Im bewildered by the changes and a little concerned for the future.
Im bewildered because the AFL seems to think there is any going back to some imagined glory days of the 90's. There isn't. We know that football isn't won playing man on man, we know football is won by controlling space and we know that happens by positioning players in a 0 to 60 meter circle around the ball and carefully picking the moment you break away. As rotations dwindle coaches arent going to revert to old tactics, they are going to get players that run even more, run even faster, run even longer to make the tactics that win continue to work. BTW, in this world there's less and less ability to carry the 'pure' footballer who might be a bit slow or the aging veteran playing good footy but struggles with recovery. They arent playing AFL anymore except perhaps in struggling teams trying to rebuild.
Im concerned because the only way of addressing and correcting the game style we know will always win in the end is to enforce strict and lasting zones netball style and when that happens the very fabric of the game has changed and it simply isn't our game anymore, its another rugby or soccer with stupid offside traps and crappy technical trickery.
I agree, all sports have evolved over the last 30-40 years.
Take a look at tennis, when I was growing up in the 80's and 90's, mens tennis was dominated by big servicing players, and the serve and volley game was dominant. Now the points are taking a lot longer with most players now playing the game predominantly from on or behind the baseline, so what do the tennis authorities do, embrace it, or try to change it to reduce the time taken and get more advertising in. Afterall, points per minute have declined due to the extra time taken to play each point, surely that makes the game worse to watch right?? Nope, the tennis authorities embrace this style and those longer points INCREASE excitement as you see more and more skills of the players.
As I mentioned elsewhere, soccer has also evolved and again the authorities embrace it. I'm not confident that the game is better and more exciting but the authorities are letting the game evolve, albeit whilst they screw up technological advances.
Do the AFL hierachy embrace change. Nope the game evolves and they stamp their feet and go "but it looks different to when I played". Well maybe take a look back and review that it might not all be negative. I think the biggest issue we have right now as others have said, isn't that we need more rules, but we need umpires to make decisions quicker. That will halt the impact of rolling mauls and actually speed the game up, but thats not drastic enough for Shocking or Dill so they focus on changing the game as it is as if its their own play thing. Did they even canvas fans about these changes? My guess is no, they are just too arrogant to think that anyone other than themselves should be involved in decision making.
When you have players openly taking to twitter to force their concern about these changes, you know they probably aren't the right moves to be making.
