You see it in reader comments under newspaper articles that are demonstrably wrong - people nodding their heads at what's put to them without engaging critical thinking. Which means Blobbo & co. have more influence than they merit.
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New Rules
- Thread starter yandb
- Start date
I heard that if add up all the teams scores this year, and add up all the scores against, they are dead level. just shows how even the comp is with the new rules.
Perhaps I've become a purist, or a stick-in-the-mud in my old age but I'm not sure I've ever agreed with the premise behind any of the rule changes. I don't consider that to be the purview of the AFL at all. The point of them is to manage the competition and help the clubs generate enough revenue to continue to field teams. Trying to change how many goals are scored by manipulating the rules seems way outside what I thought the AFL was created for.
Right now I see footy as a bit broken. Rules around contact especially are becoming an absolute bloody joke.
Either it's a contact sport or it's not. If they want to make it basketball then tell us now & save us the pain of death by a thousand cuts.
Either it's a contact sport or it's not. If they want to make it basketball then tell us now & save us the pain of death by a thousand cuts.
Was worried when AFLW was introduced that it would have affect on contact in the AFL. Have little doubt that it's playing it's part in this current evolution. Couple that with research into concussion & the powers that be are continually looking to soften the game up. Can't believe how disillusioned I am with the sport right now. It's only going to get worse as the focus on player safety increases.
I've watched the Mackay hit a dozen times and I still don't have an opinion. I'd be terrible as a pundit.
you just go to the pub at lunchtime and have 6 schooners and slur and dribble your way through it STC
I'm the same, I can see both sides. But it does seem an accident, McKay tried to tuck himself in. If he didn't jump at all, I think it's a total non issue.
The AFL runs the highest level competition in Australian Rules Football.
But this is not the only competition. There are state leagues, there is local football etc.
Yes, the AFL should have a big say in what happens to football, but not the only say. We should go back to having some sort of representative body of all levels of the game to determine the rules.
In any case, the AFL are way too corrupt and too focussed on the business of making money to be the sole body which determines the rules of the game.
DS
I just don’t trust the AFL to be making decisions, that to the mere mug supporter, appear to be motivated not by improving the game, but to increasing it’s revenue.
Some of the changes seem to be advantageous to the AFL only, namely the increased time after goals are scored and the ridiculous “stand” rule which gives the ball carrier freedom to run off at will and supposedly score more goals.
Some of the changes seem to be advantageous to the AFL only, namely the increased time after goals are scored and the ridiculous “stand” rule which gives the ball carrier freedom to run off at will and supposedly score more goals.
Yeah, Mick Warner's point that the AFL Board which should be giving direction and governance but does nothing is a good one. Too much power with the executive.
Kanned Corn gets this right.
The stand rule is a debacle. Was shocked to hear (I think) Jake Niall saying this on the Real Footy podcast last week - "Hocking deserves a lot of credit for the stand rule." The stand rule has failed, made the game a mess, and looks shizen. Get rid of it.
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The stand rule is a debacle. Was shocked to hear (I think) Jake Niall saying this on the Real Footy podcast last week - "Hocking deserves a lot of credit for the stand rule." The stand rule has failed, made the game a mess, and looks shizen. Get rid of it.
Geez, journos (well, Cornes, whatever that is) calling out SHocking's absurd rule changes, I think I need a Bex and a lie down, I'm shocked.
The stand rule is a mess, but it is a mess because it is a way to try and fix previous f*** ups. They need to get back to the basics, pay all the free kicks that are there and more protection for the player attempting to gain possession.
DS
The stand rule is a mess, but it is a mess because it is a way to try and fix previous f*** ups. They need to get back to the basics, pay all the free kicks that are there and more protection for the player attempting to gain possession.
DS
David, this is the reason for nearly every new rule. They overreact, bring in a new rule to counter something that isn’t a problem in the first place, it in turn messes up another element of the game and they have to bring is another one to try and fix the problem they created and it only causes more problems. If they’d stop messing around with the game and just wait for a while to see how it pans out they may be pleasantly surprised with the results. Steve Hocking is one of the worst things to ever happen to the game. Things won’t improve until he and Gilligan have been removed.
This silly rule has fizzled out and changed very little in the scheme of the game.
Ok, so we have survived another year of lockdowns, a down year for the mighty Tigers and we emerge at the end of SHocking's experiment with our wonderful game.
What are we to make of all of this?
Clearly there have been changes in the way the game is being played, you hear this from supporters, coaches, the idiots in the footy media et al.
The comments on the game seem to focus on it becoming more a game of control rather than a game of territory. How can this be measured, especially given we simply don't have access to advanced stats?
When they introduced the new rules the AFL put up a nice little interview between Barrett and SHocking - nice to see the AFL exposing their work to the searing judgement of . . . one of their own employees
. The interview and article can be found here.
So, what was the AFL's claims for the new rules?
SHocking claimed a few things, but was deliberately vague, he said:
So, the interchange cap is to encourage fatigue which will somehow open up the game. I have absolutely no idea where they get this idea from. Opening up the game has the implied goal of increasing scoring, yet, when they first introduced an interchange cap for 2014 the average score per team per game went under 90 for the first time in 44 years (1970) and has been decreasing every year, to the extent that 2021 has an average score below 80, the lowest since 1967. Rather than open up the game the interchange cap has turned it into more of a slog fest.
