Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley says enforcing ‘starting points’ for player positions in the AFL will not solve the problem of congestion.
“In principle I understand the reason of spreading the players across the field,” Buckley said on SEN's Whateley.
“I think it would have a moderate impact on congestion, but it wouldn’t solve it.”
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The idea of implementing a new rule to start players in different areas of the field is designed to prevent a large number of players from following the ball, but Buckley doesn’t think the theory will have the desired effect.
“It would probably help get the ball to the pointy ends of the field quicker, which you would think would result in scoring better,” he said.
“But the fact is the best AFL clubs at the moment are scoring from about 55 percent of their inside 50 entries.
“Once you get the ball inside your forward line, that’s where the better teams just hold it in there until they score.
“Nothing that you do from a positioning perspective would shift that.”
Buckley believes the overuse of hand ball is a key factor in congesting the game.
“If you can use a trigger or a mechanism that will force coaches to ask their players to kick out of congestion more, that will be the thing that will fix congestion more than any of the starting positions,” he said.
Listen to Nathan Buckley’s chat with Gerard Whateley on SEN's Whateley in the player below