New AFL Hall of Fame Legend Malcolm Blight has called for footy summit to save the game

NEW Australian football “Legend” Malcolm Blight wants to revive the “Great Footy Summit” to save the Australian game from falling into a copy of rugby.

AFL Hall of Fame Legend inductee Malcolm Blight gives his speech at Adelaide Oval.

NEW Australian football “Legend” Malcolm Blight wants to revive the “Great Footy Summit” to save the Australian game from falling into a copy of rugby.

Dubbed the “Messiah” for delivering the Crows their two AFL premierships in 1997-98, Blight has repeated his concern – as detailed in The Advertiser on Tuesday – for the state of Australian football as it becomes a congested game.

BLIGHT THE ALMIGHTY

THE MESSIAH NOW A LEGEND

Malcolm Blight was elevated to Legend status at the AFL Hall of Fame dinner on Tuesday night.

In advocating trials with holding forwards in the 50-metre arc, Blight noted it should not fall on one person – not even the Australian Football Hall of Fame’s latest “Legend” – to save the game.

Blight wants a summit of the game’s most forward-thinking coaches, players, umpires, administrators and media.

“We have to be careful when we get 36 players in one-eighth of the ground,” Blight said at Adelaide Oval on Tuesday.

“We don’t want to become rugby (league) or rugby union. They’re great games – and let them stay there. We should keep our space. Space makes our game better.

“Space allows players to show our skills. The players are being hardly done by (with coaches working congesting tactics) – they don’t get to display their skills.”

Blight wants more trials of potential rule changes – such as locking players in the forward-50 zone to free up space around the field – in the pre-season games and other competitions.

“I would be starting to try some things,” Blight said. “And let’s keep our game the way it was meant to be.

“If you put 30 or 40 people in a room – everyone involved in the game, I don’t mean just players and coaches – you’d come up with something we could try.”

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