Racing
League
Rugby
Cricket
Golf
Motorsport
Combat Sports
Football
Netball
Basketball
Other Sports
Sport Nation
Three areas Lynch urges the new footy boss to overhaul
Jaiden Sciberras • July 21st, 2025 8:00 pm
With Greg Swann officially stepping into the role as AFL’s head of footy, conversations of overhauling the operations of our game have ramped up significantly.
From the contentious dissent rules to time-saving measures and scheduling, the AFL is far from a perfect product, and with Swann remaining vocal on his desire to shift the ongoings of the game, it appears as though many will have their requests heard in the coming years.
However, with so many differing opinions on where to start, the former Brisbane Lions CEO is sure to have a plethora of rumoured fixes to identify and alter in the coming months. So, what should take priority?
Looking into some of the game’s biggest issues, three-time premiership player Alastair Lynch expressed three current features of the game that he believes Swann should look to overhaul immediately.
“I reckon there’s a big list,” Lynch told SEN Tassie.
Support the umpires
“I think the first thing, support your umpires a bit better, from the AFL’s point of view. The AFL hasn’t supported the umpires all year.
“We see different interpretations of rules week-in week-out, whether it be protected zone, dissent, prior opportunity, all sorts of things.
“I think the AFL should come out that week and say, ‘we felt that we’ve been a bit light on, say, the protective zone, so we’re going to be hard on that.’
“So, tell the media, or tell the public, and don’t just let us on Thursday or Friday night go, ‘hang on, they’re adjudicating this differently.”
Move the pre-finals bye
“I think that’s essential. You’ve got to move the pre-finals bye to pre-Grand Final. That’s our marquee event of the year.
“We don’t want someone having a bit of a head knock and due to the HIA protocols, sitting on the sidelines for 12 days and missing the Grand Final.
“Then you can move the Brownlow Medal to that bye weekend. Then, you can get everyone there. You get sick of winners being interstate.
“If we are trying to set up our marquee game of the year, we want our two best teams to be as well prepared as possible, so let’s have a week off.
“You also align all the local competitions; have their Grand Finals so they get some free space but also have all of your awards.
“Everyone can attend, you can celebrate the award winners and then from there, say on Wednesday night, you have a 10-day run in to the biggest game of the year, and the players are cherry ripe.”
Abolish the bounce
“The other one, because everyone is complaining that the quarters are too long, when the umpires come in for a ball up, just throw it straight up.
“Don’t wait for 20 seconds for two seven footers to jog like icebergs from the other end of the ground, just throw it up!
“I think that’s something that needs to be addressed straight away. That will clear the game out.
“The coaches are so structured with their defensive structures around stoppages, so if you’ve got time for the ruckman to get over there, you’ve also got time to set up the defensive structure around the stoppage.
“We don’t want that. Just get it, throw it up, (get) the ball in flow a lot quicker.”
Speaking on the matter of the centre bounce, Swann as already admitted that the bounce remains on the chopping block, with a majority of clubs in favour of transitioning strictly to throwing up the ball to restart play.
Despite being an iconic feature of the game, the bounce has become rather inconsistent, with odd bounces potentially favouring differing ruckman and recalled bounces continuing to run time off the clock.
"We'll do some work on it," Swann told media on Monday.
"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 spoke on the length of the game as a whole, further diving into the centre bounce and other areas that the league can look to cut down on unnecessary time wasting.
"We're not going to explain everything away because otherwise you'd be here all day," Swann said.
"But there's some things that are a bit contentious that I think people deserve to understand why we've gone a certain way.
"One of the things that's difficult for the umpires is the rules; we just need to try and make them a bit simpler.
"Whether it's the stand (rule), whether it's holding the ball … that's something that I'm really keen to talk to clubs and coaches and footy managers about.
"Is there an easier way for these guys to have to adjudicate it?"
