The NAB cup rules - Innovative or just stupid

[bornadog]

Last year in the season proper, against Melbourne at the MCG, a doggies player kicked backwards to another player ( in the backline), who marked it and the umpire yelled play on play on. Just goes to show you how confusing the whole thing is.

[Sockeye Salmon]

Last year in the season proper, against Melbourne at the MCG, a doggies player kicked backwards to another player ( in the backline), who marked it and the umpire yelled play on play on. Just goes to show you how confusing the whole thing is.

That was Matthew Boyd. The umpire actually called "not 15" but the kick had travelled about 35 metres!

[westdog54]

Can anyone list some GOOD new rules now implemented which were trialled in past NAB/name whatever pre-season comps?

As I said before, allowing boundary and goal umpires to pay free kicks has merit, but I'm also a closet fan of the 'nine-pointer'. I love watching goals on the run from 55-60 or more metres. But we stuffed it up badly when we played Brisbane, went for them at all costs when in reality it wasn't the best option.

[alwaysadog]

Am I the only one who thinks that the inability to pay a mark in defence for a kick backwards has reintroduced opportunities for the flood, something that was becomming obsolete as tactics moved past it. Brizzie have been dropping players back and just waiting for a turn over, rather than making the play.

IMO Geelong had much the better of the game Friday night but the rules forced them to keep going forward into a flooded offence. They kept getting picked off then Brizzie scored goals on the rebound.

This is one stupid rule that does not let a team hold possession while it probes for space or look for a weakness in the opposition, instead it forces the ball to be played forward at all costs.

If introduced in home and away games it will also bring back the lumbering ox like overbulked up KPP who has neither great skills nor much mobility. Who said dinosaurs are dead? The AFL is reviving them. What next?

[Sockeye Salmon]

IMHO, the most significant contributing factors to flooding have been the rule changes such as deliberate OOB, hitting the arms in marking contests and the hans-on-the-back rules.

The rules committee, in their haste to quicken the game and make it easier for forwards, have rendered defenders impotent. The only option coaches have left is to flood the D50 so the oppositions forwards have nowhere to lead.

Give the defenders a chance to show off defensive skills and we might see coaches with good defenders back them in and go more attacking.