Rules The new man on the mark rule is utterly ridiculous.

Soccer does not change that often, and when they do they deliberate over many years what to do. Bad example.
Again, they literally changed the handball rule midseason off the back of a Premier League game.
 
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How come every other sport in the world has not felt the need for this? We have had more rule changes in 2-5 years than pretty much every other sport has had in its history.

Basketball has certainly done it, NRL brought in the 5 again rule mid year which had a massive impact on the game last year from memory. Cricket has various formats.

AFL has a lot of variables in play at any given time, the free flowing nature of the game means that you have to account for 360 degrees of movement, massive playing fields, long duration games with high levels of distances covered.

The AFL has been fully professional for a much shorter period of time than many international sports as well.

People don’t like rule changes, I get it, and many of the rule changes made by the AFL have had unintended side effects, but these two - man on the mark and reduced rotations go hand in hand - appear thus far to have a positive impact on scoring, more open play, and has brought big forwards in to the game in a way they haven’t been for most of the last decade.
 
Again, they literally changed the handball rule midseason off the back of a Premier League game.
Concussion sub took years of deliberation and was bought into the Premier league with months of notice at the start of the season.

Oh wait.
 
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Now your changing tact from leave it alone it’s not the game I recognise to let’s look at it every 5 years. So what is it then? Leave it alone and hope that you get back the game you grew up with or let’s change it every five years?

No I have not said leave it alone totally, I have said there is no need for yearly changes, give the game a chance to breathe and let the players and coaches evolve it. I am suggesting once every 5 years a committee sits down and goes through it and then makes recommendations based on what has happened the previous 5 years.
Why do you want it changed yearly?
It has nothing to do with the game being different than when I grew up, the players and coaches were always going to evolve the game just as every other era did. It wasnt the game I grew up with in 1995 but at least they were playing basically the same rules. The game has changed dramatically based on rule changes more than anything else. I am asking why is this necessary and based on what information is the AFL basing these changes on? Crowds dropped off? TV ratings down? Membership numbers down? Social media discussion down? TV footy shows lost support? I would say the answer to all those key indicators is NO.
So what are they basing it on?
 
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Roby

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Again, they literally changed the handball rule midseason off the back of a Premier League game.

AGAIN, they have been deliberating this change since the 90's. This did not come out of the blue.

Also, it doesn't fundamentally chsnge the game or make it look stupid. It just makes it easier to officiate.

None of the rule chsnges in soccer have ever been an issue and always improved it. Not like AFL at all, AGAIN.
 
AGAIN, they have been deliberating this change since the 90's. This did not come out of the blue.

Also, it doesn't fundamentally chsnge the game or make it look stupid. It just makes it easier to officiate.

None of the rule chsnges in soccer have ever been an issue and always improved it. Not like AFL at all, AGAIN.

Well yes it did come out of the blue since in the pre season they had made an almost completely opposite change. You're thinking of the original change - that being that all touches of the ball in the lead up to a goal counts as handball and won't count as a goal. They FLIPPED that mid-season out of the blue. After a Fulham goal was disallowed.

Dig up.
 

Roby

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Well yes it did come out of the blue since in the pre season they had made an almost completely opposite change. You're thinking of the original change - that being that all touches of the ball in the lead up to a goal counts as handball and won't count as a goal. They FLIPPED that mid-season out of the blue. After a Fulham goal was disallowed.

Dig up.

This is just EPL. It's not going to be in the world cup or Champions League or other leagues like serie A.

How often have the actual soccer rules changed per World Cup which is every four years?
 
This is just EPL. It's not going to be in the world cup or Champions League or other leagues like serie A.

How often have the actual soccer rules changed per World Cup which is every four years?
So just confirming, they did change a rule spur of the moment?
 
You didn't answer my questionquestion. Dig up, again.
Your question is fundamentally flawed and doesn't merit a response.

Soccer has introduced rules at short notice which was my example. You don't get to reinterpret the parameters of my example yo be an arbitrary tournament.
 
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Basketball has certainly done it, NRL brought in the 5 again rule mid year which had a massive impact on the game last year from memory. Cricket has various formats.

AFL has a lot of variables in play at any given time, the free flowing nature of the game means that you have to account for 360 degrees of movement, massive playing fields, long duration games with high levels of distances covered.

The AFL has been fully professional for a much shorter period of time than many international sports as well.

People don’t like rule changes, I get it, and many of the rule changes made by the AFL have had unintended side effects, but these two - man on the mark and reduced rotations go hand in hand - appear thus far to have a positive impact on scoring, more open play, and has brought big forwards in to the game in a way they haven’t been for most of the last decade.
Myth
 

mr bagcroft

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AGAIN, they have been deliberating this change since the 90's. This did not come out of the blue.

Also, it doesn't fundamentally chsnge the game or make it look stupid. It just makes it easier to officiate.

None of the rule chsnges in soccer have ever been an issue and always improved it. Not like AFL at all, AGAIN.
er yup, it looks pretty damn stupid.
 
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AGAIN, they have been deliberating this change since the 90's. This did not come out of the blue.

Also, it doesn't fundamentally chsnge the game or make it look stupid. It just makes it easier to officiate.

