As far as i can tell there hasn't been a thread on this, but feel free to delete if there has been.

The AFL website has released a questionaire giving fans the opportunity to give feedback on the rule changes for this year.

http://www.afl.com.au/Default.aspx?tabid=2...mp;newsId=48948

i feel the hands in the back rule has significantly affected the marking contest to the detriment, as the increase of comparatively soft free kicks are being given for players not even being impeeded.

The direct play on rule from full back has worked well in my opinion.

One rule i feel could be tightened slightly is how long umpires wait to ball the ball up. sometimes it is automatic, other times the ball is locked up for some time, risking both injury and boredom. one way or the other i'd like to see the ball up called on a more systematic basis.

What do fellow demonlanders feel about this years rule changes, and the rules in general? personally i'd like to see the AFL agree to a type of game the fans want, implement the rules that would see this through, and leave it as it is. soccer is a universally successful game, due in no small part, imo, to the steadiness and continuance of the rules of the game.

Good post.

I think the hands in the back in rule has suffered dramatically from flip flopping interpretations by the umpires.

The direct play on rule is a mixed blessing in that in one way in promotes a quicker game but on the other hands often champions the player that may have let their own opponent run off then charged off the get the easy possession on the kick out.

The time it takes the umpires to bounce the ball is dependent on the TV stations returning from an ad break!

Four rules I would like worked on:

1. The repugnant practice of holding the ball underneath or dragging the ball back underneath an opposing player to claim holding the ball.

2. Prior opportunity or at times the lack thereof.

3. Clearer and formal disclosure of interpretation of the deliberate OOBs.

4. Penalising the faking for free kicks

i meant more around the ground and how long umpires take to call a ball up. though with the ball up in the centre of the ground, perhaps that AFL could order special 20 second ads or something along those lines, so the ball could go up quicker.

1. it is definitely an incredibly frustrating part of the game when opposition drag the ball under another player, and even when your team gets a free kick like this, you aren't happy with it. however usually it is because the umpire is blindsighted, and the only way to stop this would be to add another umpire or empower boundary/goal umpires. the latter of which i think should continue to be trialled in the NAB cup

2. prior opportunity has disappeared this year and is certainly an area of concern, def needs to be addressed.

3. ditto

4. another difficult rule to implement, imagine the furore of this being improperly policed. but certainly for blatant dives i think it should be cracked down on

Site players who blatantly fake for free kicks. It would be hard for umpires to penalise on the night, the poor buggers are too busy trying to understand the holding the ball and hands in the back rules!

Video review of weekends games is a great time for it and fine them for a second offence maybe. Schneider deserved to be sent off for the rest of the game last week. If you fine them for a second offence, then after the first warning the players will get the idea. I am backing more players will be honest at the tribunal now after this weeks events, or at least not let it out of the bag that they lied. (Silly silly Campbell Brown!) Anyhow, money talks.

If they could take the hands in the back rule application back to what it was, and apply stricter policing of it in around the ground play, maybe players who are getting sat on by someone haliling a cab wont get pinged for holding the ball. They might get a free kick for ass in the back. I am sick of poor blighters getting pinged for holding the ball by someone who had eyes for the player, and not the ball. It makes frontrunners (yes you Chad Cornes) look better than what they are.

Anyhow, I'm buggered and may be rambling.

Go the Dees

i think they shuold be cracking down on the holding the ball rule - all facets of it.

players who take possession and then throw the ball out an d their hands out when they are tackled, players who pull it in under other players, players who are slung in 360 degress or more before handpassing it, address the prior opportunity regarding a mark (ie if you mark it and play on you have had prior opportunity automatically, like a ruck contest) and all other situations, which i think at the moment are being policing poorly...

Why is it, that the player who has the skill and ability to get the ball, gets punished?

Players are almost reluctant to go for the ball for fear that if an opponent touches them, it will be called holding the ball. If a player is gang tackled and not able to dispose of the ball, then getting a ball-up isn't a bad result for the other team.

Because the team that were tackled no longer have possession of the ball so the tackling team has still won. It goes to a 50-50 situation.