AFL rule changes announced with greater focus on run down tackles, smothers and team announcement changes

The AFL has bowed to coaches and made a key change to how teams will be announced in 2024 as part of a sweeping set of rule changes.

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA – August 27, 2023. AFL. AFL General manger of football Laura Kane and Incoming AFL CEO Andrew Dillon the round 24 match between Carlton and the Greater Western Sydney Giants at Marvel Stadium in Melbourne, Australia. Photo by Michael Klein.

The AFL believes the game will continue to get both better and safer thanks to a shift to penalise players leaving their feet to smother as Richmond star Tom Lynch says players will still protect themselves first before opponents.

A response to the infamous Brayden Maynard smother in last year’s finals series - in which the Magpie knocked out Melbourne’s Angus Brayshaw but was able to successfully argue his way out of a suspension at the tribunal – any player that makes contact with an opponent after leaving their feet to smother will now have that action graded and stay as “careless”.

Maynard’s bump was initially graded as careless and would have seen him cop at least three matches suspension if upheld, given the impact on Brayshaw was severe and high.

But it was deemed an accident and the careless grading was removed by the tribunal and he played through Collingwood’s finals series.

AFL boss Andrew Dillon and football boss Laura Kane Picture: Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images

The AFL commission franked the rule change on Monday, alongside a greater emphasis on run down tackles that drive players into the ground and changing team announcements to five players on the bench before a sub is named one hour before a match.

AFL footy boss Laura Kane said that the smother change was one of many that has made the game safer, while football as a spectacle has continued to improve.

“We want to make the game safer, we want to make the game better,” she said.

“We have seen over the past couple of years an evolution of the on-field product. The game is as good as it has ever been. It is a spectacle, it is exciting, it is fast but at the same time we have made over 30 changes to the rules and regulations to make it safer. So we can do both things at once.”

Kane said she didn’t think the change would remove any of the “one percenters that the fans love”.

“I wasn’t comfortable with the outcome of our MRO processes and further, we weren’t comfortable with the outcome of the tribunal and the changes today are taking steps to change that,” she said of the Maynard incident.

The sub won’t have to be named until an hour before matches from a squad of 23.

Tigers forward Lynch, who was cleared of a bump in a marking contest on Alex Keath at the tribunal last year, said he didn’t expect the rule change to impact football and that players would still look out for themselves.

“I have been playing for 13-14 years, there has always been a rule that is going to change the fabric of the game,” he said.

“I think the AFL does a great job of changing rules to protect the players. I still feel like as a player you’ve got to have a duty of care to yourself.

“Being out there, it is a contact sport and you’ve got to be careful with your technique and things like that. Obviously the duty of care to the opposition has been highly spoken about but I feel like you still need to have a duty of care to yourself.”

Kane said 2024 MRO grading guidelines would be sent out before the season began.