AussieRulesBlog isn’t sure how to react to news that former Richmond skipper and assistant coach Wayne Campbell is to replace Jeff Gieschen as head of the AFL’s umpiring department.

Regular readers will understand that we thought Gieschen was a disaster in the role, overseeing a culture where the AFL industry understood that a pronouncement from The Giesch on a topic meant a crackdown on that particular aspect of the game for the next few weeks.

We are cautiously optimistic that there are people within the AFL hierarchy working for a less zealous approach to gameday officiating. We hope this means a move toward consistent interpretations of rules from season’s start to season’s end — but we’re not quite prepared to hang by our thumbs waiting.

Campbell is an interesting choice for the role, and we’re not the first to point out that Gieschen too had a Richmond connection — discarded senior coach — before being appointed.

The Tiger faithful will howl, but Campbell never impressed us as a player. That doesn’t mean, of course, that he can’t be an eminently capable administrator.

We have reason to think that Campbell’s approach will differ from Gieschen’s and will embrace a more relaxed, less doctrinaire stance by umpires.

Among changes to the rules to be introduced in the 2014 season, Campbell will be overseeeing:

1. Free kicks against and reporting of players bumping and making contact with their opponent’s head;
2. Free kicks against players who duck into (nearly) stationary opponents if they are tackled and do not dispose of the ball legally — and a play-on call when a player ducks into a tackle (we might name this the Selwood Rule?);
3. Free kicks against players using their heads to make forceful contact below the knees of an opponent. We’re not sure if the much-maligned “diving” rule has been put down, but we’re hoping.
4. The hands-in-the-back rule has been softened by the addition of the word “unduly”; and
5. The interchange penalty has been returned to earth after a trip into the realms of fantasy.

We don’t think many fans will have too many problems with these changes. It will be interesting to see how Joel Selwood fares. We suspect he’ll still get more than his share of touches and will still inspire a whole team.

Disappointingly, it seems the holding the ball rule, at least as it’s written in the book, isn’t changing and there doesn’t appear to be any move to stamp out opponents holding a ball to an opponent to milk a free kick, despite a number of promises over a number of years. Perhaps that’s an area where we can look for the Campbell influence to shine?

It’s official! The AFL are frightened of James Hird and the threat of renewal of his action against his suspension. That’s the only conclusion from today’s humiliating backdown.

After telling the world that they’d enforced an agreement on Hird and Essendon that Hird not be paid while suspended, the Australian Limp Lettuce League have agreed that Essendon can pay Hird whatever they choose in calendar 2013, but he will receive no money from the Bombers in 2014.

Hird will receive a substantial sum — his 2014 salary — between now and New Year, and Sir Robin (Vlad) will spend the rest of his life running away (wiping the egg from his face).

when danger reared its ugly head, he bravely turned his tail and fled,

Bravest of the brave, Sir Robin

No-one should be surprised by Tania Hird’s ‘revelation’ that her husband remains on the Bombers’ payroll during his suspension.

The AFL have played their hand poorly right from the get-go. Despite the Bombers’ confidence when self-reporting their supplements program that they would be vindicated, AFL House proceeded to leak ‘evidence’ to paint the Bombers, and coach James Hird particularly, as amoral desperates who would stop at nothing in their quest for success.

AussieRulesBlog finds it impossible to understand how anyone could swallow the line that any AFL club, any AFL coach would wilfully and consciously disregard the health and safety of the players on their list. But that’s the bait that was dangled — and duly swallowed by most.

Notwithstanding players playing ‘jabbed’ with pain killers, uncaring of the future effects, it defies any sort of logic to believe the AFL’s line.

And the more recent revelation — an appropriate word in these circumstances — that eleven or twelve AFL clubs were conducting ill-monitored, ill-recorded and ill-supervised supplements programs run by ill-screened employees at the same time as the Bombers is a ticking time bomb that the AFL have, so far successfully, swept out of public consciousness.

The speed with which the AFL’s house of cards folded when challenged by Bombers’ doctor Bruce Reid shines a spotlight on the paucity of the AFL case.

It’s hard to imagine that Hird would have lost had he challenged. It’s similarly easy to imagine that such a result would have brought the AFL to its knees.

The fact is that the Bombers need the AFL and they need it in good shape. The club can’t generate a profit and grow if it is playing in the VFL because the AFL has disappeared.

Similarly, the AFL needs its powerhouse clubs to generate attendances and other revenues to keep struggling clubs afloat.

AussieRulesBlog imagines a scene where a Keatingesque Hird faces Vlad across a table and says, “I’m going to do you slowly, mate.” Vlad knows he’s toast and responds, “How much to not destroy the game you love?”

Ultimately, it’s clear that Hird took one — his suspension — for the club and for the game. His reputation will forever be tarnished in the eyes of many, but his club lives on and the game has a chance to take a breath and build again. Who among us, knowing we would win the legal stoush, wouldn’t extract some blood from the stone?

It wouldn’t surprise AussieRulesBlog one skerrick if it emerged that the AFL were partly funding Hird’s salary for the year. Not that they’d want it known, of course.