‘Bowden Manoeuvre’ officially endangered

This weeks’ announcement of rule changes for 2009 competitions by the AFL is a mixed bag.

The imminent death of the ‘Bowden Manoeuvre’ is to be welcomed almost without qualification. Unfortunately, in putting the strategy to the sword, the AFL has once again demonstrated its penchant for overkill.

Despite a number of comments here and elsewhere decrying the move, I wholeheartedly support the introduction of two additional boundary umpires. Having one man patrolling the line on each side has been a nonsense for decades. Readers will remember, I hope, that the official reason for additional field umpires was initially the speed of the game. The poor old ‘boundaries’ have been struggling to keep up with an increasingly speedy game for many years. Ruckmen will simply have to adapt.

Modifications to the penalties for interchange infringements have moved in the right direction, but the punishment remains absolutely out of proportion to the crime.

Lastly, allowing umpires to recall poor bounces is, finally, a commonsense response to an increasing problem. I think the inherent uncertainty of the bounce is an important aspect of Aussie Rules, but very poor bounces have the potential to deliver too much advantage to a team. Of course the difficulty now is to decide how bad the bounce must be before it is recalled. This is, almost inevitably, the beginning of the slippery slope for the bounce. Inexorably, we will move toward replacing it with a throw-up. It will be a sad day when we no longer see the umpires bounce the ball.