WTF!? - AFL wants to reduce "excessive tackling"

[jerry springer]

just vote with your feet people

 

[The Warlord]

Doesnt matter what the AFL do. Game is unplayable. I commend the players for trying. Once the AFL ruled out sliding or diving on the footy that was all she wrote. Now its just a flawed game to make a decent quid for anyone wanting to subject themselves to it. Half their luck, its hard enough to even watch.

Game against the Dogs a few weeks back, we'd been leading they came back hard, ten minutes into the last kick in the centre, ground ball to be won and Jed Anderson dived full stretch on it and fired the handball out in one motion, beautiful courageous bit of footy, and the Dogs bloke who was a second late got the free for being second to the contest.

You see it from players from all teams - the bloke more desperate for the footy gets penalised.

 

[master bate]

Hocking's absolutely right. It's called football not tackleball, the game is way better when it's moving end to end.

But he's also wrong because he's the guy who can do something about it and he's raised this without a plan.

I really think it's worth looking at starting positions and have 3 forwards and 3 defenders inside 50 for every stoppage. The Eagles really spread the game out because they have the right forwards to do it and their games generally are pretty open and flowing.

At a minimum any centre bounce that doesn't clear the centre square should be recalled to the circle with the non midfield players outside the square.

 

[The Warlord]

I’m a strong believer that there’s to much tackling in the modern game. Hocking just wants to reduce congestion and one of the biggest factors of congestion is the tackling numbers.

When I was a kid I use to wear Abletts number 5 on my back and follow him from end to end to watch him kick goals, these days kids get to go to the footy to watch Selwood or crouch get 16 tackles a game. I feel sorry the modern generation of football fans.

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Cam Zurhaar had 11 brilliant tackles against the Tigs for us, most in open play and more than one against the flow of play and got us a goal.

Tackle numbers aren't a great stat to decide this.

 

[Coach_Required]

What a bloody moron this clown is ... let's introduce a rule that says if you dive on the ball or drag it in we will ping you holding the ball but now there is too much excessive tackling so less tackling now please ....

It explains a lot why players who get tackled now can just drop the ball or even throw it out in the tackle and it get's called play on ....

Get ****ed AFL

 

[TripleJay]

Wish they would make public their method of analysis. How have they defined an 'ideal' game? Why do they have so much faith in their ability to engineer a more aesthetic product with top down rule tinkering? Are the judgements data based or expert based?

I remember back during the initial issues with over congestion some of the public opinions were laughable. Kevin Bartlett had an idea that by removing an interchange spot you'd fatigue the players more so they wouldn't be able to reach every contest, hence less congestion. This seemed to me like a tenous link of cause and effect, but the supporters spouted it as though it was a hard truth.

TLDR: The big wigs in the AFL overestimate their competency in understanding the problems, and then if they do correctly understand the problem, they overestimate their competency in fixing it.

 

[jatz14]

Yes please, reduce tackling and congestion is reduced and the game opens up.

Tackling comes from congestion, it doesn't cause it.

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[Corpuscles]

It’s not hard. All they have to do is throw the ###### ball up immediately after the umpire gets is hands on it after call for a ballup and get rid of this ludicrous pantomime the boundary umpires go through when “ preparing “ to throw it in. Less players around the stoppages.

It’s all they can do without changing the game in some fundamental way.

Bunch of idiots.

For those who missed this post and are asking for solutions.


None of this nominate the "ruckman" BS! (Now little Auskick boys who wants to go up this time???... meh!)
Less of the pantomime of taking ages to indicate umpire exit path. 50 metre penalty for crashing umpire without effort to avoid
Any third man up must not crash or impede the opposition player
Anyone can catch, hit, punch a throw in ( Swans V Carlton last week the throw in was short, fell into a Carlton players hands and he got pinged for reflex catching it ) What sort of soft c**k game is it where you watch , let it land and then bounce away?

Bring back the BOUNCE - Every occasion. Let it go unless wildly to unfair advantage. Create some old fashion random chance or at least less predictable. If they cannot bounce well consistently they don't umpire.

None of this wrestle & hug one another (SOS style) at a stoppage. Bump yes, push yes but , but arm around restricting movement then first one guilty is pinged immediately. Promote decisive directional taps hit outs.

Protect the ball winner. If tackle contact with hold commences before full possession is gained free kick Holding the man.

 

[The Old Dark Navy's]

The AFL made being a ball player a bad thing by really pushing the limits of prior opportunity and incorrect disposal to the point where players reduce speed and wait for someone else to gather the ball so they can tackle them.

If you don't reward the tackler as much, there is more potential for both players to go for the ball.

I hate the tackle where a player gathers the ball, is immediately tackled by one arm and is pinged if he can't get it on the boot as his handballing action is taken away. They should be no prior opportunity as even though the ball is free, you can't legally dispose of it in a lot of cases.

 

[gingernuts]

tackling is the same as when you kick a goal, 'you laid a tackle you muppet Off to the interchange you go"

 

[nameless]

Thanks for the considered reply.
To clarify, one tackler should read "one tackler at a time" if that was ambiguous, and doesn't change your response I don't think. I believe there's something to be said about beating a player one on one.
I don't have an opinion on interchange, my playing experience was as a ruckman resting forward, what's an interchange?
I also agree with your point about rule changes and have started threads on the same, how coaches are always going to exploit new rules through defensive actions well before considering attacking strategies.

