Players are nervous about conceding a free kick when the ball goes out of bounds and for the AFL, that is mission accomplished.
As debate rages about the deliberate out of bounds and no third-man-up rule changes this season, the league’s laws of the game committee met on Thursday for the first time this season.
New AFL football operations manager Simon Lethlean said while there had been some errors, overall he was happy with how the two new contentious provisions were going.
But coaches continued to express concern about rule changes, with West Coast’s Adam Simpson saying the league might have acted too quickly.
“We’ve probably just gone in a bit arse-end really how we’ve gone about it,” he said.
Lethlean insisted the new rules were the result of extensive research.
“If you ask the players now, when they kick the ball towards the boundary and it goes over, they will be questioning themselves … I’m okay with that situation,” Lethlean said.
He also stressed it was the AFL Commission, not the laws committee, that authorised changes to the game’s rules.
The new provisions are certain to stay in place for the remainder of the season.
“We acknowledged (it) had some teething problems in the first few rounds – the umpiring on that has become clearer,” Lethlean said of the crackdown on third men up at ruck duels.
“We’ve spent more time communicating with the players about (ruck) nominations, there have been no issues in the last few weeks.”
Lethlean added there had been 10 fewer frees for out of bounds compared to this time last season.
“The fans and players now know that if you (put) the ball out through your possession, you are a chance to have a free paid against you and I think it’s adding to the style of play,” he said.
“It’s certainly a hard-line stance, that the players do everything they can to keep the ball in.”
COACHES COMMENT ON THURSDAY ABOUT THE TWO NEW RULE PROVISIONS
“My overriding thought is just give us a chance – the coaches, the players and umpires – to bed the rules down before we make any drastic change. Change is made too quickly in the game, without the fullness of time, smoothing everything out.” – Brad Scott, North Melbourne.
“Perhaps when you bring the changes in, you do it a year in advance – you do it through the (pre-season) series and let it settle … we’ve probably just gone in a bit arse-end really how we’ve gone about it.” – Adam Simpson, West Coast.
“We’ve got a great duel this weekend in (Billy) Longer and (Shane) Mumford. Two really big bulls are going to go toe-to- toe and don’t have to worry about knees or elbows or whatever, coming over the top to disturb their ruck craft.” – Leon Cameron, GWS.
“You have to work out whether a player is deliberately trying to get it out of bounds. Take out the word `deliberate’ if that’s not what we’re on about or leave it in and adjudicate on it based on that adjective. It’s there for a reason and adjudicate accordingly.” – Luke Beveridge, Western Bulldogs
