Rule change debate has raged this year as the AFL continues to tweak the game in the hopes of freeing congestion and increasing scoring.
The natural reaction to these changes is frustration from most corners of the footballing landscape, but Bob Murphy and Andy Maher are calling for some calm.
The SEN Drive pair have gone through the last 10 rule changes made by the league and analysed whether they deserve a tick or a cross with the benefit of hindsight.
“That’s part of the game. If there’s anything changed, we go into spasm,” Murphy told SEN’s Bob and Andy.
“Players coaches, supporters, all of us.
“I remember when they brought in the chopping of the arm rule it was ‘well this is going to ruin the game, you can’t even compete as defenders’.
“Now in the cold light of day, was it better for the game? 100 per cent it was better for the game. Of course it is.”
Here are the last 10 rule changes made to the game:
1. The six-six-six zoning at centre bounces
Murphy: “It’s a tick.”
Maher: “Tick. It’s not a cross. How can you give that a cross?”
2. The man on the mark moved back five metres at kick-ins
Maher: “Tick.”
Murphy: “Yep. The ball gets further over the back.”
3. Restriction on runners
Maher: “Cross. We need the runners to be out there more often!”
Murphy: “Far be it for us to comment as part of the collegian. It hasn’t made any difference.”
4. Grabbing the ball out of the ruck no longer deemed prior opportunity
Maher: “It hasn’t hurt the game, has it?”
Murphy: “I don’t think so.”
Maher: “It’s given the ruckmen more opportunity to grab the footy out and distribute a handball, and that’s far more likely to find a teammate in the modern game than the traditional hit-out.”
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5. No third-man-up in the ruck/ruck nomination
Maher: “The ruck nomination is rubbish.”
Murphy: “This is where I split. I think the game is better without third-man-up, let the ruckmen ruck, but the nomination is a bit of bollocks.”
6. Stricter interpretations of deliberate out of bounds and rushed behinds
Maher: “Massive tick.”
Murphy: “Massive tick. If you watch, and you know I love my footy from the 1990s, watching classic games and watching guys barrel the ball towards the boundary line to get 40 metres, it just looks rank.”
Maher: “All we want, we saw one yesterday where the defender booted it off the side of his boot, don’t pay that. Just understand what the player’s intention is. I reckon somewhere between 80 to 90 percentile they get right.”
7. Forceful contact below the knees
Maher: “Tick. Just umpire it right.”
Murphy: “Tick. And that was another I thought ‘ah, I wouldn’t have brought that in’ and I got that wrong.”
8. Widening of the restricted area when a player has taken a mark or has a free kick
Maher: “Tick, umpire it right.”
Murphy: “Just take your finger off the trigger.”
9. Goal-line technology
Maher: “It still doesn’t work properly. It’s not complete. And it’s not up to the broadcasters. It’s never been up to the broadcasters, if the AFL wants to bring this in, they need to invest and every AFL ground needs to have a uniform system applied to it. It’s a nonsense to suggest this should be on the broadcaster.”
Murphy: “How much would it cost?”
Maher: “It would be a lot. My memory was back in the day it was somewhere around $100,000 per venue to install and then there’s maintenance costs, but don’t hold me to that figure.”
Murphy: “If that is the figure, that doesn’t sound like that much. That doesn’t sound like much to me.”
10. Interchange caps
Murphy: “I’m not sure we’ve got a clear line on the interchange caps. You can get varying arguments with this.”
Maher: “That’s a TBD. We haven’t landed in the right spot with that.”