‘I’m onto that’: New AFL boss grilled on 16 hot topics… and clearly two rules are on borrowed time

New AFL football operations boss Greg Swann last week said he had “about 43 pages” of inquiries from clubs upon starting his new role.

On Tuesday night, AFL 360 co-hosts Gerard Whateley and Garry Lyon would’ve hit most of the touch points on those 43 pages during a near 20-minute interview.

From the sub and stand rule, to the centre bounce and prior opportunity, here’s the full transcript of Swann’s responses to 16 issues raised.

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Should Toby Greene have been fined for attempted kicking?

“I spoke to Michael Christian around that,” Swann said. “Probably what saved him is there was no contact. Obviously it was intentional, but he doesn’t touch him or he doesn’t make any contact, so there’s no penalty on that basis. Under the rules that they are, that’s the right decision.

“The tables that are there, they’re very prescriptive. That allows consistency, but every now and then there’s a bit of an outlier and it doesn’t quite fit in the boxes. We might have a look at that in the off-season and whether we can tighten that up and even bring a little bit more flexibility to cope with the outliers.”

Did Channel 9 breach the TV rights agreement by airing behind the goals footage of the Greene incident?

“I only heard about that late this afternoon. I think that’s right,” Swann said.

“Vision with things like that should be with you guys at Fox and Channel 7, so I’m not sure how 9 got that. I do know from my brief chats that there’s going to be a review of how that’s happened, but it shouldn’t have happened.

That’s a bit of a fault from head office.”

Can the MRO be stricter and harsher on players who perform ‘gut punches’?

“I don’t see why that isn’t a penalty, to be honest. I think if you do penalise it, it’ll stop. The fines aren’t doing it,” Swann said.

“Now that I’ve got this job … you’ve got to project what happens at the junior levels as well. So you don’t want that happening, you don’t want other people and kids running around and whacking guys in the guts when that’s what they see at the AFL level.

“We’ll look at that as a more serious charge so that does get to a level of a week, rather than a fine.”

Can there be more flexibility in the MRO matrix, depending on the level of culpability?

“I think that’s right. At the moment, the rule is it can only go up, it can’t come down, so there’s no flexibility to come back. Again, we’d have a look at that,” Swann said.

“When you speak to ‘Chrisso’ (MRO Michael Christian), he’s super experienced in this. There’s nothing he hasn’t’ seen. So I think that’ll allow him to give him some flexibilities in the penalties.

“You’ve got to also factor in the legalities of it, too. But in the end, if you don’t have the flexibility, it’s too rigid. There’s always an outlier, there’s always things that happen that are a bit different that you might be able to make a bit more discretionary.”

Will the sub rule be scrapped?

“I don’t think there’s too many coaches who want the sub! Yep, we’ll have a look at that one, definitely,” Swann said.

“There might be other reasons that it was brought in in the first place that I don’t know about, there might be some stats around it to change it. But I don’t think it’s 17 (coaches), I think it’s 18-0. I don’t think anybody wants the sub from what I’ve heard.”

Will the stand rule be better policed or even scrapped?

“Agree with that. I’m onto that,” Swann said.

“The stand rule is a problem for the umpires and we want to make it a bit easier.

“Probably retaining (the rule), but ‘a stand is a stand’. You can’t run off … it sort of defeated the purpose because the stand rules was to help open the play. But now that player gets back and clogs up again.”

Can holding the ball be simplified?

“I reckon that’s the hardest one in the book,” Swann said.

“Talking to the umpires, prior opportunity, all those things that come with it – it’s something that’s always front of mind. That’s a tough one, I think.

“There’s always those ones where someone gets tackled and they don’t even get a boot to it and it’s ‘he tried, play on’. Or there’s a handball that’s not really a handball but it gets out.

“It is a discussion piece, but it’s a difficult rule to get 100 per cent right.”

Will the centre bounce be scrapped?

