Ron Barassi on life and football

AFL legend Ron Barassi, now in his 71st year, is still active; he walked
the Kokoda Track recently to celebrate his 70th birthday. This followed
a trip to Gallipoli in 2005 at the invitation of the AFL, and a trip to
Tobruk 20 years ago to see his father’s grave.

He has views aplenty on all issues- political, social, generational-
but what he says about the future of Australian Rules is always
important. He is concerned that current top level games are seen as
‘boring’ and that the code is under attack from soccer and rugby
codes.

His solutions include cutting teams back to 16 a side to stop players
‘crashing into each other’; anything kicked backwards in the back half
called ‘play-on’; increase the minimum distance for a mark to 25
metres; crack down on contact at throw-ins; make the centre square 10 to 15 metres larger; limit the bench to four; and extra points for goals
outside 50 metres.

As Sam Kekovich says: You know it makes sense.