I must admit I began thinking of this again because of the most recent episode of AFL Daily on the AFL website where they talked about how low scoring the game has become, a trend that has been happening for the last 20 years in fact and does not seem to be slowing down as teams become more professional and coaches become better at taking away what the opposition need to score. The AFL have introduced rules that have helped slow the decline but that is all it has done, slowed the decline as the rule changes have been too small to have any meaningful difference.
I am reminded of the NBA actually, when a number of decades ago they noticed the trend of scoring was decreasing so they made one big rule change, introducing shot clock rule stating a team had 24 seconds to possess the ball before they had to go for a shot. Now I am not saying the AFL introduce this as it would clearly be terrible for AFL but it was a huge rule change that I am sure upset a lot of purists at the time but ultimately was the right call for the league as it basically fixed the scoring issue forever.
We need a rule change like that in the AFL, something big, something that will fix the scoring issue once and for all and I think that change would be decreasing the current 18 a side to either 16 or even 15 a side, changing the game so instead of 36 players on the field you have 32 players or even 30.
I think this works as right now the problem is not just congestion but also the fact that teams have enough players to set up zones, zones that make getting the ball past them very difficult. Players are more well drilled and fitter than ever so they can maintain these zones the entire match if they want, they don't drop off in the final quarters.
Lowering the amount of players on the field by 2 or 3 per team changes things a lot as it makes a zone so much harder to implement as teams have to cover the same space since the grounds are not getting smaller but they have to do it with fewer players, meaning there are going to be bigger gaps in teams zones, gaps that attacking teams can exploit, and sure coaches will try and rework their defensive structures but there is only so much they can do. There will be more room to move, and when a team is kicking forward they will look up and see fewer players in the forward 50, giving their forwards more room to move and the opposition defenders a more difficult time as they have to be more accountable to their own man since they can't rely on a teammate covering for them.
Also I am not the only one who thinks this as Chris Scott
has said in a press conference that Geelong do 16 a side practices and the ball movement and scoring is noticably better with fewer players on the field. He also mentioned this
I strongly think that in the 2022 VFL season they should lower it to 15 a side on the field and experiment with the idea for an entire year in the lower level, see how it goes and possibly look to implement the idea at an AFL level in 2023, assuming it works in the VFL.
So what do you think, would you be willing to consider 15 or 16 a side to improve the game?
I am reminded of the NBA actually, when a number of decades ago they noticed the trend of scoring was decreasing so they made one big rule change, introducing shot clock rule stating a team had 24 seconds to possess the ball before they had to go for a shot. Now I am not saying the AFL introduce this as it would clearly be terrible for AFL but it was a huge rule change that I am sure upset a lot of purists at the time but ultimately was the right call for the league as it basically fixed the scoring issue forever.
We need a rule change like that in the AFL, something big, something that will fix the scoring issue once and for all and I think that change would be decreasing the current 18 a side to either 16 or even 15 a side, changing the game so instead of 36 players on the field you have 32 players or even 30.
I think this works as right now the problem is not just congestion but also the fact that teams have enough players to set up zones, zones that make getting the ball past them very difficult. Players are more well drilled and fitter than ever so they can maintain these zones the entire match if they want, they don't drop off in the final quarters.
Lowering the amount of players on the field by 2 or 3 per team changes things a lot as it makes a zone so much harder to implement as teams have to cover the same space since the grounds are not getting smaller but they have to do it with fewer players, meaning there are going to be bigger gaps in teams zones, gaps that attacking teams can exploit, and sure coaches will try and rework their defensive structures but there is only so much they can do. There will be more room to move, and when a team is kicking forward they will look up and see fewer players in the forward 50, giving their forwards more room to move and the opposition defenders a more difficult time as they have to be more accountable to their own man since they can't rely on a teammate covering for them.
Also I am not the only one who thinks this as Chris Scott
PLAYERCARDSTART
Chris Scott
- Age
- 47
- Ht
- 182cm
- Wt
- 89kg
- Pos.
- Fwd
Career
Season
Last 5
- D
- 16.6
- 4star
- K
- 11.2
- 4star
- HB
- 5.4
- 4star
- M
- 5.1
- 5star
- T
- 1.6
- 4star
- G
- 0.4
- 3star
No current season stats available
- D
- 13.2
- 4star
- K
- 10.2
- 4star
- HB
- 3.0
- 3star
- M
- 2.2
- 3star
- T
- 2.8
- 5star
- G
- 0.4
- 3star
PLAYERCARDEND
“If we played with 16 v 16 and didn’t tell anyone, I don’t think anyone would notice, for a long time anyway. I think it would make the game better.
“We’ve had 18 players since the game was invented on grounds that are exactly the same size with athletes that are fundamentally different. The logical extension is that the game is going to be more congested.”
Scott’s radical plan to fix footy
GEELONG coach Chris Scott believes a reduction in the number of players on the field to 16-per-side would deliver a more attractive brand.
www.perthnow.com.au
I strongly think that in the 2022 VFL season they should lower it to 15 a side on the field and experiment with the idea for an entire year in the lower level, see how it goes and possibly look to implement the idea at an AFL level in 2023, assuming it works in the VFL.
So what do you think, would you be willing to consider 15 or 16 a side to improve the game?