While it is noticeable that the stand rule has opened up the 45degree angle kick, these have tended to be short kicks to a free player. What we have is a less contested game. Is that a good thing? Well, that is a matter of opinion. Although, by the end of the H&A games the number of uncontested marks per game has gone back to the level of 2019, and lower than the mid 2000s, this is in the context of lower possession numbers and disposal numbers. The weak trend of higher disposal numbers and higher possessions has been turned around for one year but we'll have to see what happens. The same goes for contested possessions as a percentage of total possessions, it has gone back to 2017 levels but will this trend continue? The number of disposals and the number of possessions are trending down at the moment - here's a couple of graphs:
Disposal stats simply go back further, beyond 1965 there is very little, but it is clear disposal numbers have been on a long term rise but have now turned a corner.
There is a real irony in this statement. What Dusty has been able to do is to break out of congestion - look at the very highlights they put up in this article - goals scored by breaking from congestion, not goals scored by finding space. Dusty was not in space, he created space in congestion. This is very different to what the new rules hope to achieve which is to allow players to get the ball under less pressure in space.
A few more stats (well graphs) to see if we can work out what is happening.
Contested marks is one are where there has been debate. The number of marks per game is fairly stable as is the proportion of contested marks as a proportion of total marks - it sits at around 12% but seems very variable between games, some games have over 200 uncontested marks and others closer to 140, this makes the average a less useful measure although 198 games should smooth that out a bit. One thing to note is that the number of uncontested marks per game dropped from about 167 to 159 over the last 3 or so rounds, no idea why.
Stoppages is another thing we hear a lot about, they want less stoppages. Can't find stoppage stats but, assuming that the number of hit outs per stoppage is relatively stable, it should be a reasonable proxy measure. Hit outs per game are back to mid 2000s levels:
One thing we don't hear a lot about, although maybe we should if congestion is meant to be an issue, is tackles per game. This rose a lot between 1999 and 2010 but has stabilised and is now reducing, but not back to earlier levels:
Of course, they don't say this, but the AFL clearly want higher scores. As alluded to above, they have failed. Stats for scores of course go right back to 1897, but I'm still working on those stats, here is what we see back to 1965:
The clear downward trend continues.
I have also heard that the AFL is lauding closer games and it will take a while but I am also looking to see if I can graph the average margin per game, the percentage of close games (margin under 6 points) and blow outs (margin more than 59 points). We'll see, I suspect these will be very variable and it will be interesting if there are actually any trends.
Discuss!
NOTE: all the above excludes 2020 for obvious reasons.
DS
What are we to make of all of this?
Clearly there have been changes in the way the game is being played, you hear this from supporters, coaches, the idiots in the footy media et al.
The comments on the game seem to focus on it becoming more a game of control rather than a game of territory. How can this be measured, especially given we simply don't have access to advanced stats?
When they introduced the new rules the AFL put up a nice little interview between Barrett and SHocking - nice to see the AFL exposing their work to the searing judgement of . . . one of their own employees
. The interview and article can be found here.So, what was the AFL's claims for the new rules?
SHocking claimed a few things, but was deliberately vague, he said:
So, the interchange cap is to encourage fatigue which will somehow open up the game. I have absolutely no idea where they get this idea from. Opening up the game has the implied goal of increasing scoring, yet, when they first introduced an interchange cap for 2014 the average score per team per game went under 90 for the first time in 44 years (1970) and has been decreasing every year, to the extent that 2021 has an average score below 80, the lowest since 1967. Rather than open up the game the interchange cap has turned it into more of a slog fest.
While it is noticeable that the stand rule has opened up the 45degree angle kick, these have tended to be short kicks to a free player. What we have is a less contested game. Is that a good thing? Well, that is a matter of opinion. Although, by the end of the H&A games the number of uncontested marks per game has gone back to the level of 2019, and lower than the mid 2000s, this is in the context of lower possession numbers and disposal numbers. The weak trend of higher disposal numbers and higher possessions has been turned around for one year but we'll have to see what happens. The same goes for contested possessions as a percentage of total possessions, it has gone back to 2017 levels but will this trend continue? The number of disposals and the number of possessions are trending down at the moment - here's a couple of graphs:
Disposal stats simply go back further, beyond 1965 there is very little, but it is clear disposal numbers have been on a long term rise but have now turned a corner.
There is a real irony in this statement. What Dusty has been able to do is to break out of congestion - look at the very highlights they put up in this article - goals scored by breaking from congestion, not goals scored by finding space. Dusty was not in space, he created space in congestion. This is very different to what the new rules hope to achieve which is to allow players to get the ball under less pressure in space.
A few more stats (well graphs) to see if we can work out what is happening.
Contested marks is one are where there has been debate. The number of marks per game is fairly stable as is the proportion of contested marks as a proportion of total marks - it sits at around 12% but seems very variable between games, some games have over 200 uncontested marks and others closer to 140, this makes the average a less useful measure although 198 games should smooth that out a bit. One thing to note is that the number of uncontested marks per game dropped from about 167 to 159 over the last 3 or so rounds, no idea why.
Stoppages is another thing we hear a lot about, they want less stoppages. Can't find stoppage stats but, assuming that the number of hit outs per stoppage is relatively stable, it should be a reasonable proxy measure. Hit outs per game are back to mid 2000s levels:
One thing we don't hear a lot about, although maybe we should if congestion is meant to be an issue, is tackles per game. This rose a lot between 1999 and 2010 but has stabilised and is now reducing, but not back to earlier levels:
Of course, they don't say this, but the AFL clearly want higher scores. As alluded to above, they have failed. Stats for scores of course go right back to 1897, but I'm still working on those stats, here is what we see back to 1965:
The clear downward trend continues.
I have also heard that the AFL is lauding closer games and it will take a while but I am also looking to see if I can graph the average margin per game, the percentage of close games (margin under 6 points) and blow outs (margin more than 59 points). We'll see, I suspect these will be very variable and it will be interesting if there are actually any trends.
Discuss!
NOTE: all the above excludes 2020 for obvious reasons.
DS
