Former Hawthorn ruckman Brent Renouf, now with Port Adelaide, will be favoured by new AFL rules. Picture: Michael Klein. Source: Herald Sun
FOOTBALL'S "dinosaur" ruckmen have been revived by the AFL's latest rule tweak.
While the AFL Commission put off capping rotations, the league's decade-long battle to stop ruckmen wrestling has forced more radical changes.
Ruckmen next season will not be able to make contact until the ball leaves the field or boundary umpires' hands at stoppages.
And the field umpires will be throwing up the ball, rather than bouncing it, at every field stoppage except those at the start of quarters and after a goal is scored.
Immediately, the bigger-framed and stronger ruckmen are back in vogue, as they cannot be physically shoved out of position at stoppages.
At Port Adelaide, this favours Hawthorn recruit Brent Renouf (200cm, 98kg) and Jarrad Redden (205cm, 103cm).
At Adelaide, lead ruckman Sam Jacobs (202cm, 105kg) remains in favour but his current back-up, Josh Jenkins (197cm, 104kg) and Shaun McKernan (196cm, 99kg), will be challenged against the game's bigger ruckmen.
Crows ruck coach Matthew Clarke and his Power colleague Shaun Rehn say the pressure is now on umpires to police the new rule.
"Deciding who made contact first could frustrate the fans," said Clarke.
Added Rehn: "Let's hope they are lenient rather than taking issue with fingernail contact."
Clarke notes that the art of bodywork in ruck contests will be lost.
"The bigger ruckman wins ... He takes his position and you can't move him off that space," said Clarke. "The rule nullifies body work."
AFL football operations chief Adrian Anderson says that the Laws of the Game committee want ruckmen to jump rather than wrestle at stoppages.
"We want to encourage rucks to play the ball and not the man, as well as to facilitate cleaner hit-outs to advantage and to assist clearance rates," he said.
To further this cause, the AFL Commission finally endorsed umpires restarting play at stoppages faster by throwing up the ball.
Clarke noted: "If you throw the ball up quickly, there are less people at the stoppage, and with less stoppage the play flows on."
Added Rehn: "There will be consistency with the throw compared to the bounce. And you can guarantee the game will speed up even more now."
That quicker pace could wear out ruckmen as they race from stoppage to stoppage.
"If the ruckman makes it to the stoppage or not, there will be someone there to do the job," said Clarke.
"If one ruckman gets there, so should the other.
"If we reduce congestion, there should be fewer secondary bounces and that should reduce the workload for ruckmen."
The faster game will have midfielders seeking more breaks on the bench - and coaches ordering more rotations.
This will unfold without a cap next year and no change to the current system of placing three interchange players and a substitute on the four-man bench.
Despite a recommendation to limit rotations to 90 a game (compared with this year's average of 131), the AFL Commission ordered more analysis. The rotations cap will be trialled in the pre-season NAB Cup series.
The AFL will also allow a free kick for forceful contact to an opponent below the knees.
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