The Courier | AFL Goldfields general manager Rod Ward says he would encourage further discussion throughout the region following ideas to abolish the current percentage system and trial a different method to determine final ladder positions in country football.
Former Gordon footballer and now runner Matt Callanan this week revealed a plan he believes would help ease the pain on struggling country football clubs, with head-to-head results being used to decide ladder positions in the event of a tie on points between teams at the end of a season.
Callanan says this method would take away the incentive for top sides to “smash” lowly rivals because percentage would not be relevant.
Ward said individual leagues were responsible for their own match conditions and by-laws, but said he would be “more than happy to have discussions with each league board if they felt it was something they wanted to consider”.
“If a league wanted to trial it, I’d absolutely support it,” Ward said.
“I certainly think it has merit and absolutely a place for junior football. In senior football, you don’t see – as a rule – as many one-sided results.”
Ward said the idea could be argued to be in line with a current AFL Goldfields junior coaching philosophy, which promotes participation and development, rather than winning.
Some junior grades, in the Maryborough Castlemaine District league for instance, use a mercy rule, where scores are not displayed on the scoreboard once a margin of 60 points is reached between two opposing teams. Goal umpires and timekeepers still record the official score, which is used for the final total of the game.
The Courier had a large amount of feedback on Callanan’s proposal, but with mixed feelings on its implementation.
At 12noon on Tuesday, a total of 29 per cent of those who filled out a multiple choice survey believed the idea was “not bad, but needed some fine tuning”, while 26 per cent said it was “sensational” and needed to be brought in immediately.
Another 26 per cent said “no way”, while the remaining 19 per cent believed “it probably won’t work”.
A range of alternative ideas were also flagged by readers to reduce the prevalence of one-sided results, with many raising the option of moving to a two-tier system in the 18-team Central Highlands competition, while others praised Callanan’s proposal because it had worked in a school sport environment. Some readers were keen to leave things how they were, while others were in support of a salary cap and player points system to help even-out competitions.
Handicaps, similar to golf where teams would be given a head start on the scoreboard, was another idea put forward.
