AFL tweaks rules to increase number of centre bounces; Blues add small forward to their list

While the league wouldn’t comment on the record, a spokesperson said the AFL was simply getting ahead of the game and avoiding any future gaming of the system.

The change, while small, will add more time to the game – something the AFL has been desperate to avoid in recent times.

The amount of boundary throw-ins has steadily reduced in the last decade as the AFL has instructed umpires to be stricter on the deliberate out-of-bounds rule, which has been renamed to “insufficient intent”. Players have also been able to run outside the goal square to kick the ball in after a behind, to avoid the ball being locked in defensive 50 and promote higher scoring.

For years, many umpires have been calling for the bounce to be scrapped, declaring it an unnecessary burden for officiators, while high-profile senior coaches such as Geelong’s Chris Scott and St Kilda’s Ross Lyon have publicly declared the bounce should be scrapped.

“I can’t come up with a sport where it’s harder to umpire or referee than our game,” Scott said in 2023.

“A pretty good guiding principle is: ‘Let’s make it as easy for them as possible’.”

Cats champion and AFL Players Association president Patrick Dangerfield has also been a public advocate for banning the bounce.

Earlier this month, Mahoney was named head of football performance at the AFL, in a football department reshuffle at league headquarters.

He will lead the talent, umpiring, player movement, game analysis and coach and player engagement portfolios.

The elite midfielder, who resumed contact training this week as he continues to recover from a broken rib he sustained at training last month, is hopeful of playing Melbourne’s first game on March 16.

Petracca reiterated his intent to finish his AFL career at Melbourne, where he is contracted for another four years.

“I’m passionate. I’m competitive. And I want this club to be great,” Petracca told Channel Seven when asked about the turbulent off-season at Melbourne.

“Yeah, I had honest conversations about where I think we can improve on as a football club, both on and off the field.

“Goody [coach Simon Goodwin] and the football club have been awesome over the last four or five months in off-season and pre-season devising a plan, and making the club feel connected.”

Asked specifically if he envisaged his AFL future at Melbourne, Petracca said: “Yes, definitely.

“As I said I love the footy club. I love the connections that I’ve built at the footy club. My friendships – I’ve got long-lasting friendships since I was 17, 18 years old.”

The premiership player was savouring his return to the training track with Melbourne after a long lay-off following his extensive King’s Birthday injuries, when he suffered a lacerated spleen, punctured lung and four broken ribs.

“It was definitely an emotional roller-coaster,” he said. “But just to be back training was an awesome experience.

“I did cry a bit, but I think that’s just part of the journey.”

Blues pick up small forward

Michael Gleeson
Carlton have added former Geelong and Port Adelaide small forward Francis Evans to their list ahead of Friday’s supplementary selection period deadline.

Having lost small forward Matt Owies to West Coast due to a tight salary cap, the Blues opted to bring in Evans, who has booted 22 goals in his 34-game career.

Originally a second-round pick – selection 41– with Geelong, he managed seven games in two years before moving to the Power where he played 27 games in two seasons. He was delisted at the end of last year.

The Blues had been considering former Hawthorn defender Denver Grainger-Barras, pick six in the 2020 national draft, and Collingwood forward turned defender Liam McMahon, who both trained at the club over summer.

Riewoldt says players showed ‘contempt’ for AFL drugs policy

Jon Pierik
St Kilda great Nick Riewoldt says there have been players who for too long have shown contempt for the league’s illicit drugs policy, declaring it’s time for an overhaul.

As revealed by this masthead on Saturday, the AFL and AFL Players Association are in talks about tightening the league’s three-strikes policy.

This includes a proposal to introduce a full-scale and year-round hair testing program, immediate fines, the removal of the controversial self-reporting loophole, and widening the number of club officials informed of a player’s positive test.

Riewoldt, who in 2022 emotionally spoke of the drug issues former teammate Sam Fisher had endured, said the time for change was now.

“If it happens, great. I have been banging that drum for about a decade. I think it clearly needs more rigour. It will be good for the players and the players’ association to take some accountability there. I am supportive of an overhaul because I think it needs it,” Riewoldt told this masthead.

Riewoldt, speaking on Wednesday at the launch of Seven’s expanded AFL coverage, said the self-reporting provision had been a particular source of frustration for him.

