Stevo's Sting: Toughening deliberate rushed rule a revelation

Victoria is a happy place right now, at least in a footy sense.

RIchmond and Collingwood have revived their seasons, and suddenly all the clubs in crisis are either a long way up north or way out west.

The Tigers and Pies are more likely to make the back page when they're losing. Hence, the void right now of serious headlines.

You know it's a quiet Monday when both Melbourne papers roll with the rush behinds "controversy" on the back page.

Umps are often left horribly lacking. Players are still head butting opponents in the stomach and somehow being rewarded with frees for "too high". What happened to the duckers being more regularly called out, and giving up the right to prior opportunity?

But here's a tick for the umps, and Mark Evans and the footy department: The toughening of the deliberate rushed rule is a revelation.

I can't understand the complaints, or the headlines. This is good news!

Paul Roos, the Melbourne coach, apparently didn't read the memo sent out last week to warn of a tightening of the interpretation.

John Longmire did, showing a video of examples to his Sydney Swans.

Regardless, he has nothing to complain about re Pearce Hanley being pinged for deliberate out of bounds yesterday.

Hanley had the option of kicking down the line, looked up at what was on offer and didn't like what he saw. He back pedalled and conceded a point. It was deliberate.

A week or two ago, there would be no whistle. But that is because the umps had softened, week by week, year on year, on a rule that should be simple.

Lee Spurr's decision to kick it off the ground, when he clearly had time to at least attempt to pick it up was even worse than Hanley's. Well done to the ump, Ray Chamberlain.

Again, why all the fuss?

Finally, we are back somewhere close to how the rule should be adjudicated.

If Spurr's kick had slewed off the side of the boot and gone out of bounds, there would be no howls. Why the difference if it crosses the goal line.

Surely the best way to simplify this is use the same parameters for the rushed and deliberate out of bounds rule. The boundary line extends between the goals, so why not?

The AFL may have erred in communicating the tightening of the rushed rule. It was mentioned in lengthy memo forwarded to media, but it was probably worth its own press release given some on the dull releases that pepper media inboxes.

Maybe then the fans wouldn't have been blindsided.

But more importantly, the AFL has got it right, despite Roosy's grumbles.

Slow news day. Next story please.