The AFL will introduce seven new rule changes for the 2026 Toyota AFL Premiership Season, aimed at reducing dead time, increasing ball-in-play action and making games easier to adjudicate for umpires. The League estimates the changes could shave up to three minutes off match times.<\/p>\n
1. Goalsquare Starting Position<\/p>\n
Players will no longer be required to start in the goalsquare after a goal. The AFL says this minor change will eliminate unnecessary delays, with 10 per cent of post-goal restarts previously held up by late goalsquare organisation.<\/p>\n
2. Last Disposal Rule<\/p>\n
The AFL will adopt a version of the AFLW\u2019s \u2018last disposal\u2019 rule between the arcs. A free kick will be paid when the ball crosses the boundary line off a disposal, unless there is a clear contest. It replaces many boundary throw-ins, increasing game speed and reducing dead time.<\/p>\n
3. Centre Ball-Up Ruck Rule<\/p>\n
Ruckmen will no longer be allowed to cross the centre line before engaging at centre ball-ups. This aims to revive aerial contests by encouraging jumping rather than wrestling, which has declined significantly since 2023.<\/p>\n
4. Aligned Kick-In Time<\/p>\n
Kick-ins will now be subject to the same eight-second time limit as marks and free kicks elsewhere. Previously, players had up to 12 seconds. The AFL found many delays stemmed from long kick-ins, and this change could reduce match time by over 20 seconds per game.<\/p>\n
5. Ruck Nominations<\/p>\n
Umpires will no longer wait for nominated ruckmen to arrive. If no player is ready or nominated, the umpire will restart play immediately. The move aligns the men\u2019s competition with AFLW rules and aims to eliminate unnecessary stoppages.<\/p>\n
6. Shrugging in the Tackle<\/p>\n
Players who shrug to draw high contact in tackles will now be considered to have had prior opportunity. This shift is intended to discourage players from contributing to high contact and improve consistency in umpiring.<\/p>\n
7. Stand Rule Enforcement<\/p>\n
Players inside the five-metre protected area will now be required to \u2018stand\u2019 and cannot retreat to \u2018outside five\u2019. The AFL says this will encourage quicker ball movement and reduce unnecessary stoppages.<\/p>\n
Umpires will begin training clubs on these changes during the off-season in preparation for their rollout in 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The AFL will introduce seven new rule changes for the 2026 Toyota AFL Premiership Season, aimed at reducing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":248032,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-248031","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248031","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=248031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248031\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}