Centre bounce removed from TAC Cup competition, putting its future in the AFL in jeopardy

THE writing is on the wall for the centre bounce in the AFL after TAC Cup umpires were told it would be removed this season. Tell us what you think

THE end is nigh for the ­centre bounce.

TAC Cup umpires were told on Wednesday the centre bounce would be removed this season.

An email to umpires, seen by the Herald Sun, said the umpires would be told the reasons at training on Thursday night.

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One of the reasons is that some women who would otherwise use the TAC Cup under-18 competition as a pathway to VFL and AFL senior umpiring don’t have the strength to bounce the ball to the height required.

TAC Cup and VFL umpires have previously been rated on factors including the bounce.

AFL football boss Simon Lethlean said the TAC Cup move would have no immediate impact on the AFL.

“The bounce is one of the issues the umpires have raised about the talent coming through,’’ Lethlean said.

“Either way, it’s still a commission decision and it has to go through Laws of the Game (committee).

“So the process has to unfold no matter what people are talking about,” Lethlean said of the centre-bounce deliberations.

“(The decision) has no effect on the 34 umpires on our list at the moment.”

The centre bounce will be scrapped in the TAC Cup. Picture: Wayne Ludbey

The bounce will continue at VFL, WAFL and SANFL levels this season.

But Wednesday’s decision further puts in jeopardy the traditional centre bounce because some potential AFL umpires won’t have the skill to execute it.

A proposal to abandon the bounce at AFL level has not been put to the AFL Commission.

Lethlean said there were “five or six reasonings’’ behind the decision, but stressed the move didn’t mean a move by the AFL Commission was imminent.

The argument that it would have an effect on umpires on the list in 10 years time, because some of them won’t know how to bounce, was accepted by Lethlean.

“It takes training to do it, so yeah, that’s a fair point,’’ he said.

“One of the issues umpires have raised in junior and community football ... bouncing is not a skill necessarily being practised and taught.”