<strong style='font-family: Arial, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: 22px; background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000;]JONATHAN HOWCROFT[/b]
<p style='font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: 18px;]fromBackPageLead.com.ausupports the development of an AFL charter and hopes its development captures all of the game's intrinsic qualities, not just the obvious.


<p style='margin-bottom: 1.3em; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: 22px;]On SEN Radio's Harf Time this Tuesday, host Daniel Harford and I took calls about the creation of the AFL's proposed charter, and chewed over a few ideas about what key points should be enshrined in such a document.
<p style='margin-bottom: 1.3em; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: 22px;]The exercise was great fun, and we received plenty of contributions that would have to be included in any 'bible' to safeguard the game's development.
<p style='margin-bottom: 1.3em; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: 22px;]Some no-brainers include: an Australian Rules football should always be an ovoid, the scoring system should remain six points for a goal and one for a behind, the playing surface should always be oval, the goalpost configuration should not be altered...etc.
<p style='margin-bottom: 1.3em; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: 22px;]Such suggestions prompted informed debate and quickly Daniel and I pulled together a handful of non-negotiables.
<p style='margin-bottom: 1.3em; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: 22px;]However, it wasn't until I was in the car and on the Monash Freeway home that I realised we'd missed some of the point.
<p style='margin-bottom: 1.3em; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: 22px;]Clearly, the fundamentals of the game listed above (and more besides) should be protected, but that's the easy part. The much more difficult, and in reality, more necessary objective is to document the factors intrinsic to Australian Rules football that are often intangible, but no less woven into the fabric of the game.
<p style='margin-bottom: 1.3em; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: 22px;]As an example, think about the contested mark.
<p style='margin-bottom: 1.3em; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: 22px;]Australian Rules football celebrates the contested mark unlike any other discipline in the game. It requires physical strength to hold off a direct opponent, as well as great timing, coordination and athleticism to leap and secure the ball at its optimum point. The specky is what draws gasps from the crowd and fills highlight reels.
<p style='margin-bottom: 1.3em; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: 22px;]But - and this is the point - footy can theoretically exist without the contested mark.
<p style='margin-bottom: 1.3em; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: 22px;]For safety's sake it could be eradicated at a stroke. Strategically, coaches could at some point consider kicking to a contest too low risk an approach and so retain possession, in the manner Barcelona plays Tiki Taka soccer.
<p style='margin-bottom: 1.3em; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: 22px;]If such scenarios were to occur, the game would be poorer for it and something intrinsic to Australian Rules football that has been celebrated for generations could be lost.
<p style='margin-bottom: 1.3em; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: 22px;]Regardless of the likelihood of such an occurrence, it would seem sensible, considering the gravity of a proposed charter, that it incorporates such preventative provision. For example, a statement as simple as: 'The contested mark is a fundamental element of Australian Rules football and should be both protected and encouraged', would stave off the health and safety bandwagon while at the same time provide room to legislate for changes in the game's laws to incentivise the grab.
<p style='margin-bottom: 1.3em; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: 22px;]The current argument between Kevin Bartlett and AFL coaches over interchange numbers is a useful case study for the existence of a charter and the inclusion of such abstract goals - however obvious.
<p style='margin-bottom: 1.3em; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: 22px;]KB talks about aesthetics in his defence of an interchange cap, arguing from the standpoint of a spectator. In response coaches assure us they are only doing what's in the best interests of their players. Both, in their own way, are right, but without a definitive position on what's in<em style='font-size: 15px;]The Game'sbroader interest, such a conversation will inevitably end in impasse.
<p style='margin-bottom: 1.3em; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: 22px;]It would surprise me, if in the process of drawing up the charter, that a bullet point was not configured around Bartlett's grumble, that Australian Rules football should not resemble a churned up rolling maul. This would most likely manifest as a statement along the lines of: 'Stoppages are a necessary aspect of Australian Rules football, but efforts should be made to limit them in number.'
<p style='margin-bottom: 1.3em; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: 22px;]Bartlett's argument would also be helped by an explicit acknowledgment of endurance in the game, something that has been challenged recently by coaches and sports scientists. This could be expressed in the charter along the lines of: 'Fatigue is unavoidable in Australian Rules football', a basic statement that expresses a reality of the game that can then not be used as an argument to counter other developments.
<p style='margin-bottom: 1.3em; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: 22px;]In recent years the AFL and the Laws of the Game committee has come across at times like a dog chasing its own tail. Every well-meaning judgement seems to encounter the law of unintended consequences, requiring yet another alteration to ease another crease out. The danger of such an approach is the panacea remains permanently out of reach but along the way so many modifications are made the end product bears little resemblance to what the game set out as.
<p style='margin-bottom: 1.3em; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: 22px;]Listening to talkback and reading newspapers, there is a growing backlash to how the game is stewarded, with increasing calls of rising volume that modern AFL is no longer the sport admired by generations who have lived through previous iterations. The reality is it probably never will be that game again as advances in science, technology, game analysis, professionalism and more continue the pursuit of premierships at a pace.
<p style='margin-bottom: 1.3em; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: 22px;]As the body responsible for the wellbeing and integrity of the game, the AFL must make sure that as this inevitable modernisation occurs the game evolves without mutating and that the intrinsic factors that have always made Australian Rules football such a compelling spectacle are allowed to thrive.