AFL Daily: Runner crackdown cost Demons, rolling footy news for Tuesday September 10, 2019
An outgoing assistant coach has revealed an underrated factor in the Demons' dramatic dive this season - the AFL's crackdown on runners.
Former Melbourne assistant coach Jade Rawlings says the AFL's crackdown on runners contributed to the Demons' dramatic dive this season.
Rawlings, who this week accepted a new job at North Melbourne, said a lack of on-field leadership left the Dees exposed when coaches couldn't get a message out.
"The runner thing absolutely killed us, as a young group," Rawlings said on RSN radio.
"The AFL, I'm sure, didn't do it to discriminate against younger lists but we were quite immature across the ground at Melbourne, (there were) some leaders at certain parts but overall quite inexperienced, so the runner thing really kills you."
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The AFL introduced restrictions this season so runners could only enter the field of play after a goal has been kicked and must exit before play restarts.
AFL coaches have expressed frustration at the change, and Rawlings said its full impact only became apparent when he moved from the job of coaching the Demons' VFL affiliate Casey Demons into Simon Goodwin's coaches box mid-season.
"At VFL there's no restrictions and if you've got a discipline issue with a player you remove him from the ground, chat to him on the phone and then realign him – Goody doesn't get that chance, all our AFL coaches don't get that opportunity," he said.
"The maturity to be able to send a message out to a player, and that's spread across across the field, how well drilled your runner is to get key things done in a short period of time – it's very challenging.
"It's a real art form to be able to maximise your communication from the box to the bench to the ground."
Rawlings said the Demons also suffered from having a large chunk of their list unavailable for much of the pre-season.
"The chemistry part was one of the biggest things we lost through the summer.
"I was watching our midfield coaches take area training and it was full of our first-year players because everyone was coming off surgery or still rehabilitating."
Rawlings said he expected North Melbourne to improve further next season and was impressed by the number of "matchwinners" on the Kangaroos list.
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