The AFL’s new footy ops department – made up of the likes of Laura Kane, Joel Selwood, Erin Phillips, Geoff Walsh, Dan Richardson and Josh Mahoney – has been busy preparing for the 2024 season, with some rule tweaks already in place.
SEN’s Sam Edmund has revealed that the league wants fewer Tribunals in 2024, due to the expenses involved in running it.
“There’s a couple of little changes they have already made, the new footy ops department,” Edmund told SEN Breakfast.
“A lot of it around the Tribunal. They want less Tribunal hearings due to the cost.
“There’s a crackdown on rundown tackles, it’s been an area of concern for a while. I think we’re definitely going to see an instance here where there is a legitimate, perfect tackle from behind that results in a concussion and somebody is going to be suspended and we’re all going to be outraged.
“There’s wording changes to high contact, all these sorts of things.”
Strangely, the league has also cracked down on club staff and officials whistling from the interchange bench during games.
“There’s a few weirder ones as well – they’ve banned officials on the bench from whistling. The old wolf whistle,” Edmund added.
“Some clubs do it a lot. There is one team that is worse than others.
“It’s like the old pickle juice (rule). They told the clubs they had to stop spitting it out onto the turf because it was burning the turf and the curators were getting upset. They wanted them to get a spittoon.”
The move to ban whistling tickled Dwayne Russell, who was bemused by the news.
“Are they mimicking the umpire’s whistle? They’ve brought in a specialist whistler?” Russell asked.
“They’ve searched the world for a specialist whistler to come in and whistle as an umpire’s whistle to confuse!
“Surely they’ll just come up with another sound other than the whistle? Maybe they’ll bang on some rubbish bins.”
Following the discussion, some SEN callers suggested the Western Bulldogs’ interchange has a particularly loud whistler, attempting to get the attention of players who need to come off for a rotation.
