What do you make of the Jesse White rule?

**JUDO** · 14th May 2008, 12:45 AM

Is the AFL trying to slow down interchanges?

Official Website of the Australian Football League > News Article > Interchange ?holding area? from round nine

**liz** · 14th May 2008, 01:02 AM

The article is a bit ambiguous. Does this mean that the only sanction now is a free kick - rather than the free kick, 50m penalty and loss of score to date? And presumably the AFL gives up any right to retrospectively change the result of the game given that a free will already have been awarded when it is noticed.

If so, makes our $50k fine seem even more OTT.

Maybe the gist is that with new interchange monitoring, Andy A now thinks it unlikely there can be any breaches other than a player running on the ground a split second before his replacee has come off. Will be interesting to see how they react if there is a repeat of Hawthorn's stuff up in the NAB Cup where they managed to start a quarter with 19 men on the ground and it took them close to 3 minutes before they worked it out. These new interchange monitors aren't necessarily going to spot that happening.

**ScottH** · 14th May 2008, 07:09 AM

So what happens when it comes to light after the game has finished?

**Wardy** · 14th May 2008, 08:59 AM

You know - if you have an AFL steward/waiter standing at the gate looking at paperwork, depending on his "instructions" (and lets face it none of us trust the AFL when it comes to rules and regulations) he could take as much time as he likes to give his approval for a substitute to go on the field. He/she may not have done the Evelyn Wood Speed Reading course to read the notes quickly enough to enable them to make snap decisions. Call me cynical but it seems a bit too subjective for mine. I guess the AFL wanted to limit interchange - and this is the way they are going to do it. So I wonder what the next rule change will be - half time refreshments limited to 2 quarters of an orange each?

**satchmopugdog** · 14th May 2008, 06:44 PM

Wow..Jesse White is up there with Walter Lindrum and Don Bradman...rules changed in their game because of them.

**j s** · 14th May 2008, 06:58 PM

Originally Posted by Wardy

You know - if you have an AFL steward/waiter standing at the gate looking at paperwork, depending on his "instructions" (and lets face it none of us trust the AFL when it comes to rules and regulations) he could take as much time as he likes to give his approval for a substitute to go on the field. He/she may not have done the Evelyn Wood Speed Reading course to read the notes quickly enough to enable them to make snap decisions. Call me cynical but it seems a bit too subjective for mine. I guess the AFL wanted to limit interchange - and this is the way they are going to do it. So I wonder what the next rule change will be - half time refreshments limited to 2 quarters of an orange each?

From what I gathered from earlier articles the "approval" consists of accepting a slip of paper from the club interchange official, most likely with just numbers on it. I don't think that part has changed significantly. what has changed is that there is now two of them (one for each team) instead of just one and the player going on has to wait in a specific spot till given the go ahead. One aspect that I think will be affected is that players now often interchange a metre or so onto the ground (technically a breach of the rules but they all do it). I think that is going to change. The replacement won't be able to leave the box till his teammate is actually off.

Except during cluster changes I can't see it adding more than a few seconds to the process. This part is primarily to make it a lot harder for accidental mistakes to be made.

The penalties are the other aspect in that they are now immediate and can be called by sideline officials. The article doesn't say how that actually works but my guess is the reserve ump is involved after notification by the interchange official. The extreme penalties will probably remain, but be reserved for real cheating, not accidents. Previously there was nothing inbetween.

To my mind a system a little like soccer would work....
18 is going to replace 16
18 asks the interchange official for card 16 which is duly noted
as 16 comes off 18 hands him the card which 16 then returned to the official.

The need to pass the card would have stopped White going on - there would have been no-one to give it to. Any kind of token would do actually. It wouldn't even need to have a number on it as long as four of them always ended up back on the official's table. Stretchers and blood rules would be special cases but they happen so slowly (play is stopped) and are usually supervised by the reserve ump anyway.

**31 hard at it** · 14th May 2008, 07:01 PM

So a free kick from at minimum the centre circle and then a 50 metre penalty.
Does this mean effectively a set shot from 30 out if the ball is in the backline?

If you are just forward of the wing then it's from there and 50 - a harder shot???

Not as easy as they suggest but basically shouln't happen during the game.

Just the quarter breaks to watch a la Hawthorn's (vey inexpensive) breach.

**TheGrimReaper** · 14th May 2008, 09:39 PM

Originally Posted by satchmopugdog

Wow..Jesse White is up there with Walter Lindrum and Don Bradman...rules changed in their game because of them.

Let's pick the odd the one out between White, Lindrum and Bradman.

**j s** · 14th May 2008, 10:47 PM

Originally Posted by TheGrimReaper

Let's pick the odd the one out between White, Lindrum and Bradman.

Lindrum played with more than one ball!

**TheGrimReaper** · 14th May 2008, 10:53 PM

Originally Posted by j s

Lindrum played with more than one ball!

lol hmm......Not bad.

**Wardy** · 15th May 2008, 08:11 AM

I still reckon there should be an actual "gate" (like the swinging gate in the supermarket) at the interchange area with a holding pen where the AFL steward waits with his trusty clip board and the players assembled to go on - sure it will start to look like a sheep dog trial - but this is the AFL we are talking about.

**ScottH** · 15th May 2008, 08:17 AM

Originally Posted by Wardy

I still reckon there should be an actual "gate" (like the swinging gate in the supermarket) at the interchange area with a holding pen where the AFL steward waits with his trusty clip board and the players assembled to go on - sure it will start to look like a sheep dog trial - but this is the AFL we are talking about.

On before the game, they had a velvet cord between some brass posts, with a hostess and a bouncer to allow entry to and from the field.