Get your first month for just $1. Limited-time offer.<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cWhy do we have a 6-6-6 set-up at the start of the game (and every centre bounce), and then allow 30 players to be in one half of the ground \u2014 or 25 to be in the forward 50?\u201d Sheahan began.<\/p>\n
Collingwood legend Nathan Buckley responded: \u201cThat\u2019s not just 2025 though, is it? The advent of that\u2019s been almost two decades in the making.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt (the 6-6-6 rule) is (new), but would you advocate for a stoppage in the midfield that we have a quota of players that should be in the 50s?\u201d<\/p>\n
The 6-6-6 rule was introduced into the AFL in 2019, in a bid to promote more uncontested football between sides, as well as prevent teams with a tight lead close in games from \u2018flooding\u2019 their defence at centre bounces. Beyond the centre bounce however, there are currently no restrictions on where players must be.<\/p>\n
Teams are warned once if they do not adhere to the rule within 60 seconds of the most previous goal, before a second infringement results in a free kick for the opposing team.<\/p>\n
Scott: “The games too long, full stop” | 05:32<\/p>\n
\u201cI just want to get rid of this. Cyril Rioli wouldn\u2019t get out of there. We\u2019ve had ball-up, after ball-up \u2014 because that\u2019s the way it\u2019s played. The emphasis on tackling is so great; there were seven of these neutral contests in a row!\u201d Sheahan continued.<\/p>\n
When asked by On The Couch host and three-time Richmond premiership player Jack Riewoldt how the issue can best be fixed, Sheahan was unsure. <\/p>\n
\u201cSwanny is a good man, he\u2019s an experienced football person. But he said at the weekend that the game was in fantastic health… I reckon he\u2019s got a to-do list that\u2019s longer than Mason Cox,\u201d he said tongue-in-cheek.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t understand any of you three saying \u2018reward the tackler\u2019, ahead of the bloke who\u2019s won the footy … I don\u2019t know (what I want), I just don\u2019t want that.<\/p>\n
Close to half (!) of all players playing in last Friday night’s Round 19 clash (19 of 46) were in the immediate vicinity of this stoppage.Source: Fox Sports<\/p>\n
Buckley, who coached Collingwood to a grand final in 2018 during his decade-long tenure at the helm, believes that essentially removing prior opportunity will help prevent overcrowding around the ball.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe answer to that is holding-the-ball in my mind, take away prior (opportunity),\u201d Buckley countered.<\/p>\n
\u201cTake away prior, reward the tackler. And if you reward the tackler, then the ball carrier won\u2019t hatch it for as long and he\u2019ll kick it long out of that contest; it disperses it.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve got to reward the tackler if you don\u2019t want that \u2014 that will disperse the congestion.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Amid a wave of new rule proposals following Greg Swann\u2019s appointment as AFL football boss, veteran journalist Mike…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11140,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,63,689,13122,651,13120,3234,12923,13115,13114,13116,13117,11288,6278,1823,13121,13126,13127,13119,13118,13124,677,8016,701,13123,12936,85,13125,698],"class_list":["post-11139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-ball-carrier","tag-brisbane","tag-centre-bounce","tag-centre-bounces","tag-chris-scott","tag-cyril-rioli","tag-experienced-football-person","tag-fantastic-health","tag-football-boss","tag-grand-final","tag-greg-swann","tag-jack-riewoldt","tag-key-concern","tag-mason-cox","tag-mike-sheahan","tag-multiple-stoppages","tag-nail-biting-end","tag-neutral-contests","tag-oceania","tag-premiership-player","tag-queensland","tag-rule-proposals","tag-sam-mitchell","tag-sports","tag-veteran-journalist","tag-western-bulldogs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11139\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}