AFL Competition Committee hands down first recommendations, including longer goalsquare and starting positions

THE AFL Commission will be asked to rule on what the league concedes is a radical 18m goalsquare and 6-6-6 starting formations as well as a tightening of the holding-the-ball rule. VOTE

THE AFL Commission will be asked to rule on what the league concedes is a radical 18m goalsquare and 6-6-6 starting formations as well as a tightening of the contentious holding-the-ball rule.

The league’s competition committee has endorsed a series of recommendations that will help to ease congestion in a game with 50-year scoring lows.

Three VFL trials of 6-6-6 starting points plus the elongated goal square - double the current 9m length - saw scoring up 15 per cent and tackling down 14 per cent from those teams’ normal rates.

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The 6-6-6 starting points would be enforced only after every goal, and see six players from each side inside each 50m arc, with one player from each side inside both goal squares.

The wingmen on each side would only be able to patrol up and down the side of the centre square, with a free kick paid if players were not in their correct zones.

The AFL Commission will also decide by October on a series of interpretation changes to eight key rules, including the holding-the-ball rule.

The 18m goalsquare is trailed in a VFL match. Picture: Tony Gough

AFL football operations manager Steve Hocking said the league wanted “consistency of interpretation” on the holding the ball rule.

Players will still have prior opportunity, but the league will crack down on players who do not legally dispose of the ball with prior opportunity.

It believes there has been some rules “creep” that means players have found ways to throw the ball or have a teammate join them in a tackle to ensure the ball remains in the contest.

The Competition Commission has recommended runners will only have 45 seconds on the ground after goals, with water carriers also to have their time on the field rigorously policed under a similar time line.

The eight areas for tweaks to rule interpretations are holding the ball, protected zone, contact below the knees, marking contests, ruck contests, deliberate out of bounds, grabbing the ball out of the ruck and runners on the ground.

There will be no change to the interchange and no alteration to deliberate out of bounds, with the league happy with the changes to the third-man-up rule.

It believes the nomination process for rucks is still vital, having dragged down the time for the umpire to throw the ball up from as high as 15 seconds to much less through the year.

Hocking said the AFL would also seek to cut down the current 83-page AFL rule book to something less than half its length, simplifying rules for the league’s umpires.

Hocking said the Commission would make a decision at its September or October commission meeting, releasing its findings in enough time for teams to practice potential changes.

“That will happen in coming weeks and be announced in October,” he said.

“I do stress that it’s the commission’s decision from here. The competition committee has been set up for all the right reasons and that’s to help steer the future of the game and I will just reaffirm how productive that group is going to be. They have taken their club hats off and investing in the game the right way so it benefits everyone.”