Healy backs Eagles to light the way for AFL state of the game

Gerard Healy said the ladder-leading Eagles provide the template for how the game should be played.

Josh Kennedy, left, and Jack Darling have provided plenty of entertainment for West Coast

Fresh from presenting his thoughts on football to the AFL, Brownlow medallist Gerard Healy last night said the ladder-leading Eagles provide the template for how the game should be played.

Healy joined AFL greats Malcolm Blight and Leigh Matthews, as well as journalist Mike Sheahan at AFL House yesterday, to provide ideas on how to improve the look of the game.

The invitation, issued by the AFL’s football operations manager Steven Hocking, followed intense discussion earlier in the year about the state of the game.

Declining scores and congestion around the football have prompted Hocking to consider changes to the code.

It followed an earlier meeting by a new competition committee of AFL coaches, players and club administrators.

On his evening radio show in Melbourne, Healy said he was enamoured by the high-scoring yet tough and accountable style employed by West Coast.

In particular, he loved the way they kicked to leading key forwards such as Josh Kennedy and Jack Darling and hoped it was a tactic that would come back into the game.

“What I love about footy at the present time is when I am rostered on for a West Coast and North Melbourne game,” he said.

“I love the way they move the ball and kick to leading forwards.”

Other suggestions included the possibility of introducing a “last touch” rule, which is currently in use in South Australian.

In theory, it would reduce stoppages and congestion by eliminating boundary throw-ins, with the opposition team instead given the ball.

Healy said there also was not a “lot of support in that room for a reduction of numbers” following a suggestion the game could cut the number of players on the field from 18 to 16.