Eade fears footy’s high-contact crackdown
Rodney Eade can see the line coming.
Few know footy like Eade, who played 259 games for Hawthorn and the Brisbane Bears before coaching 377 matches with Sydney, Western Bulldogs and Gold Coast before a turn at the local level.
He has seen footy from almost every vantage point and when asked to see into the future, he is worried about what he calls the “demarcation line”.
As the AFL tweaks the game constantly to reduce high contact and minimise concussions and considers and edict to drastically cut down contact training, Eade can see a tipping point.
He understands the importance of reducing concussions but doesn’t want to football to lose its soul.
“Oh there will be less contact (in the future). There will be situations where players will, in the old terms, put short steps in and they will minimise contact,” he said.
“More and more that will happen. And I think the AFL are trying to do their best on it but there is going to be a demarcation line somewhere where we worry not about the integrity of the game but what it needs to look like in terms of upholding its old pillars of being a combative game compared to the wellbeing of its participants.
“If you go too far towards the wellbeing of the participants then it becomes like touch footy and people won’t watch it. The AFL has that balance to strike in trying to keep the game as it is, while considering the wellbeing of participants.”
Eade made his points while watching Hawthorn training at Waverley recently, with the four-time premiership Hawk back in the club in a fundraising capacity to help build the new Kennedy Community Centre at Dingley.
Watching over training, he is unsure how a cut back on contact during pre-season and the week would impact the weekend’s play.
“I will be interested to see how it goes and how we can measure that and if it does decline, the competitiveness on match day or if it will have no effect,” he said.
“I think technique wise, the way the game is now and how you move your body and how you bump, you are not going to cover every scenario but you have got to educate players.”
Back in Eade’s playing days, if the Hawks were a bit short of the contest on a Saturday, they would bring the mouthguards and get to work during the week to sharpen up.
Eade reckons the players at Glenferrie then were “on a first-name basis with the rats”.
Hawthorn moved to Waverley in 2006, in what was then a multimillion-dollar facility that had a minor facelift at the old VFL Park.
Now the club openly admits it sits near the bottom of the league in terms of facilities, with Waverley a “rabbit warren” according to Eade.
In 2026, the Hawks plan to be in their new home at Dingley, a huge, purpose built HQ.
Eade said the club “obviously have a few million to go” to complete the Dingley build and he is happy to make the calls,