Umpires to crack down on dangerous tackles as umpiring tweaks unveiled as part of WAFC sessions

Local umpires have been advised to come down harder on dangerous tackles amid the current debate raging around concussion and the need to protect players. It’s one of the issues that came to the fore during WA Football Commission-hosted education sessions for the seven GNFL clubs last weekend. The sessions were held to lay out the findings of the review into the league’s culture and to clarify some rule tweaks for the upcoming season. This will likely see an increased use of the card system with dangerous tackles now likely to result in a straight yellow card in addition to the free kick. Another tweak is surrounding the violation of the 6x6x6 rule with the removal of the 50m penalty. Previously the first violation resulted in a warning with further violations awarding a free kick to the opposition ruckman plus a 50m penalty. However, now the 50m penalty will be scrapped to bring the rule more in line with the AFL and other leagues around the State. The other major change is to the stand rule and the size of the protected area surrounding the player. This zone has been increased to 10m on either side to the man on the mark with no players allowed to interfere. Any players chasing the opposition through this zone must stay within 2m of their opponents. Once a player is on the mark they cannot move off the line or even retreat off the mark until play-on has been called. However, the player with the ball can no longer fake a handball or pass to try and deceive the man on the mark. Any ‘”fake” attempts will be called play-on with the player not allowed to be tackled.