THE INCREASING length of games and the future of the bounce will be the first agenda items for the AFL’s new executive general manager of football performance, Greg Swann, after he started in his new role on Monday.
Swann said he had worked through “about 43 pages” of inquiries from clubs upon starting in his new role at League headquarters, but said the majority related to shortening quarter lengths and throwing the ball up at centre bounces.
Having arrived after a successful 26-year stint in roles at Collingwood, Carlton and most recently Brisbane, Swann said there were ways to reduce quarter lengths without actually shortening terms from 20 minutes each.
The League has announced it will look to throw the ball up or in regardless of whether a ruck is in place ahead of the upcoming NAB AFLW season in an effort to shorten games, with Swann suggesting similar changes to the men’s competition could be coming.
“I’ve only just started, obviously, and I’ve got some meetings this afternoon with the umpires … but it’s just around the setups and the waiting for rucks to get to contest,” Swann said.
“Even at boundary throw-ins, waiting for them to get there. There’s a chance to actually speed that up a bit. There’s good vision and video of rucks taking 20 seconds to come from one end of the ground to the other, while the other one stands around and waits.
“To me, that’s something that hopefully we can have a look at and maybe address even before the season finishes.”
Swann said clubs had also been pushing for the centre bounce to be abolished in the near future, potentially even as soon as Opening Round in 2026, suggesting that the majority were in favour of throwing the ball up instead.
“We’ll do some work on it,” Swann said.
“In the next little bit, I’ll get around to all the clubs and just get their views. I’ve had some clubs already ring and give me their views and I’d say the majority are in favour of throwing the ball up. But we’ve got to do a little bit of work around that.
“Obviously, that’s not going to happen until next year. But we’ll have a look at that as well.”
Swann also threw his support behind the Northern Academy systems, despite increasing opposition from a handful of Victorian clubs – most notably St Kilda – saying the new bidding system needs time before its impact can be assessed.
“In my time in Queensland, probably because Brisbane has been going well, but participation is huge and it’s now bigger than South Australia. The game itself is growing really well.
“Having the Academies and the work that gets done at the junior levels, then those players … if they don’t make it with us, they go back into local competitions. I think that’s important.
“The new DVI [system] is going to make a big difference to what you pay for those people now. I think we need to let that run for a year or two. It’ll make a big difference to how many blokes you can and can’t get. I think we need to let that run before we work out what the impact is on the draft.
