Steve Hocking | PUNT ROAD END | Richmond Tigers Forum
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Steve Hocking

If they want higher scoring then we will end up with the chip, mark, stand game as uncontested possessions can lead to goals.

The problem is the AFL have no idea what they want. Higher scoring, sure, but what sort of game do we end up with? A boring chip it around game?

If the AFL are incapable of running the game they should not run the game. They shouldn't anyway, it should be more than the AFL running the game, input from other levels of the game is essential.

So, we don't test rules, and instead of giving them a trial, we wait for half a season before coaches work out strategies and every July we get the yearly rule change mess? Yeah, how about leave the bloody rules alone, not like their rule changes have achieved what they claimed to want.

DS
 
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It's why I don't agree with the regu;lar knocks on the AFL for not trialling rule changes.

For one, there's no competition to trial in that is anything like the AFL and if you give the coaches a look at them and then a summer to tinker, you are dead.
Hocking's changes were more radical than anything that had come before, arguably without justification. Previous changes like banning third man up or deliberate rushed behinds were in response to specific in-game trends.

Holding the ball/incorrect disposal has been a mess for years. The umpires are the only ones who understand what's going on and they're not speaking. That was the logical and bleeding obvious starting point for addressing congestion; if fixed, it would relieve the lion's share of supporter angst. But Hocking's aspirations were broader than that.
 
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Shocking has *smile* the game with his rule changes, no doubt. Lets hope the commission stands up for once and doesn't just let Gilligan get another one of his mates to continue the trend.
 
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FMD. Just imagine trying to watch an entire game played like that. My brain hurts from looking at that one tiny clip.
If you can stomach watching it again, Taylor says that ‘Geelong are streaming down the middle’, just after they finished taking 12 kicks to get out of their defensive fifty.
 
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Smith had about 7 possessions in that video. And most of them went 7 metres and were paid marks. But that’s okay other clubs are allowed to do that.
What about only two consecutive marks inside defensive 50 then it's auto play on ? Or even better the sthird kick (after the second mark) has to clear the D50 arc? Would encourage the return of the big Torp, defensive team forced to defend at the widest part of the ground. Would also make team defending the kick in decide whether to defend deep or mid. And could stop teams winding clock down in close games when they wax in the back 50.
I would also say if a team kicks back into its D50 and is marked it has to be kicked back out.
Possiblly same for a team in F50 - if they kick it back out has to be kicked straight back in?
 
What about only two consecutive marks inside defensive 50 then it's auto play on ? Or even better the sthird kick (after the second mark) has to clear the D50 arc? Would encourage the return of the big Torp, defensive team forced to defend at the widest part of the ground. Would also make team defending the kick in decide whether to defend deep or mid. And could stop teams winding clock down in close games when they wax in the back 50.
I would also say if a team kicks back into its D50 and is marked it has to be kicked back out.
Possiblly same for a team in F50 - if they kick it back out has to be kicked straight back in?
Just get rid of the stand on the mark rule and it'll be much harder for teams like geelong and collingwood to play ring around a rosie.
 
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Just get rid of the stand on the mark rule and it'll be much harder for teams like geelong and collingwood to play ring around a rosie.

Adding more restrictions to how players can move and where they can kick the ball moves us further away from Australian Rules Football.

The new rules haven't worked, doubling down with more fiddling just makes it worse, time to look at a lot of the new rules and wind them back.

If you try something and it doesn't work, surely you seriously consider reversing the changes?

DS
 
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Adding more restrictions to how players can move and where they can kick the ball moves us further away from Australian Rules Football.

The new rules haven't worked, doubling down with more fiddling just makes it worse, time to look at a lot of the new rules and wind them back.

If you try something and it doesn't work, surely you seriously consider reversing the changes?

DS


Yeah, but are they prepared to admit that? I've seen the media pundits essentially double down on backing it, saying "well scoring isn't up but the game is more open".

I really hope this rule gets the flick next year but I'm not optimistic.
 
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Yeah, but are they prepared to admit that? I've seen the media pundits essentially double down on backing it, saying "well scoring isn't up but the game is more open".

I really hope this rule gets the flick next year but I'm not optimistic.

Yep, the early season declaration that Hocking found the magic formula to increase scoring and make the game more exiting has very quickly change to "open". The AFL and it's sycophants are really destroying the game. Historians will look back on the Hocking Period as the period Aussie Rules football lost it's way but the industry was too far up it's own arse to realise.

All we need now is for Gil to declare that he doesn't blow the whistle mate.
 
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Yeah, but are they prepared to admit that? I've seen the media pundits essentially double down on backing it, saying "well scoring isn't up but the game is more open".

I really hope this rule gets the flick next year but I'm not optimistic.

The AFL is incapable of admitting mistakes.

The only solution is a clean out of the boys' club running the show.

DS
 
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Adding more restrictions to how players can move and where they can kick the ball moves us further away from Australian Rules Football.

The new rules haven't worked, doubling down with more fiddling just makes it worse, time to look at a lot of the new rules and wind them back.

If you try something and it doesn't work, surely you seriously consider reversing the changes?

DS
If they had introduced one rule at a time to improve a designated KPI, trialled if for say a season, and then made an evaluation based on the data at season's end, then it would be easy to reverse. "We thought it would work, but it didn't, so we're removing it".

As they have introduced a suite of changes at once, they haven't got a clue which rule is causing what issue. Furthermore, what KPI are they trying to improve, more Dusty moments?

The AFL have shot themselves in the foot due to their incompetence. Add to the incompetence the massive boy's club ego, then there's not a chance in hell they will be reversed.
 
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They got rid of the hands in the back rule, and the possession from a ruck contest rule. they can get rid of the statue rule.
 
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Just get rid of the stand on the mark rule and it'll be much harder for teams like geelong and collingwood to play ring around a rosie.
Maybe but the keepings off didn't just emerge this year. The whole concept of backward kicking and ball retention is entrenched in footy now. And the ground size makes it pretty easy to execute.
 
Just about every column I have read since he quit have eulogised Hocking as a visionary. "Unfairly maligned" is a common theme (well the maligning has not been from any prominent voice in media that's for sure)
 
Just about every column I have read since he quit have eulogised Hocking as a visionary. "Unfairly maligned" is a common theme (well the maligning has not been from any prominent voice in media that's for sure)

The maligning comes from the fans (ie: the league's customers).

The defence comes from the media.

Out of touch maybe??

DS
 
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They got rid of the hands in the back rule, and the possession from a ruck contest rule. they can get rid of the statue rule.
They have also got rid of holding the ball and incorrect disposal.........