By Ron Issko - AFLFA Treasurer and footy tragic.
As a footy fan of 40 years I find it a little painful watching footy these days.
The rolling mauls, player congestion and stoppages every few minutes have taken its toll on me and many others. The game has become very predictable with exciting footy being played only a few times a quarter.
What really irritates me is when every player is in half the ground locking the ball in. When the defensive team manages to get the ball out of the congestion there is usually no player in the forward line so the player holds up play by kicking sideways or backwards.
Gone are the days when the centre half forward and full forwards lead out to a pass. If you see this 2 or 3 times a game that's a bonus. The usual forward line play is when the ball comes out of the defence quickly and goes over the head of all players and the fast players then run onto the ball.
I could name at least a dozen or more people that used to go every week to the footy that have gone cold on the current style of the game and not going to the footy as often.
So what can be done to bring back positional footy? Significantly reduce rotations and use the centre square restriction rule of only 4 per team in the square at ball ups around the ground. Maybe when there is a ball up there must be 2 forwards from each team in the 50 meter arc.
Whatever the solution we need to do something very soon otherwise our unique Aussie rules game will be unrecognizable and become a hybrid of footy, soccer, basketball and Auskick- if it isn't already.