Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley believes starting positions will be a blight on the game if introduced

COLLINGWOOD coach Nathan Buckley is strongly opposed to a potential AFL rule change, voicing his concerns for the future of the game if dramatic change is introduced. But Patrick Dangerfield doesn’t agree.

COLLINGWOOD coach Nathan Buckley is strongly opposed to the introduction of starting positions in the AFL, declaring if the change goes ahead it will be a “blight on the game”.

The AFL has conducted three successful 20-minute experiments using Hawthorn, Brisbane and Fremantle and will, in coming weeks, hold another with St Kilda.

Vision of those trials have been circulated to some clubs but Collingwood is not one of them, Buckley revealed.

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AFL football operations boss Steve Hocking said on Tuesday he’s moving forward with plans to introduce starting positions in a bid to ease congestion and “take the game into the future”.

But Buckley couldn’t be more against the idea.

“I don’t like it. I think it will be a blight on the game,” he said.

“I think if we go to zones we’re going to be waiting for players to get back into zones. How often do you want to do that?

Nathan Buckley is strongly opposed to the introduction of starting positions. Picture: Getty

“It’s going to happen say every time there’s a stoppage in a forward 50 that we’re waiting for three pairs of players to go and get back in the opposite 50.

“That’s what the product is likely to descend into.

“I think we need to consider what we’re actually going to get if we put these changes in.”

The Herald Sun reported on Wednesday the AFL could dock rotations or limit the use of runners as penalties for clubs that don’t abide by the rules.

But Buckley said still, the idea of starting points is “too contrived”.

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“If there’s no penalty associated with it, why would you leave your players long if you think you’re going to get a better performance and more chance of playing the game you want or winning the game of footy, which is what coach’s job is, to get them outside of the stoppage to actually now revert to a shape in transition you think is optimal for you,” he told SEN.

“If one team keeps it long and another team doesn’t, you’re still going to have to wait for players to get back into what that pre-prescribed shape is supposed to be.

“Whether that takes five, 10 or 15 seconds, the umpire sits and waits and gets notification from the other umpire that no, we’ve got two pairs but we’re waiting for the third to come back now, then it’ll be (another), five, four, three, two (seconds) and then we can start.

“It just seems to me like it’s too contrived.”

Buckley did concede, however, that given he is expressing his views without seeing one of the trials conducted by the AFL.

“I don’t have all the information. If there has been trials run, I haven’t seen the vision, I haven’t been privy to it,” he said.

“In a way our focus as coaches is what we’re doing right now. The list managers are looking beyond and clearly we need to understand what the game is going to become, what the changes are.

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“Having some idea of what that (change) is, then that could become a competitive advantage if you can project better than an opposition your list management or decisions you make over the off-season next year, and even the way you might play in the back part of this year I presume, could impact on that.”

Geelong superstar and member of the AFL’s competition committee Patrick Dangerfield has seen some vision of the starting position trial and hit back at Buckley’s comments.

The Brownlow medallist is in favour of introducing starting points to not only ease congestion but to also improve the look of the game for fans to increase audience.

“My personal view is I wouldn’t see it as a blight (on the game),” Dangerfield said.

“I think we need to give it a chance to work first.

“Regardless of some wonderful games on the weekend, and there is every round, I still think the aesthetic of footy isn’t as good as it once was and it needs help to improve.

How many players do we really need at stoppages and around the ball? Picture: Getty

“I think there’s the potential for starting positions to help that.

“Having seen the vision and having seen no one coach against that play — the game is always going to evolve, coaches are always going to find a way to nullify how you would manufacture those starting positions — I really like the look of it.

“It reminded me of sort of 2005 where you’d see a stoppage and then see (Chris) Judd surging out of the pack and you’d have 20 metres of space to run into before he was confronted with any numbers.

“That’s what I liked about it. I liked the fact that the execution of kicking was easier because you weren’t running into 12 players.

“Aesthetically, it’s a great game to play, it’s not a great game to watch though.”

Since being asked to join the competition committee Dangerfield has watched a lot more footy than he has before.

He said the “rolling scrum” was a turn off.

“I’ve watched a bit more since sitting on the competition committee and there’s games I watch and you just go I can understand the frustration from fans and why the ratings have suffered because it’s just not pretty, it’s rolling scrum of players.

Patrick Dangerfield says he liked what he saw from vision of the starting position trials. Picture: Michael Klein

“I can understand why you wouldn’t switch on and why you do switch to your phone and look for the highlights because there’s not enough of them in the game.”

North Melbourne coach Brad Scott is open to implementing new rules from next season but says doing so could increase the gap between the top and bottom sides and create another “blight on the game”.

“I think one of the biggest risks to opening up congestion and reducing the coach’s ability to congest the game is it makes the bottom team’s job a fair bit harder,” he said.

“When you even things up and open up the game the top teams can really dominate the bottom teams.

“That’s something that’s certainly been raised, that if you reduce congestion that could increase blow outs and that could then lead to another so-called ‘blight on the game’.”

Despite some doubts on what rule changes to implement, Scott is open to helping improve the spectacle of the game.

“I think that we’ve got an obligation to look at ways to create more one-on-one contests and reduce congestion and reduce the ability of teams to block up forward space,” he said.

“All those things are being looked at and I just applaud the AFL for looking at it.”

— with Ben Gibson

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