AFL reveals host of rule changes
The Age
November 25, 2005 - 6:24PM
The interpretation destined to be known as "The Lloyd Rule" heads a series of changes to how the AFL is played from next season.
The AFL revealed three rule changes and seven new rule interpretations to the 16 coaches at a meeting on Friday, with the league determined to speed up the flow of the game.
Heading the interpretation changes is a directive for players to take no more than 30 seconds when having a set shot on goal.
This will dismay Essendon, whose new captain Matthew Lloyd is notorious for his goalkicking routine.
While Carlton's Brendan Fevola often takes longer to have a shot, Lloyd attracts most venom from opposition fans for the quirks in his goalkicking routine - particularly throwing grass in the air to check wind direction, even under the Telstra Dome roof.
Lloyd and Fevola can take up to a minute to have a shot on goal.
"We've looked at a number of players kicking for goal and the average is less than 30 - (it) is still a substantial amount of time," said AFL operations manager Adrian Anderson.
"Looking at some of the examples, he (Lloyd) is far from the longest."
Under this new interpretation, the controlling umpire will first warn a player and then call play on if he takes too long to take a set shot.
Anderson said the thrust of the rule and interpretation changes was to encourage a more flowing style of play.
Tactics such as flooding and the trend towards a more possession-style of play has generated some passionate debate about the future of the game.
"Our core objective was to maintain the appeal of the game," said AFL operations manager Adrian Anderson.
"The primary focus is to trend it back to more continuous play, to arrest the slide towards more and more of a stop-start game.
"Another focus has been to bear in mind the traditional highlight of the game, such as one-on-one contests, contested marks and positional play."
The league also hopes that by encouraging more continuous play, the number of collision-style injuries among players will decrease.
The most notable rule change will be where players can bring the ball back into play before the goal umpires wave one flag for a behind.
This rule has been trialled in the pre-season competition and again, it is designed to speed up the flow of the game.
"The aesthetic of the kick-in at the moment, with the set up of zones and the very common chip to a static player in the back pocket, was not seen as a positive development for the game," Anderson said.
Another notable rule change will involve a refining of how time-on is measured, in an effort to remove the margin for human error.
From next season, it will automatically be time-on from when the umpire crosses his arms across his chest to signal a field bounce, to when the ball is actually bounced or thrown up.
Under the old system, the umpire physically had to signal time-on and time-off.
Time-on was a hot issue after Sydney's one-point win over Collingwood in round 13, when Magpies coach Mick Malthouse claimed the final siren had been sounded too early.
It later emerged the timekeepers had "lost" 14 seconds of play.
While that lost time related to a mark, not a field bounce, it highlighted the potential for timekeeping errors.
"This increases the accuracy of measurement of time-on," Anderson said.
"I don't think it was related to any particular game, but we did have a few issues with timekeeping throughout the year.
"This makes it a bit easier and more accurate."
© 2005 AAP
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