Some new rule changes for 2026

Greg Swan is proposing some sensible rule changes for next year. I like all of them.

  1. Last kick or handball out of bounds between the arcs is a free kick to the opposition.
  2. Scrap the sub and just make it 5 interchange.
  3. Force ruckmen to jump at the centre bounce. He said 4 out of 5 times ruckmen are walking up to the other ruckman instead of jumping.

That’s what I’ve been on about in the last two games between Perth and Claremont. Eastland doesn’t jump, Jacques does and sometimes gets penalised for it.

The WAFL should adopt all of those changes. The first one will result in less stoppages.

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No to 5 on the bench.

Use to be 2.

I’m Ok with 2 and 3. Not so sure about 1. Could be open to manipulation (e.g if two players close to the boundary, one could try and kick the ball into the other so they get the last touch?) Sometimes its hard to judge who had the last touch in which case I suppose you would throw it in anyway

It’s not technically last touch it’s last kick or handball. It was in force in the state game this year and I thought didn’t create any controversies.

Injuries are such a big part of the game today due to the taxing pace of the game and 36 players in one half of the ground creates more collisions.

Either you find a way to slow the game down or it needs 5 interchange. But the cap of 75 rotations per game will remain.

No sub at WAFL level now.

Jaques was continually penalized for jumping.
Eastland in particular yesterday got free kick after free kick.
And did not get penalized for shepherding in the ruck with several blatant examples.
As previously said certain players get treated differently because of who they are.

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No but obviously this applies to AFL and second tier comps adopt most AFL rule changes. Don’t complain Perth people we will benefit more than most with 5 on the bench.

A WAFL umpires advisor said on the radio Saturday morning I think, there will be 4 umpires in every league game next year. Currently it’s only in one game the rest have 3. This is to help our umpires better prepare for AFL level.

Hahahahaha

4 umpires fmd.
They should be going back to 2 not increasing to 4!

They can’t position themselves properly, umpire from behind the play and guess.
Even the goal umpires run away from the direction of ball travel and rely on picking up which side of the post it passes.
It also makes them lazy.
The time they waste in the Reserves and Colts bringing the ball into play from a stoppage is unacceptable.
It tells me they are not fit.
They would be far better off with 2 umpires.
They are being taught by ex umpires who were never taught properly.

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Well so far two new changes are in with possibly more to come. The bounce and the sub are gone. We will no longer see the bounce which is probably a good thing because way too many are recalled anyway.

And we will now have 5 interchange. Expect these new rules to apply for the WAFL. The next one will be last posession out of bounds between the arcs is a free kick. Takes the controversial deliberate out of bounds out of it and less stoppages, between the arcs anyway.

last kick out of bounds 50 to 50 will be Australia-wide within 2 years

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One more I would like to see. Keep the clock running when the ball goes out of bounds.

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can only hope … just gets rid of half the insufficient intent judgement calls.

Scrapping the centre bounce for the reason it prevents umpire progression or being a successful official is just absurd
for over 100 years umpires were taught the skill with vastly inferior ball quality
for over 100 years umpires were and have been shit regardless of their bounce the ball abilities
for over 100 years umpires have struggled to be consistent in judgements - cutty sark all to do with bouncing a ball up
and now suddenly they are guaranteed to be better by not bouncing the pill and will be model officials because they don’t have to bounce it down
these chimpanzees are bonafide classics who need real jobs instead of being those sideshow clowns you toss balls into the gobs of
einstein had nothing on this lot of onion rings

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Plus the old icon is to go….no centre bounce.

Still not as bad as junking the Foundation Day Derby.

A little thing called “gambling” got involved since those glory days when we had a competition not an exhibition which is what we’ve got now. Precision and predictability are important to gamblers.