Carlton coach David Teague has added his voice to those concerned about the impact of a rule change made to the VFL.
The east-coast state league competition is being used to trial zones at stoppages, which requires three pairs of players inside 50 at kick-ins, boundary throw-ins and ball-ups. One pair must be in the goal square.
This has led to frustration, with quarters nearing 40 minutes in practice games as umpires wait for players to position themselves.
"I'll be honest, I watched the game the other day and I didn't enjoy it," Teague told reporters on Wednesday.
"Stopping the game all the time … it's a different game at the moment. I understand that the VFL, at times, is there to trial things. But it's very hard. Will this rule be the difference? Because you've just changed four things, you don't know which one is the one.
"I think, hopefully, some common sense will come into play and they might get rid of that for a while, because there's already been so much change, and then add it at another stage."
Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge says it will be hard for key position players in particular to find AFL-level match conditioning given they’re restricted on where they can run.
He mentioned this when pointing out why we won’t see number one pick Jamarra Ugle-Hagan in the senior team just yet.
“Jamarra (Ugle-Hagan) didn‘t run anywhere near like he’s going to be required to run in an AFL game,” Beveridge said earlier in the week.
“So it’s actually going to hold a player like Jamarra back because we can’t get that match conditioning that he needs at AFL level.”
The VFL season gets underway on April 16th with Richmond taking on Sandringham and Frankston hosting Coburg.
