It Seems like each year the AFL want to continue to make changes to our great and unique game that is Aussie rules footy. And each year the majority of fans, coaches and players seem to get more and more fed up with the constant changes.
Which is fair enough, adapting to new rules just months out of a new season can be a hard thing, just look at the protected area around the mark and the man on the mark rules that changed this season. Last year, no one was allowed within five-meters of the person with the ball after a mark or free kick. This year the protected area is extended to 10-meters. If a player goes in that protected zone, expect a 50-meter penalty to be awarded. It took players a bit to adapt with this rule with it being enforced quite a bit in the first few rounds of 2016.
In 2016 there were also a few other changes to get used to, we saw the deliberate out of bounds and tackle rules take on stricter adjudication through out the year and the interchange returned to four players with the interchange cap set at 90 rotations per team per game this season.
The AFL have reasons behind rule changes, whether its player safety,fairness and even developing and evolving the game. We may not always like it, but they always have the best intentions for the game, players and fans.
Next season the AFL will scrap the third man up rule, trying to eliminate one problematic areas of AFL, the congestion at stoppages.
Some clubs used the third man up as a tactic. It was made famous by Hawthorn during their triple premiership onslaught, with Jordan Lewis – now at Melbourne – often used in the role to reduce the impact of the opposition ruckman.
The AFL revealed a third man contested 13.2 per cent of stoppages in 2016 and 12.8 per cent in 2015. This was an increase of about eight per cent on the previous four seasons. Geelong, St Kilda and the Aaron Sandilands-less Fremantle used the tactic the most.
Once the league was handed empirical evidence that the tactic didn't help to reduce congestion the decision was made easier for the laws of the game committee to advise the AFL commission of their feelings.
The AFL said its match review panel will "apply a stricter interpretation of impact for intentional strikes to the body where the force of the strike warrants a suspension".
Under the new guidelines a player like Gold Coast star Tom Lynch, who escaped suspension after he gut-punched Sydney's Jeremy Laidler in round 11 this year, would be handed a one-week ban rather than a $1500 fine.
After stricter ruling this season on the deliberate out of bounds rule, there will be a stricter interpretation of deliberate rushed behinds for 2017.
Under the amended rule a field umpire shall give consideration to:
- Whether the player had prior opportunity to dispose of the ball;
- The distance of the player from the Goal or Behind Line;
- The degree of pressure being applied to the player.