The "State of the Game"
There's been a lot of talk lately about the state of the game - all the congestion, low scores, poor skills, and that kind of negative crap that pops up every few years.
I'm not exactly a football evangelist, so I'm not about to tell you the game is perfect and fantastic - but the irony is in the fact that the reason some of these things have crept into the game is due to the tinkering with the game, the rules, and the competition in general.
The congestion and crap skills is due to the fact that clubs are recruiting athletes before footballers, and the interchange rotations have gone sky high. Add to that the fact that we have 6 new clubs in the past 20-30 years, which basically means we're watching 30% more players.
I would cap the rotations, for one reason and one reason only - the game nowadays is played like there's 22 players on the field - the 4 players on the bench are very much a part of the game, and when you get an injury, you're very much outnumbered. This needs to change. As far as congestion and skills that just needs to be left alone to evolve over time.
The other rule that shits me is prior opportunity - it discourages the player playing the ball from taking on his opponent. And then we discourage the tackler in case the player with the ball gets hurt. It's insane. Tackling should go back to how it was before they messed with it in the last 90s early 2000s.
Apart from that, the shift between attacking and defensive football is cyclical. Just leave the game alone.
Maybe focus more on the fact that we're one of the only games in the world that doesn't have a fair and equitable draw every year?
You're talking my language here mate.
The game has to evolve, although I worry they are too quick with some decision. It seems most of the changes in recent years have been a balance protecting players safety and lifting the pace of the game.
They have capped rotation in the past but teams felt it lead to more injuries.
yeah but if you left it like that for a few years the smarter teams will realise if they slow their game down a bit they might be able to retain their better players. the teams that shoot their load so to speak will be left with nobody.
problem is it's a PR problem if there's too many injured players...
What did you think of the super sub. It seemes to counter the effects of an injured player. There was still an advantage for the uninjured team to bring in a fresh player for the last quarter but at least it was only for a quarter.
I didn't mind it. Seemed to allow coaches to be more cautious with players who might have been partially injured. And who knows maybe old mate Brent Harvey could still be around and be heading towards racking up 500 games
the super sub sucked.
You end up with a situation where clubs are just refreshing 1 player at 3/4 time, and then a last quarter injury means you're still down 1 man, with a fit player ready to go that can't come back on. It introduces too much in the way of grey areas.
And what if your ruck or key forward goes down? great, you're bringing in a 5'6 rover.
I like the way soccer does it. Since the beginning of time you've only been allowed 3 substitutions per match. If you use those up and you get another injury then tough luck, you play a man down. It's very rare to see all 3 subs used with more than 10-20 minutes left in the game.
I think if they introduce the limit, it needs to be quite low. Get the game focused around the players that are on the field. I would look at something like maybe 8 per quarter.
It isn't really an attempt to change the way the game is played in my mind, it's more trying to revert to the way the game used to be played. The bench was only used a handful of times every quarter up until the mid-late 2000s
The evolution needs to be organic though, not forced through knee jerk rule changes.
As coaches find new methods, others are forced to adapt to counter it, and so it goes on and on.
"knee jerk" basically describes everything the AFL has done in the past 20 years.
It does indeed. Since Demetriou took over, the primary driver is "Brand Protection" above all else. And that's carried forward into Gill's campaign as well (though he was heavily involved with that mindset under AD)
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