COLLINGWOOD coach Nathan Buckley wants the AFL to eliminate prior opportunity and start paying free kicks that reward the tackler in a bid to reduce congestion.
Buckley believes paying more free kicks for holding the ball and illegal disposal will help the AFL to open the game up and generate more free-flowing footy.

Umpires currently give players the benefit of the doubt if they are tackled as soon as they take possession of the ball but Buckley believes that is one of the main reasons for the congestion problem.

He says eliminating prior opportunity would force coaches and players to change their tactics both in contested situations and structure across the ground.

“If teams want to handball in a short space to get numbers into that congestion and they want to handball and take the tackles on, if you possess the ball but you don’t kick or handball it, then it’s a free kick against.

“I think that is something that will change it altogether,” Buckley said.

“It would change the behaviour of the people with the ball and the tactics they’re asked to execute because if you put two or three quick handballs together inside or you gave a handball to a player who was hot and he was tackled, regardless of prior opportunity or anything, if he had the ball, was tackled and didn’t handball or kick it, then that’s a free kick.

“That would be rewarding the tackler.

“Tactics would change because you wouldn’t get as much handballs in tight and if you don’t get as many handballs in tight then you’re less likely to commit your numbers in tight. You’re more likely to commit your numbers to other parts of the ground.

“You would see sides still willing to take the tackle on and still willing to stand up in the tackle and handball or dispose of the ball in a legal manner but you would probably get other tactics that would say we’re not going to handball in congestion, we’ll just kick.

“Because of those varying tactics you would get less congestion, there’s no doubt.”

AFL legends including Leigh Matthews have raised concerns over the state of the game and have come up with radical plans to solve the problem and improve the look of the game.
Zones, lowering the number of interchanges and even reducing the number of players on the field have all been floated as ideas to reduce congestion.

But rather than introducing more rules, Buckley has urged the AFL to actually apply the current rules as they are “meant to be applied”.

“We just don’t reward the tackler the way we used to,” Buckley said on SEN.

“I think that’s as responsible for congestion as anything.

“We don’t need to play under 9s and start putting players in zones, we don’t need to modify the number of players on the field. We just need to apply the rules as they were meant to be applied.”