New Rule Change

Since reading the above post I have had a bit of a think about it, before replying. I believe the idea is a good one, both for the clubs and the competition. Initially I had some concerns, but I think this has the potential to work very well. Standalone sides will encounter sides that are more reflective of how they will line up in finals football. If aligned sides are playing each other, then they can field as strong a side as they feel is necessary to come away with the 4 points, so I don't think this ruling has any significant effect on the home and away season. Aligned sides playing standalone teams will have to consider the make-up of the side, and this may present more opportunities to VFL listed players at those clubs, as well as being an indicator of aligned sides performance during finals footy. The more I think about it, the more I think it could work okay. I guess one of the negatives is that this could be seen as being amickey mouse rule that AFL clubs will protest. Guess we'll have to wait and see.

http://vflfooty.dyndns.org/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=845&m… According to the Paul Amy / Leader Group article:

Quote:*Umpires will call play on when a player kicks the ball backwards to a teammate, except when the disposal or mark of the football occurs inside the team's 50m. "It's about making the game more attacking and cutting out the time-wasting and running down of the clock that supporters often complain about," Stillman said. *After Round 10 there will also be a restriction on the number of interchanges that teams can make. The AFL asked the league to trial the move. Stillman said the precise num ber had hadn't been decided. *The revamped heat policy states that a match shall not start if the temperature is 36deg. If the temperature has not dropped within 30 minutes the match must be cancelled.

Agree with the 12/10 rule. Will help the stand alone teams come Septemeber. They will be much better prepared.

I think you are wrong with your interpretation of the rule benefiting Stand Alone clubs only. As Ons has stated, the requirement for 12/10 means that ALL teams will be structuring to play finals football. A full time 12/10 means that clubs will actually have to establish decent VFL lists and this means that more players have to opportunity to play at this level. I totally beleive that there should be a full time 12/10, or even an 11/11 for the benefit of the competition, but this is at least a start. Don't think for a second though that it will necessarily benefit stand-alone clubs only. A full time 12/10 will benefit all clubs come finals time.

Quote:*After Round 10 there will also be a restriction on the number of interchanges that teams can make. The AFL asked the league to trial the move. Stillman said the precise num ber had hadn't been decided.

WTF? :? Not sure about this one...

And perhaps the VFL should only allow Port and Frankston to train together as a full list once a week and strip some of the extra funding they get which is used to bolster the strength of their list. The more of these rules the VFL bring in, the more garbage this competition becomes. I am all for a permanent 12-10 rule, but to have sides being made to make changes for selected games, to me anyway, is rotten. Say, for example, the Bullants play Port, Williamstown and Frankston in consecutive weeks...they go from 12 to 18 to 12 AFL players? And what about the partially aligned sides? Are the VFL going to introduce a 15-7 rule or something to accommodate Nth Ballarat and Tassie? If thats not bad enough, to enforce interchange restrictions HALF WAY THROUGH THE SEASON...yeah as Matty said WTF? This is the problem with footy, already issues are raised come finals time because of the lop sided draw but to have a change of the rules mid season is totally wrong. A side who is playing good footy in the first 10 weeks, using the bench a lot and rotating players effectively might be sitting in the top four, then all of a sudden they have to change their gameplan around. As for the abandonment of matches, fair enough but common sense programming needs to be consided in the first month of the season. Hopefully they are flexible with the draw and will program early starts or later finishes if the Bureau say its going to be hot. But it looks like praccy games could be in some doubt. I have no gripe with the play on if the ball is kicked backwards rule. Some rule for everyone and it applies all year, no issue.

When I started reading Footyman's post, my responce was going to be along the lines of "..... I have never read such misinformed, narrow minded crap in all my life......" But after the garbage in the first paragraph, which is no doubt only there to bait me and Ons, the rest of it makes his usual sense. I agree that 12/10 should exist all year. As said before, it will make for a better competition. It is a bit pointless to have differant rules for differant opponents, and I expect that there may be some benefit to Port & Frankston, solely as a reult of the disruption. I expect that this one won't last though. It will either go altogether, or go to full time 12/10. Footyman, I agree with your 12/18/12 point for the Bullants as an example, but surely 18 non-VFL players is not good for this competition, is it?

Dolphin wrote:When I started reading Footyman's post, my responce was going to be along the lines of "..... I have never read such misinformed, narrow minded crap in all my life......" But after the garbage in the first paragraph, which is no doubt only there to bait me and Ons, the rest of it makes his usual sense. I agree that 12/10 should exist all year. As said before, it will make for a better competition. It is a bit pointless to have differant rules for differant opponents, and I expect that there may be some benefit to Port & Frankston, solely as a reult of the disruption. I expect that this one won't last though. It will either go altogether, or go to full time 12/10. Footyman, I agree with your 12/18/12 point for the Bullants as an example, but surely 18 non-VFL players is not good for this competition, is it?

I am all for a 12/10 rule all season, and yes 18 AFL players in a side is terrible for the competition I agree with you. The point I was trying to make is lets just have one rule for the competition, one rule for the season and be done with it. As for my first paragraph, perhaps a tad dramatic but how far do they want to go to try and even things up? If they are so dead set on getting the competition fair, just and even how about creating a proper finals policy, rather than awarding valuable games to undeserving sides. As I already said, the competition (like the AFL) is hardly fair anyway given some sides play each other twice and others just once. As for the logistics of a 12/10 rule for Port Melbourne v Geelong. What do the Cats have to do? Anyone got the answer on that? If we really want to get talking, is it possible that a club heavily controlled by its AFL partner may well be actually be better having the enforced 12-10 rule? Lets be honest, some clubs tend to play spuds just because they are on an AFL list and the AFL club wants them in the seniors, and at the same time pretty handy VFL listed footballers have to play in the ressies.

Footyman, As I said, I agree with you. I am all for a full time 12/10 rule. This is not because it will actually benefit the stand alone clubs like Frankston, but because it will benefit the competition. It would actually make it tougher on Standalone clubs as ALL clubs in this competition would need to imporove the quality of their VFL lists, therfore making in just that bit harder for the stand alone clubs to attract players. But regardless of that, the competition would be better overall as the general level of VFL players would increase. And your right again Footyman, I would suggest that at many clubs, and Bendigo would be a good example last year, where there were players in better form on the VFL list that got overlooked so that an AFL listed player would get a game. All in all, I think one rule, for all sides, for the whole season makes a lot more sence to me.

Good point on Geelong footyman - if they have an injury run like they did last year it could be embarrassing for them. I'm still a bit baffled why the "not kicking the ball backwards" rule is coming in for the VFL but not the AFL. It's a pretty big rule change, and it's going to create a lot of confusion amongst players I reckon. No need for it - why can't a side man up in the final 3 minutes?