Aussie Tinkering

In case you were wondering, there are indeed rules to Aussie Rules Football. And just as in American Football folks do like to change the rules up a bit.

THE AFL will trial a 20m kick rule during the 2007 pre-season competition in a bid to encourage longer kicking and more contested play.

Players will now have to kick a ball at least 20m for it to be marked, instead of 15, under a law to be introduced during the NAB Cup, which starts on February 23.

In a further modification to be used during the pre-season competition, players will only be prohibited from kicking backwards in their defensive half of the ground.

Players will now be able to kick backwards to a teammate in the forward half of the ground without fear of umpires calling play-on.

Previously players were only allowed to pass backwards in their team's forward 50-metre arc.

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The AFL hopes extending the distance a kick has to travel before it can be marked will encourage players to boot it longer instead of chipping it short to teammates.

Continued short kicking and possession football has been a blight on the game in recent years, with many fans bemoaning the lack of contested marks in games.

"Player skills in finding targets for a mark under the current 15-metre rule have got better and better in recent years and the trial rule may encourage longer kicking and contested possession," said AFL football operations general manager Adrian Anderson.

"We will examine the impact of the trial rule and whether it increases contested marks, long kicking and contested possession."

I think they may well increase the numbers of contested marks, but I wonder if the quality of play will suffer. Possession play may not be everyone's first impression of Aussie rules (an ill defined melee maybe hits nearer the mark), but it doesn't necessarily follow that the game is less interesting for it. In any event it will be interesting to see the results.

The AFL modified the kicking-backwards rule after several coaches told the league outlawing backwards kicks in the forward half of the ground encouraged teams to flood an opposing side's attack.

This seems like a very sensible rule change. This allows the team in the offensive end to switch the point of attack quickly. Before the defenders could just swarm the player with the ball, who wasn't going to get the ball very far with a hand pass. Too often the best offensive play was to give the ball a boot and pray for a lucky bounce. With this rule in place, over commitment to one side of the pitch would leave room for an easy six on the other. It is about time defenders had to stay on their toes.