Former Melbourne champion David Schwarz says if the AFL ever decided to reduce the game to 16 players a side, 120 years of history would be ripped up and lost.
He is adamant that if the change took place, the game would become hybrid and lose its identity.
“What it does, it changes 120 years of history,” Schwarz said on SEN’s The Run Home.
“The game has been played with 18 a side, on the ground for 120 years, with forwards, half forwards, centre men- which are the two wings, half backs, full backs, and the rucks and ruck rovers.
“So what you do, you might as well tear up 120 years of history and reset, which I’m not willing to do.
“I’m not willing to change the game, to change the setup of what football is right now.
“I think if you do change it you change it forever, because it becomes a hybrid game…it loses its soul.”
Schwarz said the essence of football is not about wide open spaces and players being free by themselves, rather it is about celebrating all the different skills which make the game great.
“Footy isn’t about free flowing, footy is about all the things that bring the game together, which is a bit of congestion, a bit of high marking, a lot of tackling, a lot of skill – by hand or by foot, not knowing where the hits are going to come from,” he said.
“I don’t want to see just players out in space, having a bounce and running into openness every time they get the footy.
“I want to see the game as it has been played.”
He believes last year’s exciting finals series was a perfect example to show that the game is in good shape.
“Last year’s finals series, I look back and I go, how good was that? How good was the GWS-Bulldogs game?” Schwarz said.
“Now if we want to take it away from that, where it was contest after contest and it was the game of inches, well blow me down, go and play volleyball or go and play another game that is a hybrid game.
“The game we’ve got is special and it works well how it is.”
Two-time premiership coach and SEN Football Analyst Mick Malthouse says while 16-a-side would reduce numbers on the ground, ultimately unless a rule was implemented to limit numbers at a stoppage, congestion will still remain.
“It certainly would work. There’s no question if you take four players off the ground you’re going to have reduced numbers,” he said.
“But, if it is designed to stop a certain type of play, which might be congestion around a stoppage, unless you implement a rule that’s going to forbid a certain numbers of players being at the stoppage then you’re always going to get congestion.”