AFL clubs and other relevant stakeholders will be consulted next week when the AFL Commission convenes a meeting to address growing concern surrounding on-field trends in the game.
A source from the AFL told City Journal the talks will tackle factors that contribute to “congestion at the elite level” which slow down the game and make scoring difficult.
Specific areas on the agenda are the high number of stoppages, the high incidence of flooding and the forward press.
But ex-Richmond full-forward turned AFL broadcaster Matthew Richardson believes the game is “not in too bad a shape” and that the issue is being blown out of proportion.
Speaking exclusively to City Journal, Richardson said the idea of implementing a drastic rule change, such as zoning, would interfere with the “fibre of the game”.
“Obviously there is a little bit of a problem at the moment with stoppages in some games – and congestion as well. But I’m opposed to dramatic rule changes that will effectively alter the game,” he said.
“I’m talking about keeping a certain number of players behind lines, inside the forward 50, in the centre of the ground. That, to me, isn’t Australian Rules Football. I think that’s just a massive change to a pretty good game.
“The thing is, every game is so heavily analysed now,” Richardson said. “But there were bad games 15 years ago, there were bad games 30 years ago. There will always be bad games. We just analyse every game so much now that I think people think it is a lot worse than what it is.”
But some AFL coaches believe intervention is necessary to remove congestion from the game.
Speaking to the media last week, Gold Coast Suns coach Rodney Eade said evolution alone will not fix the problems the league currently faces.
“Maybe it will evolve, but I don’t think the game is going to evolve out of what’s happening at the moment,” he said.
“Teams might do it differently, with the skill level of a Hawthorn, but generally now, if there’s a stoppage in a back pocket, you’ll have everybody in one quarter of the ground, and that’s a constant across the competition.”
Eade joined other senior coaches in advocating for a zoning system to eliminate problems caused by congestion.
“We’ve already done something similar, and in those days we had to draw lines, we don’t even have to do that now,” he said.
“Aesthetically, I don’t think you would notice an enormous difference with players scrambling to get back because it’s just a starting point. And if the coaches want to test the boundaries, you pay a free kick to make sure they’ve got three in there by the time play starts again.”
AFL matches currently average a decade-high 74 stoppages a game, despite the AFL charter purporting to encourage, “continuous and free-flowing football … ahead of repetitive short passages of play”.
