AFL rule changes: Zone rules would ruin aussie rules as we know it

Many of the AFL’s proposed rule changes are either benign or for the better, writes Glenn McFarlane – but one is something else altogether.

Football operations boss Steven Hocking has confirmed the trial of zones. Picture: AFL Photos/Getty Images

Say it ain’t so, Steve …

The AFL’s football operations manager Steve Hocking says on-field zones are “definitely one of the things … on the table” and in consideration for the 2022 AFL season.

It comes as the AFL looks to combat the defensive wave and congestion that is, quite literally, strangling scoring — and the game itself.

Hocking’s rationale for change is understandable.

Even allowing for normalising 2020 to standard length games, we’ve seen a drop of almost four goals a match since 2005, and two goals per game since 2015.

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Most of the methods the AFL competition committee announced on Wednesday as rule changes for next season are worth considering, such as:

– Cutting interchange rotations from 90 to 75 to increase fatigue;

– A tighter rein on players standing on the mark;

– The mark moved from 10m out from the goal square for kick-ins to 15m.

These are hardly radical changes. The fans who decry more change to the game will barely notice those alterations on game day.

But the trial of zones in the VFL and east coast second tier competition next year — where three players from each team must be stationed inside the 50m arc (including one in the goal square) for kick-ins and boundary throw-ins — is something else altogether.

Yes, it is only a trial, and the AFL has said it won’t introduce it at the elite level without a thorough analysis.

But if that becomes a part of the AFL competition in 2022, Australian football will lose part of what has made it great for more than 160 years.

The beauty of our great game has always been its 360-degree nature, that it is almost without restriction — except for the centre square where only four players from each team are allowed in for centre bounces.

As Matthew Richardson tweeted in his dismissal of this zone trial, one of the best things about football is that it allows players to “roam around the ground”.

Bringing in an imaginary ball-and-chain that locks players into certain areas at various stages of a match detracts from one of the game’s great tenets — it’s spontaneity.

Let’s get one thing straight, the game will never return to the high-scoring era of the 1980s and the early ’90s.

Those days are gone and won’t return, as one of the game’s leading analysts David King explained.

Each team’s defensive press will never let that happen again. Our full-time athletes are too well coached and too well-drilled to allow that to occur again.

If the @Afl actually reversed a few rule changes made over the years the game would open up potentially, let’s try this first . #rucknominatin #3rdmanup #interchange

— Matthew Richardson (@mattricho0) November 18, 2020

That doesn’t mean we can’t make less intrusive ways to promote scoring and bust through the congestion.

Fatigue could be one of the most effective ways to make that happen — as much as the players will hate that.

Fatigue governs the game, and has since Tom Wills had his first kick.

That’s why the decision to slash interchange rotations from 90 to 75 next year is worth a punt, so long as players’ health and safety isn’t compromised.

Let’s get the game back to 20 minutes per quarter, as it should be in 2021.

It’s better to look at interchange rotations — as Kevin Bartlett has been screaming about for years — before going the full nuclear approach.

Don’t forget, back in 2004, there were around 30 rotations per side.

We owe it to the fans — those who helped keep the game and clubs afloat this year with their membership dues, despite not seeing a game — to keep tinkering rather than transforming it beyond recognition.

Make no mistake, if the AFL does ultimately opt to “zone in” for 2022 after looking at the VFL 2021 experiment, those same fans might decide to zone out.

Zones ‘on the table’ as AFL gets radical

– Simeon Thomas-Wilson

On field zones in the AFL are “definitely one of the things that is on the table”, the league’s football operations boss Steve Hocking says.

On top of announcing three key rule changes for the 2021 AFL season, Hocking has announced that the new VFL and east coast second-tier competition would feature a trial of the zones rule in an attempt to stop congestion during the game.

Hocking said the AFL would also run a PHD study with a university as zones at the elite level look increasingly likely.

“It is definitely one of those things that is on the table,” Hocking said on SEN.

“Which is why it is being trialled in that competition and why a study will be done.

“It is a significant change for the game and what we need to make sure is that we have trialled it, we have all the data inputs so we can make the right decision going forward.”

KB says footy doesn’t need zones. Picture: Stuart McEvoy

Under the plan, three players from each team will be stationed inside the 50m arc — including one in the goalsquare — for all kick-ins and boundary throw-ins.

But Richmond legend Kevin Bartlett said such a radical move was not the solution for easing congestion.

“Our game never needed zones for 100 years — it doesn’t need zones now,” Bartlett said.

“If you get the interchange numbers down to the right number, then fatigue will govern all of that.”

There have been concerns raised at the decision to trial zones in the second-tier competition.

But Hocking said it was the right path to take.

“I think we are (doing the right thing), it is a pathway competition, it is a development competition,” he said.

“We are really excited about the competition, it is going to be 22 teams and we are really excited about that.

“This is one that we feel like it is right to trial at that level, and we are fortunate that it has been approved by the AFL commission.”

Hocking said he hoped on-field zones would have a quick impact on the game.

“I think spreading of the ground will be a large part of it and just change the behaviour of players, we have work ahead of us in terms of that,” he said.

“Spreading of the ground a bit more is what we want.”

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Originally published as AFL rule changes: Zone rules would ruin aussie rules as we know it