Certainly agree that there is merit to one on one play being more prominent, but in reality 'one tackler at a time' just wouldn't work for mine.
If two players are chasing a player with the ball, do they have to motion who's going in for the tackle? Imagine a player running in for goal being chased by 2 players who both don't tackle thinking the other is going to do it, I don't want to see that.

Bigger ruckmen will start dominating more given they can take it out of the ruck with knowledge only 1 person can tackle them.

I'd be happy to see a trial, but think it needs an extensive look before implementation. (not just a couple of VFL games at the back end of a season)

 

[Angus Young]

Hey Steven Hocking... eat a bag of dicks.

 

[purpleman]

I for one absolutely agree with Steve, mainly because we're not very good at it. If he could also see fit to somehow change the way the game is scored or just remove scoring altogether we might win a flag someday soon...

 

[mike123]

Tackling comes from congestion, it doesn't cause it.

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It goes both ways, reduce tackling and congestion will clear up.

 

[joy division]

The "AFL" logo should be updated to this "AFL?"

 

[Seedsman_]

I’m just trying to work out what demographic of people they are trying to appease with ideas like these. Everyone who has had any involvement in the game understands the inherent risks associated with the physicality. However, that’s what makes it the best sport in the world.
Neutering the game will greatly reduce the interest in it.

 

[Dr Tigris]

Appalling idea. They'll end up with a 'product' with no emotion and contest. And then wonder why no one is coming to watch it.

I love the tackling nowadays. Not the scragging that is allowed. But the genuine contested football. So much better than it used to be - in terms of good tackles.

 

[Stamos]

It’s not hard. All they have to do is throw the ###### ball up immediately after the umpire gets is hands on it after call for a ballup and get rid of this ludicrous pantomime the boundary umpires go through when “ preparing “ to throw it in. Less players around the stoppages.

It’s all they can do without changing the game in some fundamental way.

Bunch of idiots.

This.

And crack down on incorrect disposal/dropping the ball/throws. The biggest blight on the game.

 

[G Mus]

If he means the scragging and half-holds before a player takes copntrol of the ball, I'm all for it. Pay those hundred holding the man calls a game, players will stop doing it and the ball-winner actually gets a chance to dispose of it. If he means taking the legitimate tackle out of the game, no wonder AFLX got created.

How many times do you see a hit out going to a player who is already wrapped up before they can even catch the ball? Almost every time there is a clear tap to a noted ballwinner, it’s frustrating

 

[StevenwellerHFC]

Will be called the soft **** league very soon.

 

[Obeanie1]

Totally get why they want to do this.

Excessive tackles cause injury and concussions.....big topic right now.

Tackles cause congestion.......only when they arent rewarded with a free. Then reward more tackles with frees and we will get less congestion.

One thing I dont like is 5 players getting involved in a single tackle.

The guy with the ball gets tackled. Then a player on his team jumps on and then two others. WTF?

How about when the player tackling then gets tackled jumped on by the team with the ball. Again WTF?

I would penalise a team for 'piling in' on top of their own player getting tackled. That is a ruck and maul rugby play not AFL.

There are tweaks to be made sure.

The bloody refs blowing the whistle so players dont get sling tackled would be a good start.

Tackling is great and should remain a big part of the game. But piling on, tackling the tackler, ruck and mauls. Thats what should be stamped out.

 

[Herne Hill Hammer]

Tackling comes from congestion, it doesn't cause it.

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Of course it causes it, how else do you stop your opposition from continually possessing the ball? You either need to out mark them or you need to tackle them and try and gain possession. Once a tackle is laid, if it's not a free kick, that's when the rot sets in. Players converge from all over the ground and just block everything up.

The way to really cut down on tackling and congestion? Have every team skilled like Geelong '07 to '11 and Hawthorn '13 to '15. Pin point kicking, maintain possession.

 

[Pessimistic]

sitting over all this is the footy publics low confidence in the AFL actually identifying and addressing rules of the game issues.

They seem to involve statistics in a scattergun way (how many games actually have anywhere near 160 tackles - off topic finals actually) yet every players movement ids calibrated via GPS tracking. they have all the tools if they got some experts to analyse it. And I mean experts, not PR people.

they could have GPS based metrics for what happens now, use that to formulate approaches AND use the same metrics to confirm their success or otherwise.

but theres the rub, they know they can manufacture paper 'success' by manupulating the media narrative, rather than achieve anything.

 

[Benji85]

Gillan and Hocking are the worst custodians the game has ever seen. Hocking is going to single-handedly ruin on the few things that is uniquely Australian, that we as a collective "own".

Well at least now we are united in our disdain of those two dickheads, that's something I guess.

Remove the AFL's "not-for profit" status, they haven't deserve it for years. Scumbags

 

[roacheee]

Some solid melts going on here amongst the BF mouth breathers

A question - are people HAPPY with the number of tackles in a game these days compared to 15-20 years ago? I certainly don't watch games to see how many tackles each team/player can get.

listen close...
without tackling there's no pressure to kick to a contest
that means no Speccies, hangers, marks of the year
capiche???