Verdict on curious ‘stooging’ loophole revealed as AFL boss returns serve to NRL chief

AFL football boss Greg Swann has definitively closed a loophole to the new ruck rules.

Sydney ruckman Brodie Grundy raised eyebrows with a fascinating centre-circle tactic that earned him a free kick in last Thursday’s Community Series match against the Giants.

Watch every match of every round of the Premiership Season LIVE and ad-break free during play on FOX FOOTY, available on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.

WHAT’S GAMBLING REALLY COSTING YOU? Set a deposit limit. For Free and confidential support call 1800 858 858 or visit gamblinghelponline.org.au.

Grundy coaxed GWS counterpart Nick Madden into ‘illegally’ crossing the centre-circle line — which ruckmen are forbidden to do under the newly-introduced rules — resulting in a free kick to the star Swan.

Last week, Swann said the league hadn’t anticipated players exploiting the new ruck rules in the clever manner Grundy did.

“It’s probably one we didn’t contemplate, but anyway, we’ll have a look at it and see where we go,” Swann told SEN Breakfast last Friday.

Well, unfortunately for Grundy, that loophole has been officially closed by Swann and the AFL brains trust.

“We’ve looked at that, and he (Grundy) got a free for that (last week), but there wouldn’t be a free (going forward),” Swann confirmed on AFL 360 on Monday night.

“If you don’t jump, and you want to … (do) the stooging, you can stooge, but it’ll be play on.”

Co-host Garry Lyon said: “So, that’s like a false inducement. It’s like (with) stand-on-the-mark — if you go the fake handball, and they go off the line, you’re not going to pay it.”

Swann responded: “That’s right. So, that’ll go out today saying that’s play on.”

In addition to not being able to cross the centre-circle line, ruckmen now cannot engage with opposition rucks. And around the ground, play will now restart without a nominated ruckman.

And speaking of ruck contests, Swann conceded knee injuries as a result of ruckmen jumping at each other would simply be an unwanted consequence of the new rules.

It comes after Geelong’s Shannon Neale was hurt in a knee-on-knee collision with Carlton’s Marc Pittonet last Wednesday.

“I think you’d be naive to say it’s not going to happen — it’ll happen,” he acknowledged.

“If there was a pandemic of them, you might change it back … it’s going to happen.

“The unintended consequences from a good perspective is scores out of the centre bounces have gone up. It’s a very small sample size, but the things that we wanted — the game length has gone back, the scoring has gone up, scoring from centre bounces has gone up, so we’re hopeful that goes into the season proper as well.”

Aside from the game’s new rules and adjudications, Swann was probed by Gerard Whateley on West Coast’s lack of competitiveness in its heavy Community Series loss to Port Adelaide.

“I did watch a bit of that game — I mean, maybe we haven’t given Port much credit; they were very sharp,” he said.

“It’s always difficult at this time of year with pre-season and how hard people have been training; what the build-up has been.

“I don’t know. It was a beautiful day for it, so the skill level probably was a little bit questionable early, then they got going a little bit, and then they dropped off again.

“But pre-season is always hard to measure.”

Finally, Swann was asked about the NRL’s season kick-off in Las Vegas and whether he felt any jealously towards the way Peter V’landys and his mob are going about things.

“I didn’t watch it (the NRL season opener); I was watching the two of our games … I didn’t see it,” Swann told Fox Footy.

“It’s not right (V’landys claiming that NRL is number one in Australia), so that’s the thing that probably peeves you a little bit. We’re the biggest game, we’ve got the most participants, most people watched, most attendees, so there’s a bit of poetic licence there.

“But to be honest, he spends a lot of time talking about the AFL, but we don’t spend a lot of time worrying about him.

“All we’re trying to do is make the game better, and do all those things that we said … we’re OK, they’re going well, but we don’t worry too much about what they’re up to.”