Former AFL umpire Shane McInerney hopes the centre bounce remains at the top level.
McInerney, who umpired 500 matches between 1994 and 2019 including two Grand Finals, is the VFL/AFL record holder for games umpired.
While he’s been retired since 2019, McInerney keeps a keen eye on the game and disagrees with calls that the bounce should be replaced by a ball-up after goals and at the start of quarters.
McInerney also believes the bounce helps differentiate who the game’s best ruckmen are.
“The point about retaining the bounce, it differentiates who the good ruckmen are,” McInerney told SEN’s This Is Your Journey – thanks to Tobin Brothers.
“It doesn’t happen as much as it did in the early days, but the good ruckmen would go in and watch the two or three umpires warm up, see their approach, see how high the bounce got and study what was going on.
“The ball goes to different heights and umpires have different approaches, so good ruckmen need to adapt to that.
“I think it differentiates the really good ruckmen from alternatively you have the ball just thrown up to the same height after every goal.
“I think it just becomes a bit of a thing where the tallest guy wins the tap out, whereas at the moment you don’t need to be the tallest, you need to get the timing right.”
While some argue that the bounce weeds out otherwise good umpires who can’t execute the skill, McInerney doesn’t agree with that sentiment and says the bounce must stay as it’s an integral part of the game.
“I think it will (survive),” McInerney said.
“I get it that we’re officials and, ‘Why do officials need to execute a skill?’, I get that.
“But it’s also the nature of our game … I just think it’s one of the things that makes this game really unique.
“I don’t think we’d find many good umpires lost to football because of bouncing, I think with the right sort of coaching and focus is what’s needed.”