Australian football gets nine rule changes to make the players think — and coaches rethink
AFL House has settled on nine rule changes for Australian football next season — and AFL football boss Steven Hocking is hoping for more excitement and more instinctive play.
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AUSTRALIAN football will have nine rule changes at the AFL level next season — most of them stripping away the rewrites of the past 40 years that took the game away from its most-exciting, high-scoring ways.
The AFL Commission has endorsed all of the recommendations from 10 months of work by AFL football boss Steve Hocking’s competition committee.
And the nine-metre long goalsquare will remain, although players can now work the kick-in from as far as 19 metres from the goal-line — and, for the first time in the game’s history, they can handball after a behind has been signalled. No longer does a player have to kick to himself to play-on after a behind.
“We’ve changed the landscape,” Hocking said at AFL House on Thursday afternoon. “We have opened the game to innovative and strategic thinking. We have brought back opportunities for players to be more instinctive.
“It is exciting what could unfold from here.”
The nine changes are —
STARTING POSITIONS: Each team must be in a 6-6-6 formation at the start of each quarter and after each goal is scored. There must be at least one forward and one defender in the goalsquare. Wingmen must stay on the outer side of the centre square.
KICK-INS: Goalsquare remains nine-metres long. But the kick-in player will have clear space up to 19 metres from the goal-line. No longer does a player have to kick to himself before he leaves the goalsquare. And he can handball.
MARKS-FREE KICKS IN DEEP DEFENCE: Any mark or free kick within nine metres of the goal will have the mark set at nine metres from the goal — in line with the top of the goalsquare. This will give the defender more space — and more options — with his play rather than be pinned against the boundary fence.
RUNNERS/WATERBOYS: Runners can enter the field only after a goal is scored — and must be off within 45 seconds. Waterboys cannot take to the field during live play.
UMPIRE CONTACT: Players can no longer “screen” themselves behind an umpire at centre bounces.
50-METRE PENALTY: Players will be penalised — with another 50 metre penalty — if they hold up an opponent trying to get to his new mark. And now the player with the 50-metre penalty can play on at any time rather than wait for the new mark to be set.
RUCK CONTESTS: The so-called “Matthew Primus” rule is gone. Ruckmen can once again take the ball directly from a throw-in or bounce without running the risk of being immediately penalised for holding the ball when tackled.
KICKING AFTER THE SIREN: Players can now come off the straight line to set up for goals after the siren. But they cannot improve the angle when taking the kick that must still carry over the mark.
HANDS IN THE BACK: This rule — introduced 12 years ago — is gone.
There is no new ruling on the contentious holding-the-ball rule that Hocking says needs to be simply “officiated as it is written”.
Hocking is still to deliver the new rules to Australian football competitions outside the AFL. Other leagues, such as the SANFL, will make their own calls on whether to adopt the AFL changes.