AFL Rules Amendment Team Campaigns

AFL Rules Amendment Team

CAMPAIGNS

June 2004: Running down the clock

Don't you hate it when your team is down by a couple of goals and in the dying minutes of the games the opposition team slows down play and works to run down the clock eliminating any chance of fair opportunity your team had? Or even worse, watching your team try to run down the clock and being bored and appalled by your own team's boring, unoriginal, thoughtless and uncompetitive tactics? This commonly used tactic is not a pretty sight to watch! It's uncompetitive and shows desperation by the team using it and a disposition to not win the best way you possible can! Wouldn't you prefer to see your team go down by a point in an exciting and creative battle than see them win by 10 points and be helplessly bored for the last five minutes of the match? Ultimately, the running down the clock tactic takes away from us everything we love about Aussie Rules Footy and watching the game!

Some basic facts about this campaign

Anybody who watched the Fremantle Port Adelaide match last Saturday night would agree that the tactics used by Port Adelaide in the dying seconds of the game were univentive, uninspired, promoted unfair competition and demonstrated a lack of sportsmanship, confidence and unwillingness to win the game in the best way they possible could. For the last 3 and a half minutes of the game of Saturday night, Port Power had appoximately 10 kicks and 10 marks while they blatantly worked down the clock instead of contesting for a successful win. This means that each player had at least 20 seconds with the ball!! It actually got to the stage where a Port player (probably Kane Cornes) actually put the ball down on the ground so that he could stretch after taking an uncontested possession, to the point where he was taking up so much time that the umpire had to call time on! To make matters worse, Port's runner was on the ground for practically the last four minutes of the game alerting the players to how much time they had left and where they should kick the ball!!

Did you know that Full Backs only get 15 seconds to dispose the ball from the goal square after a behind has been scored? Additionally most other players on the field get the same amount of time or less to move play on after getting a mark! Why should it be different for different players or different stages of the game?

In the final minutes of the game played at Subi, Port players were averaging 30 seconds to dispose of the ball - thats twice the amount of time they should legitimately receive!!

Why should players need to pass the ball backwards if they are not facilitating a play forwards of the ball? Isn't the point of Aussie Rules to score goals in your offensive 50, not to kick the ball into your defensive 50?

Did you know that it has actually taken a certain AFL Full Forward over 55seconds to kick a goal in the dying minute of a game? Should an AFL Full Forward, or for that matter any player on a team need nearly a minute to kick a ball - something they practise constantly at training at least three times a week?

AFLRAT believes that running down the clock is a part of football that doesn't reflect the nature of the game or why it is so popular in Australia. Seriously though, why do we all love Aussie Rules football? Isn't it the fast paced, high scoring nature of the game with the exciting physical contests and battle of superior skills that exists in every match? How is running down the clock fast paced, allowing for scoring or physical contest? And kicking the ball and catching it is in no way reflecting the advanced skills that AFL footballers should have!! Not only is it an insult to the opposing team that you won't allow for a fair contest, but it's an insult to yourself and your supporters by saying your team is not willing to fight a fair fight for a win - you would rather take the easy way out!! This could be seen at Subiaco where Port Adelaide supporters were booing the tactics used by their team!!
Because AFLRAT respects our favourite game and the players and supporters and media involved, we are planning to send a petition to the AFL Rules Committee in order to bring a stop to running the clock down by slightly changing the rules, in order to promote a fair and exciting competition at all times in an AFL match.

What we propose

AFLRAT plans to propose that the AFL makes the following rule amendments in regard to this issue:

After time on, players should have a limited time in order to dispose of the ball after receiving a mark. This should be 10-15 seconds. If after play on is called the player makes no attempt to play on - the umpire should bounce the ball.

During a game, players should not be able to pass backwards where there is no attempt to move play forwards. This can be determined if the player who passes the ball backwards has any defensive pressure on them. If not, a free kick should be rewarded to the opposition team.If in doubt, the umpire should bounce the ball.

Other implications of running down the clock

For those sceptical people out there who believe that it's the responsibility of the opposing team to man up in order to prevent a team running down the clock - AFLRAT would like to advise you that running down the clock does not only affect the outcome of the game and how disappointed the supporters feel at the end of the game. It affects the credibility of AFL as a fair and competitive sport, profit generated by the afl and most importantly television broadcasts! Just remember the fact that if no-one wants to watch the game - the AFL will lose money and the sport will lose its hold as the dominant sport in this country!

As you would probably know from your experiences of commercial media, television chanels get their money from advertising - money which is used to bid to broadcast the AFL and other sporting programs. From watching an AFL match on the TV you would know that the TV has an advert break after every goal scored. If there are no goals scored in the last 5 minutes of so of a match - this could potentially affect whether or not television reaches its advertising quota for the match or if they are able to advertise during the last part of a match. Ideally, the last minutes of a game should be when the televised match has its largest audience, from people watching the match at home, people watching the delayed telecast after being at the match, people switching channels to watch the next program, and for people who want to know the result of the match rather than watch the game. However, if there is no opportunity to advertise during the match at the time where it has its largest audience it is likely that television sponsors will pull out of their advertising contracts. If this happens TV will no longer be able to afford telecasting the footy anymore.
You might think it sounds unlikely, but remember in Perth the basketball would get televised at 8:30 Friday nights without fault - where is it now? Soccer is becoming increasingly popular in WA and throughout Australia... Television stations will not hesitate to replace AFL with something else if they believe it will get better ratings eventually killing off our favourite sporting competition!!

What can you do to support our cause?

Because we want to send a signed petition to the AFL with as many signatures as possible from people who support our cause - we need as much support as possible to get as many signatures as we can!! If you are interested in signing a petition and helping us get some signatures please email us! You are also more than welcome to post comments in our guestbook.
Thank you for all of your help and support! Hopefully we will see the orchestration of some rule changes into the AFL preseason cup next year!!