None of the rule chsnges in soccer have ever been an issue and always improved it. Not like AFL at all, AGAIN.
The new Man on the Mark rule doesn't fundamentally change anything either.

Manning the mark has never been a core skill of the sport. Not all that long ago, kicking across the ground was a sin - no one did it. You'd actually kick over the mark, so the man on the mark had no reason to move laterally anyway.

The fundamental of footy has always been that the team with the ball has the advantage. In recent times, this changed as teams started generating the bulk of their scores from turnovers. This literally means that you are more likely to score if you don't have the ball! You literally are at a disadvantage if you have the ball!

Now that is ridiculous. That is a ludicrous situation for a sport to be in. When good offence doesn't beat good defence, your sport is ruined.


All this new rule has done, is really close a loophole that coaches were exploiting. The Man on the Mark being used as a defensive weapon was just bullshit. It didn't add anything to the game. It was just yet another way for coaches to clog up the game and slow it down.

Reducing the impact of the Man on the Mark is a great example of subtle tweaks that DON'T mess with the fundamentals of the sport, whilst making an impact in line with the spirit of the game. And that spirit I'm referring to is that the team with the ball should have the advantage.
 

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The new Man on the Mark rule doesn't fundamentally change anything either.

Manning the mark has never been a core skill of the sport. Not all that long ago, kicking across the ground was a sin - no one did it. You'd actually kick over the mark, so the man on the mark had no reason to move laterally anyway.

The fundamental of footy has always been that the team with the ball has the advantage. In recent times, this changed as teams started generating the bulk of their scores from turnovers. This literally means that you are more likely to score if you don't have the ball! You literally are at a disadvantage if you have the ball!

Now that is ridiculous. That is a ludicrous situation for a sport to be in. When good offence doesn't beat good defence, your sport is ruined.


All this new rule has done, is really close a loophole that coaches were exploiting. The Man on the Mark being used as a defensive weapon was just bullshit. It didn't add anything to the game. It was just yet another way for coaches to clog up the game and slow it down.

Reducing the impact of the Man on the Mark is a great example of subtle tweaks that DON'T mess with the fundamentals of the sport, whilst making an impact in line with the spirit of the game. And that spirit I'm referring to is that the team with the ball should have the advantage.
Don't you need a good forward line to score, not just a good defence. Defence has always been the cornerstone of a good side.

I get what you say in regard to disadvantage if you have the ball, but setting up defensively behind the ball won't win you matches either unless you have quality mids to transfer the ball. West Coast are good to watch and they score by getting the ball quickly into their strong forward line. Richmond score heaviliy from turnovers, but do not mess around with the ball so score quite heavily.

Sides that chip it around, are equally uninteresting to watch as sides that play defensively. Fast ball movement is still the way to go, and you can see with the injection of speed in the game that coaches know this. The Swans played a small and lively forward line and took apart Richmond's defence. Nothing to do with the new rule. I think people are underestimating that coaches don't just sit around all summer, but that they devise new ways of beating the good sides. Good coaching for Longmire and something that they have probably worked on all pre-season.
 

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The new Man on the Mark rule doesn't fundamentally change anything either.

Manning the mark has never been a core skill of the sport. Not all that long ago, kicking across the ground was a sin - no one did it. You'd actually kick over the mark, so the man on the mark had no reason to move laterally anyway.

The fundamental of footy has always been that the team with the ball has the advantage. In recent times, this changed as teams started generating the bulk of their scores from turnovers. This literally means that you are more likely to score if you don't have the ball! You literally are at a disadvantage if you have the ball!

Now that is ridiculous. That is a ludicrous situation for a sport to be in. When good offence doesn't beat good defence, your sport is ruined.


All this new rule has done, is really close a loophole that coaches were exploiting. The Man on the Mark being used as a defensive weapon was just bullshit. It didn't add anything to the game. It was just yet another way for coaches to clog up the game and slow it down.

Reducing the impact of the Man on the Mark is a great example of subtle tweaks that DON'T mess with the fundamentals of the sport, whilst making an impact in line with the spirit of the game. And that spirit I'm referring to is that the team with the ball should have the advantage.

Scores aren't up.
 
Ball movement is though. Also KPF's are finding it much easier to kick goals under the new rules.

Yep and the second point is what brings people to the footy! Everyone likes a good KPF bag!
 
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I believe scores are up so far as compared to 2019 (and 2020 for obvious reasons) reversing the trend of less scoring.
Pretty bloody close
Round 3 scoring update

Year20212020*20192018201720162015201420132012
Round 3 average88.173.888.491.184.392.895.689.2105.894.6
Round 3 2021 - % above or below+19.3%-0.3%-3.3%+4.5%-5.1%-7.8%-1.2%-16.7%-6.8%
Round 3 - lowest since2020196720172017199520142014201120122011
Round 3 - highest since2019201920182016201620152013201320002009
Season average to Round 385.681.382.790.495.693.48886.8100.596.7
Season to Round 3 2021 - % above or below+5.2%+3.5%-5.3%-10.4%-8.3%-2.7%-1.3%-14.8%-11.5%
Season to Round 3 - lowest since2020196719672015201620152014199520122011
Season to Round 3 - highest since2018201920182017201320132013201320012009
 
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