“Yeah I’m a fan of that, I don’t like the bounce,” Swann said.

“I don’t see why the umpires need a party trick, which is to bounce it. It’s more important they get the decisions right, so let’s just make it easier, throw it up and concentrate on getting more decisions right than wrong.”

Is the prospect of full-time umpires a genuine possibility?

“I’m not sure about that. I’ve spoken to the umpire group and fraternity and they’re not all that thrilled about going full-time,” Swann said.

With the number of ruck free kicks being paid, has it turned into ‘ruck lotto’?

“It probably morphs into another discussion that the rucks now, in that centre bounce, only one in five jump and four in five walk across the line and wrestle. I don’t think that’s good for the game, either, so let’s see if we can get them back jumping, which then hopefully avoids the ‘who grabbed who’,” Swann said.

“It’s a bit like watching rugby union at the scrum and they point and no one’s got any idea who’s free it is. We want to try and avoid that if we can.”

Will hurrying rucks up reduce the length of games?

“There’s a lot of support for that,” Swann said.

“I was a bit keen to get in and do some stuff straight away. But we’ve already had most of the season and it’s probably unfair to change the rules.

“Some people with their rucks, it’s an advantage that they’re more mobile and things. So we’ll look at that. But again all the clubs are in favour. There’s been a lot of work done before I got there around the waiting and things.

“If we can get it up quicker … and if the ruckman aren’t there, bad luck. I’ve seen some clips where he’s on the bench and nominates and runs across and takes 22 seconds to get there.

“There’s a lot of things. Even when you’re doing the set-up for 6-6-6 … you’ve got to get two players into the goalsquare. When you talk to the umpires, that’s always taking 10 to 12 seconds per bounce because they’re meandering around and not in there. One option is you just get into the arc, don’t worry about coming down to the square and if the six are in the 50m arc, you just bounce the ball and go.

“We’re really keen to preserve the 80 minutes that we play and lessen the bits that we don’t.”

Should players be able to see a countdown clock?

“I don’t really have a strong view on that one,” Swann said.

“One of the other things in that is that I don’t think runners are allowed out in the last minute or two. I’m not sure why. Maybe the runners can go out and then you don’t have to worry about it.”

Could we introduce last-touch out of bounds?

“I think that’s something that will definitely be looked at, because it’s almost morphed into that now anyway,” Swann said.

“I think it’s easier for the umpires … If it’s just last touch as in kicking – as they do in the SANFL only between the arcs – people will get used to that.”

What can you do about players leading with their heads?

“It’s been discussed already that a shrug is like a fend, it will be prior opportunity. I like that, but again we’ve got to confer around with everybody else,” Swann said.

“I don’t think anybody likes it. You always take a little bit from the players as well, because when someone does that and give a free away, the players get pretty antsy around it.

“You can see they’re not happy with it as well.”

How can score review technology be improved?

“We’d all like that … it’s not my speciality, but there are some people that are coming in to present some upgrades on what we’ve already got. Hopefully that can happen,” Swann said.

“I’m only going on what you see at home – and I went to the ARC on Friday night and how they worked it and there were a couple of score reviews – you’d like to be definitive and really clear.

“Supposedly there is some technology out there where you can definitely see if it hit the finger or it definitely misses. If we can do that, obviously it’s a plus. At the moment it’s good, but you’d want … and technology will improve, so hopefully it will get better.”

Is there any chance of an AFL conference system?

“No … well I don’t think so, I haven’t heard that,” Swann said.

“I doubt that’ll happen. We’ll get through 19 (clubs) first and then see what happens.

“Maybe if 20 came along, it might be a different discussion. But certainly 19 it won’t change.”

Would the AFL entertain a ‘wildcard round’ once there are 19 clubs in the competition?

“Probably, yeah. It might be a final 10, for example, instead of a final eight,” Swann said.

“There are some of the things we’ll work through, but others as well will decide that.”