“I think the ability to self-report. It creates loopholes that are easily exploited, which might not be a problem in itself, but I think it can become a gateway to greater problems down the track,” he said.

As it stands, a player, having taken a drug, is allowed to self-report once in his career, using this mechanism to avoid a strike. The AFL wants this loophole closed.

Riewoldt, who has joined Seven’s commentary line-up in a prominent role, said a toughened policy could have helped an earlier generation of players.

“I think it could have helped a lot of guys. We have read some pretty tragic stories lately,” Riewoldt said.

“Any time there are loopholes, and you create flexibility, in my opinion, that level of wriggle room is not a good thing. I think, in the end, a lot of players have had contempt for the policy.”

AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon said on Wednesday that there would be changes.

“We are reviewing it at the moment. What we’re looking to do is refine the policy and strengthen it. We’re in conversations with the players and AFLPA on that at the moment,” Dillon said.

“There will be changes to it. When that takes place, we’ll have to work with the PA on it. It is, ultimately, a voluntary code that the players are signing up to which is above and beyond what most other sports in Australia and worldwide are doing.

“We’re clear on that, but we also know illicit drug use is a community issue, a societal issue. We want to make sure we can educate our players as well as we can.”

The AFL’s proposed crackdown on illicit drugs has received substantial support, including from former Hawthorn president Jeff Kennett and independent MP Andrew Wilkie.

Under further proposals backed by the AFL commission, the AFL would expand the number of league officials immediately notified of the drug offender’s identity. This would include having a player’s identity reported to a newly established AFL panel, a plan the players’ association has raised confidentiality issues about.

As it stands, only the club doctor and an AFL doctor is informed of a first strike.

The league is also proposing that under a second strike, in both the men’s and women’s leagues, the offending player will be publicly named and suspended.

Lifeline 13 11 14. Beyond Blue 1300 22 4636.

Thomas bullish about Blues’ premiership chances

Jon Pierik
Former Carlton star Dale Thomas says the club’s prized draftee Jagga Smith can this season replicate the rookie-year deeds of Collingwood’s Nick Daicos, providing the injection of youth that puts them in the sweet spot to end a 30-year premiership drought.

Thomas, speaking at the launch of Channel Seven’s beefed-up AFL coverage, said the Blues were in a prime position to contend for their 17th flag.

“I feel … it (a premiership) has to be in the next couple of years. I know the supporters feel the same. You want to be in that window, and you are not in that window forever. I feel the Blues are in that sweet spot to really contend,” Thomas told this masthead.

“A grand final is too hard to say as a pass mark. If you say all things are equal, making it to the minimum second week of the finals is a fair expectation. Hopefully, internally, they are shooting higher than that. No doubt, they are. But, as we know, only one team can win it, and it’s bloody hard to get through the first two weeks of the finals.”

Thomas, a premiership player with Collingwood before crossing to Princes Park and playing 101 games with the Blues, said a key for Michael Voss and his team was to have a healthy Charlie Curnow.

The champion forward had minor knee surgery on Tuesday, the third time this summer he has gone under the knife. The dual Coleman medallist had already had an ankle reconstruction and knee surgery.

Thomas, who had significant ankle issues in his career, said he did not fear for Curnow’s future, but the Blues needed to ensure he had the best management.

Thomas, now a prominent commentator on Seven, said Adam Cerra’s fitness was important for the Blues, as he added polish to their midfield, while draftee Smith, who already has the body and mind of a senior professional, will be one to watch.

Smith was taken with the No.3 pick last year after being captain of the Oakleigh Chargers and Vic Metro. He shapes as a star midfielder, to the point Thomas expects him to replicate what Daicos did in his rookie season when he averaged almost 26 possessions per game and was named the AFL Rising Star.

“You have an All-Australian in the back line, you have a midfield that now boasts a two-time Brownlow medallist, and a young kid in Jagga Smith who looks like he is going to be a replica of what Nick Daicos did early on,” Thomas said.

“The reliance on Crippa (Patrick Cripps) has probably been too heavy at times. Hopefully, Cerra can stay fit. If you look back to his numbers a couple of years ago, he was one of the more dominant mids, and kicking goals as well. For the Blues, I am pretty bullish about what they can do this year.”

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