AFLW premiership coach Bec Goddard believes more rule changes are coming

A GAME-CHANGING new rule will be unveiled when the second AFLW season kicks off on Friday night, and one leading coach says it might just be a taste of things to come.

Abbey Holmes in action during the Women's AFLW Grand Final between the Brisbane Lions and Adelaide Crows at Metricon Stadium on the Gold Coast. Pics Adam Head

AFL Women’s chiefs will closely monitor a game-changing out of bounds rule to be unveiled in two days at Ikon Park as premiership coach Bec Goddard predicted even more radical reform was inevitable.

A zone-based, anti-congestion rule was considered for AFLW02 but ultimately left on the drawing board in favour of the out of bounds rule that will be showcased in Friday’s Carlton v Collingwood blockbuster.

The rule awards a free kick against the last player to touch the ball before it crosses the line.

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Adelaide flag coach Goddard is a fan of positional zones, which would require two players from each side remaining in their team’s forward 50m at all times.

“Anything that makes it faster is good … I was actually a big fan of anti-density (zones), but that hasn’t come in,” Goddard told the Herald Sun.

“I think it will (come in eventually). I don’t think we should be boxed into the traditions of the game too much.

Bec Goddard would like to see a positional zones rule introduced. Picture: Wayne Ludbey

“This is a league of its own. We’ve created something special, let’s make it the best and if that means we’ve got some differences to the AFL game to make it the best, for the girls to showcase their skills over the short form of the game, then let’s do it.”

The last touch rule is used successfully in the SANFL senior men’s competition and is also seen as a potential reform for the AFL.

AFLW is played with 16 a side and 15-minute quarters so it already differs significantly from the AFL.

The first season of AFL Women’s had proportionally 37 per cent more stoppages than the AFL — and 96 per cent more secondary stoppages.

The AFL’s new head of women’s football Nicole Livingstone said AFLW players and clubs should embrace the uniqueness of the league as it continues to evolve from the traditional game.

Livingstone said she hoped the out of bounds rule, in particular, would work to reduce secondary stoppages.

Adelaide premiership coach Bec Goddard. Picture: Tom Huntley

Nicole Livingstone is Head of Women's Football at the AFL. Pic: AFL Media

“I think the expectation is … that there’s a bit more of a free flow in the game,” she told the Herald Sun.

“That it’s a bit more of a running game and we can move the ball a bit more. And whether or not that affects the score line, who knows. We won’t know until we see the first couple of games.”

Livingstone said a review had identified several changes that needed to be made, including the introduction of more twilight fixtures, but the out of bounds rule was the most significant.

“I think one of the things I want to impress upon everybody, and I’ve been talking to the girls about it, I want them to stand out from the 800 male football players that the league has,” Livingstone said.

“I want them to be the best female footy players they can be and show their style and their uniqueness to this game. To be different.

“That takes a little bit of breaking down some barriers. People maybe have a thought process of, `Well, if the men do it, we have to do it the same as the men’.

“Even within the industry getting everybody to think, ‘Well, let’s not just replicate what the men are doing, what is the best for women’?

“The more we play the more data we are able to collect. You can have opinion in the room … but then we have the data emerging that we can back up as well.

“That’s going to help us with working out if there are any further rule changes.”