Leigh Matthews slams state of the game, citing possible reduction of interchanges as key to saving it
Aussie Rules legend Leigh Matthews has taken the ultimate swipe at modern footy, revealing he left a recent match because it was unwatchable live. But the Hawks champ says one rule change could fix it all.
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AFL legend Leigh Matthews has blasted the state of the game, declaring the ‘flat earthers’ that claim it should be left alone live in ‘fantasy land’.
The four-time premiership coach said the onus fell squarely on the AFL to fix the issue of player congestion rather than putting it on the umpires.
“I tell you what the ‘flat earthers’ who say ‘leave the game alone’ are living in a fantasy land really,” Matthews said on 3AW.
“The coaches have changed the game more in the last decade than the previous hundred years and will continue to change it.
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“Dropping a couple of players off the ground is the last resort, that’s a fair few years down the track if nothing else happened.
“But please, please don’t ask the umpire interpretations to change to open up the game.
That’s too hard for the umpires.”
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The former Hawthorn great said he believed the reduction of interchanges would go a long way towards easing congestion.
“This disaster the last month has been because they’ve tried to vet the umpire interpretations to open up and decongest the game,” Matthews said.
“Don’t expect umpiring interpretations to do that, it’s too complicated.
“So if we want to decongest the game, and I’m certainly of that mind, somehow you have to force them to decongest and that’s the challenge for the AFL.
“Maybe reducing interchange back to 20 might do that because at least you have 18 against 18 instead of 22 against 22.”
Matthews, who is based in south-east Queensland, said he’d watched ‘half a dozen’ live games the past month.
He admitted to leaving at half-time of the Richmond and Sydney snorefest at the Gabba, in which only seven goals were kicked, because “you get a better view on TV”.
“Football is better not being at the ground at the moment because there’s no one else there, the footy’s not great to watch most of the time and there’s hardly anyone there so there’s very little atmosphere,” he said.
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Matthews was also bemused by the “18-man zones” employed during the recent Gold Coast and Western Bulldogs’ clash that he attended.
“When the opposition had the ball in the back 50, the cross the field attacking was covered, the midfield centre square was covered,” he said.
“So what do you do? You have to kick the ball down the line to a contest and either it gets marked, or it very rarely gets marked so it just rolls out of bounds.
“The ball stays in this bubble.”
Originally published as Leigh Matthews slams state of the game, citing possible reduction of interchanges as key to saving it