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AFL to ask coaches for gentlemen’s agreement on new rules

THE AFL will ask senior coaches to save the game from ugly football with a new Spirit of the Game agreement.

The league will today trial an 18m goalsquare and 6-6-6 starting points for all centre bounces at a VFL game between Coburg and Werribee.

It seems increasingly likely those two rules will be the centrepiece of next year’s changes rather than starting points at every stoppage.

But the league concedes it cannot ease the huge packs of players following the ball without senior coaches getting on board.

AFL football boss Steve Hocking told a Fox Footy briefing yesterday it was up to senior coaches to help spread out players across the field.

A new Spirit of the Game agreement will be a landmark document that also covers player behaviour and conduct.

It believes it can “take the game to the next level” and also incorporate umpires, the media and fans.

At the heart of the groundbreaking document will be a gentlemen’s agreement not to pack defensive 50 stoppages with up to 30 players in ugly packs. The league believes those stoppages, as teams heavily press up the ground, are at the heart of much of the low scoring, one of the game’s major issues.

Already in the past six weeks more coaches have kept their forwards closer to goal, which has resulted in more free-flowing football.

Hocking said he was confident coaches would be keen to help improve the spectacle of the game.

Some conceded they could not be trusted not to press hard up the ground, but the league has months to work through the details of the document.

“They have at least welcomed the conversation. They get they have a role to play in taking care of the game. I am not sure that’s been asked of them before,” Hocking said.

“We have spoken to the coaches and there is an appetite to help us out with this.”

Hocking said of the congestion that clogs the game at defensive 50 stoppages: “This has to be fixed by coaches. This is the scourge of the game in D50.”

The AFL believes an expanded goalsquare, which Dustin Fletcher said this year could help clear congestion, is a winner.