Starting points show game can return to full field spectacle it once was, writes Jon Ralph

THE best junior talent the game has to offer played with starting points at the MCG on Sunday and the sky didn’t fall in. A simple rule change can make the game great again, writes JON RALPH.

Ben King marks during Vic Metro’s clash against Vic Country.

THE best junior talent the AFL has to offer played with starting points at the MCG on Sunday and the sky didn’t fall in.

No player spontaneously combusted with exhaustion, the fabric of the game wasn’t torn asunder, the game flowed like an 1980s classic.

As a few hundred fans watched Vic Metro beat Vic Country, they wouldn’t have even been aware of the rules in place, so organically did it unfold.

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Starting points of some description will surely come into the AFL next year as the league continues to test their worth.

On Sunday, Gillon McLachlan’s sniff test - new rules which help the flow of the game without fans noticing - passed on every measure.

Under the gentlemen’s agreement used for the national championships, five pairs of players must be in each half and two pairs within 50m.

Zac Foot puts Vic Country into attack.

What became obvious was that instead of condensing into a quarter of the ground, then sprinting into defence at a stoppage, players had to remain close to the 50m arc.

The full forward and another forward rarely strayed farther than 75m from goal to ensure they could retreat in time for the next stoppage.

As a result forwards led up at the ball in general player rather than the AFL trend of back-leading into space.

There were still multiple groups of players around a stoppage but players had time and space to run into, forwards had ample room to lead.

At clubs like St Kilda, forwards spend half of their training sessions learning to lead back into space, not actually hitting up at the ball carrier.

Is that what our game has become?

Paddy McCartin attempts to mark in front of Daniel Talia.

There would be unintended consequences and a need to tinker any loopholes, which the AFL would have to rectify.

But the plus side - room to move for young forwards like Josh Schache and Paddy McCartin and acres for wingers like Isaac Smith - has to override any teething problems.

It is hard to see what other lever would help return the game to the full-field spectacle it used to be.

Restricted interchange would help, but teams would still attempt to clog the stoppages with as many players as possible until they fatigued.

If your greatest beef with starting points is a change in tradition, consider how broken our game has become.

Champion Data stats show the average score per team is just 82.4 points and average goals per team is 11.9, both the lowest since 1968.

Ben Brown takes a pack mark against the Western Bulldogs.

Ben Brown leads the Coleman Medal with 40 goals, and the Roos have had to go to him 150 times to get him to that point.

There have been 62 goalless quarters this year - the most since 1966 - with Carlton averaging its fewest points since 1925 and St Kilda the second-fewest since 1960.

The ball rarely travels end-to-end - just 20 per cent of defensive chains finish inside the opposition 50m - the lowest percentage since 1999.

The AFL is considering penalties for breaching starting points - fines or free kicks - but surely they pay a free kick or don’t have starting points at all.

If the penalty was a free kick from 30m out in front of goal, players would instantly learn to adapt or find themselves playing VFL.

Only a dramatic intervention will stop the dramatic slide in scoring in our game.

The downside of starting points can’t be worse than what is now on offer and if they totally fail, the AFL can still move onto the next-best solution.

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Originally published as Starting points show game can return to full field spectacle it once was, writes Jon Ralph