TOPIC:

A few country leagues in WA have gone to 16-a-side to ease the burden on player numbers and some of the Melbourne metro leagues are currently openly floating the idea of ditching the wings to create more open play.

Is this something worthy of consideration in our competition? Maybe at E Grade or D and E Grades?

I would hope that would not have to happen. Clubs need to actively recruit players. My club managed to do that very successfully in 2016. Our biggest problem in that regard was trying to give everybody at least an E Grade game. We had up to 11 and usually 4 -7 miss out on any given week.

I think that is a workable solution without the need to create zones that could easily be implemented at the AFL level. Such a move will enable more pure football contests and ease the chronic congestion that is ruining our game.

The AFL Grand Final was a very emotional and exciting 100 minutes of football but only because of the significance of the bulldogs playing and the ferocity in which the game was played over the full 100 mins.

Unfortunately the game lacked the real one on one contests as the swarm of players around the contest simply created an ongoing tackling mayhem with little opportunity to create and open up play.

As for the local leagues, for those sides struggling to field the 22 players each week it will assist and for those with more than enough for a single side it will open up the opportunity for the clubs to field a 2nd or 3rd team.

I'm originally from Victoria and I saw a fair bit of the VFA before its demise in 1995. They had no wings and the centre square was actually a rectangle - the standard 45m long but extended out to the boundary line (hard to explain so I added a picture below). It stopped players from spreading out to the wing at centre bounces. The play in the VFA was faster and more open with the scoring being higher than in the VFL.

As a result, I see the benefits of having teams of 16-a-side, but at the same time, unless you are going to have teams of 21 (16 plus 5 on the bench) I can perceive some angst from clubs and especially from players who may well miss out on a game.

just curious on other people's interpretation of this zone concept. do you mean zones where certain positioned players can only go in set zones(e.g. forwards stay forward, backs stay back and mids stay central), or do you mean numbers based where there needs to be a minimum amount of players in each zone?

to me the first becomes contact netball and will basically eliminate certain playing types like the attacking half back (Johannisen) or the Goal Kicking mid. the second could work in theory though playing and policing it would be difficult if not damn near impossible. I mean if I'm on the run I don't want to be stopping to count heads before leaving the zone I am in.

No, in the VFA that set-up only occurred after a goal - just like when only 4 players are allowed in the centre square before the ball is bounced in any other league.

It just means less congestion after centre bounces as the ball would more often than not shoot out into one forward line or the other by the time the half backs/half forwards had reached the middle, without the ball being pushed out towards a wing.