Are You Sick Of The Afl Changing Rules Every Year

[alwaysadog]

IIRC the rationale for rule changes is to speed the game up. But has it been the rule changes or innovative coaching that has really sped the game up?

The new marking rule won't affect the speed of the game. The game evolves on its own, coaches constantly seek ways to get an edge. The reason the game has changed from the way it used to be are vastly improved tactics, conditioning and skills.

In the past rule changes only occurred when there appeared to be something of a bottleneck, not as an annual media event. So there would be attempts to overcome it. Now we interfere with the natural evolution of the game and it is often not well based.

Attempts to speed up the game through the rules do so artificially and actually change the nature of the game and limit the capacity to innovate.

The idea of a standing Rules Committee is an admission of failure, something is wrong and needs fixing, and for their part the Committee must be responsive to the need.

Soccer has far fewer rules, which by the way are very simply written, but is far more technical than AFL, and changes to it's rules are few and far between.