Twang! Ouch! The sound of a rule changing

First we witnessed Nick Riewoldt clutch dramatically at his thigh in the time-honoured oh-shit-I’ve-done-my-hammy-in-a-big-way signal.

 

Less significantly, Josh Gibson also put in a bid for the best hammy grab of the year.

 

On Friday night, Daniel Kerr showed that big blokes weren’t the only ones playing this particular game.

 

With all due respect to Gibson, AussieRulesBlog reckons a couple of high-profile hammys — Riewoldt and Kerr — could well be the incentive the AFL needs to take some action on slowing the game down from ‘insane’ to ‘frenetic’.

 

Of course, that means there must be some compelling evidence that a squillion rotations a quarter is forcing marquee players to perform superhuman feats of physical endurance leading and re-leading, running down to the centre as a defensive forward, tearing back to the goal square as teammates try desperately to emulate ‘Pagan’s Paddock’. We don’t have that evidence, but we hope someone else does.

 

Not too long ago, a spate of PCL (posterior cruciate ligament) injuries to ruckmen led directly to the outer circle that now graces AFL grounds. It is not too far fetched to imagine that Riewoldt and Kerr could be the trigger for a cap on interchanges.

 

As exciting as the current trend for run-and-carry football is, if our star players are being cut down in their prime, action will be taken.

 

In a radio interview over the weekend, Tadgh Kennelly identified much increased speed as the biggest change in the game in his year away.

 

When will all this end? Never, really. Whenever a rule is changed or introduced or wiped from the books, coaches at every club are immediately looking to see how their team can best exploit the opportunity provided. It will ever be thus.