Quote Originally Posted by Sockeye Salmon View Post
There are two reasons players rush a point.

1. Nothing else they can do.

Defenders can no longer defend. They can't knock the ball out of bounds, they can't dive on it. When they're going for a mark they can't touch the arms when they spoil or place their hands anywhere near their opponents back (whether they push or not).


2. The reward is worth it.

By giving away a point you not only get the ball but you get it immediately, before your teammates are manned up. The reward is not only possesion, but quite possibly possesion up the other end.


Giving them the ball back after their teammates have been manned up will go some way towards reducing the advantage gained by rushing the point in the first place.

Removing the stupid hands-in-the-back and chopping-the-arms rules will stop forward from continually being gifted goals they didn't deserve. If defenders can actually defend instead of being witches hats for forwards, coaches won't have to resort so much towards flooding to stop goals.
Apologies for quoting my own post but I didn't want to hijack the other thread.

Now that Darce is on the rules committee, this is what I'd like to see them do.



1. Scrap the hands-in-the-back and chopping-the-arms rules.

The problem in the first place was never the rules, it was the intepretation. It used to be that you couldn't make two movements with your hands and that worked perfectly well. Sometime in the 80's they decided that a little push was OK, then a slightly bigger push was allowed until eventually full pushes in the back were the norm. If the umpires advisors had done their job properly in the first place we wouldn't be stuck with this un-umpirable rule.

The chopping-the-arms rule is making our game like basketball in that only guys 7 ft tall will be able to play key back soon. One of the great things about our game is that it doesn't matter if you're built like Libba or Harry Madden, you could still play.


2. Scrap the quick kick-in from points (see above).


3. 2 interchange and 2 reserves.

Coaches are carrying on about wanting two reserves to bring on for injuries. What a fabulous idea! Reduce the bench to 2 interchange and 2 reserves. Coaches will have to rest players on the ground, we might end up with ruckmen and rovers resting in the forward pockets again. Fatigued players can't flood.

While we're at it, scrap the over-reaction to interchange breaches. A free kick is fine.


4. Keep 4 boundary umpires

We'll see the return of the ruck-rover. Faster play, more fatigue, less flooding.


5. Ban the backwards mark in the defensive half.

It works well in the VFL and all the time-wasting shits everyone.





OK. Do your best.