate games. They will find ways to ensure that scoring is low. It all starts with the coaches.
Damien Hardwick, on national TV has stated that he coaches Tom Lynch to crash into unprotected players standing under the ball. Lynch sent a player off the ground with 12 stitches and blood gushing from his head - and his coach publicly applauded that action. He literally stated that that is exactly what he wants Lynch to do. Ken Hinkley came out the following week and agreed, and said that's what he coaches Dixon to do also. And the thing is, it's legal. Lynch didn't even give away a free kick for the one I mentioned!
So again, another example of coaches coaching to win - and not being aligned with the greater good of the game and being completely unaligned with the direction that the AFL want the game to go. We don't want guys getting concussion. No one does. But here we have coaches saying 'f*** that, I'll do whatever it takes to win'. That is fine, but it needs to be called out that these guys are literally causing the problems we see in the game today - because when the AFL then start introducing reactive rules to protect players' heads, we all lose our s**t!
Don't want to pick on Hardwick, because he's just one of many that do it, but he is the most hypocritical bloke in football. He tweeted something about the non-call for the time wasting 50m last week.
Richmond have used a specific tactic over his tenure, that involves taking an opposition player to ground after a free kick is paid, to waste time. The art to it is, that they don't take down the player who was awarded the free kick - because that would be a 50m penalty. They take down a player close by, often very aggressively too. The umpire blows the whistle, talks to them, then starts play. The perfect crime. They've wasted time, held up the opposition from playing on allowing their defence to set up, without giving away a 50m penalty. It's a blatant exploitation of the rule. Cotchin is masterful at it.
So for Hardwick and the rest of us to pot the umpires for getting a call wrong in relation to time wasting, is just bullshit. It's coaches like him that are the very reason the rules get introduced in the first place, and it's the loopholes they exploit that make the rules so hard to adjudicate. Of course it's confusing!
Nathan Buckley giggled about a runner clogging up space late in a quarter the other night during a game, and said that that's a common tactic that he used. I mean f***, here we all are getting worked up about congestion and slow ball movement - and you literally have coaches using runners to cause congestion and slow the ball movement!!
So if anyone has an idea to prevent coaches from f***ing the game up, I'm all ears. But until we come up with something, we're just gong to go further and further down the path of shitness that we've been on for 20 years.
Last edited:
