AFL: Rules, Umpiring, and the State of the Game

 

I have been playing and watching Australian football (Aussie rules or now more widely known as AFL) for 65 years and I’ve recently come to accept that I just don’t enjoy the game as much as I used to. Frequent rule changes, and constant meddling from AFL house have turned the game into a farce. I recently attended an AFL game at Adelaide Oval where more than 70 free kicks were awarded!!!

Some of the rule changes in recent times have been good ones – only 6 players in the centre square when the ball is thrown up is working well. The last touch or lasso rule is a vast improvement on the ludicrous and clumsily worded ‘insufficient intent’ rule; which was itself an attempt to update the deliberate out of bounds free kick.

The rule that’s driving everybody crazy at the moment is the stand rule and I will return to that but there are several new rules or interpretations that have slowed the game down and are ruining the game as a spectacle. They are of the so-called tiggy touchwood variety. For example,

• If I hold your guernsey for even 1 second or less it’s a free kick against me.
• If I touch you anywhere on the arms or the head or shoulders in a marking contest it’s a free kick against me
• If I make any front on contact with you, even the slightest touch, in a marking contest – free kick.

The absurd part of this is that often if these infringements happen at the other end of the ground when a forward interferes with a defender in the same fashion it’s play on!

When I played the game the key word in understanding the holding the man rule was retard. If a player was retarded when they did not have the ball it was a free kick. You could in theory run 20 metres with someone holding on to your guernsey and it was play on because you were not being retarded.

Years back you were only penalised in a marking contest if you made significant impact with a player’s head. Incidental contact was play on.

It’s a sad fact that so many marking contests in the forward fifty result in a free kick and the game stops. (A friend from Germany watching their first game of AFL commented after about 5 minutes – “this game stops a lot.” It really surprised me, but compared to soccer they’re right. It does.) There are way too many free kicks paid where the game stops, and the 30 second rule when shooting for goal is also dead time for spectators (but money-making time for TV sponsors). Players in the past on average took about 10 seconds to shoot for goal. And guess what? They were just as accurate as modern day players who take up to 30 seconds with their ridiculous routines. 

THE STAND RULE

The stand rule was brought in to try and make the game faster. In the past players could move around on the mark left or right but could not advance towards the player taking the free kick until play on was called. Now the player on the mark has to stand dead still until the umpire calls play on. If you don’t stand dead still, OR if no one stands the mark it is a 50 metre penalty. This is another example of over officiating. If a team chooses not to stand the mark that is their prerogative – it is in fact an advantage to your opposition as you are effectively letting that player run free. For a team to be penalised 50 metres for not standing the mark is insane.  Same applies for the player that encroaches on the ‘protected zone’. The game was doing fine for 150 years without a protected zone around the player taking a free kick – scrap it!

In nearly every game goals are scored because of these crazy 50 metre penalties, and given the number of games that get decided by a goal or less in a mostly very even competition, this means teams are winning games because they were awarded freebies by over officiating umpires, not because they were the better team. Too many games are being decided by intrusive and pointless umpiring decisions. And there’s nothing more ridiculous than seeing a player wildly celebrating the fact they’ve just kicked a goal because they were gifted a 50 metre freebie by the umpire – not because they did anything special.

Someone recently commented that fans don’t get angry at these dumb rules anymore – they just shake their heads in bewilderment. I was never one to complain that much about umpires but these days when I find myself frequently disagreeing with so many umpiring decisions I know something is wrong. The game’s changed. There was always the odd ‘howler’ – it’s a hard game to umpire - but now every game has several howlers because of stupid new rules and interpretations that aren’t needed. It is not the umpires’ fault – they are being instructed by people at AFL house to over umpire the game and award free kicks for minor inconsequential infringements. Consequently, the game is getting harder to watch and enjoy.

I like what Kane Cornes recently suggested as one step forward: unless an umpire is 100% sure there’s a free kick, then it’s play on. Too many free kicks ruin otherwise good games. Less free kicks means a better and more satisfying spectacle. Let the players play! Stop interrupting the game.