Tatura-based Ryan, who has been involved in football as a coach, selector, commentator and supporter for 61 years in the Goulburn Murray region, is genuinely concerned with some aspects of the game, particularly the time-on rule.
“When they reduced the quarters from 25 minutes to 20 minutes, the purpose was to have less playing time, but that’s just not happening,” he said.
“In fact most quarters are now going considerably longer than they were when they were 25 minutes with time-on and to me there are some real danger signs with this.
“Many players at some clubs struggling for numbers have to play with both the reserves and seniors on the same day, so have to try and adapt to longer quarters at the senior level.
“Haven’t clubs got a duty of care not to put players’ welfare at risk by asking them to double up and contend with the longer quarters in the seniors?
“In one game I was at this season, one quarter went for 40 minutes. It’s just too much to ask players to do that, particularly if they had played in an earlier game.”
Ryan said the introduction of the time-on rule when the quarters were cut from 25 minutes is the root of the problem.
“Any team dominating and kicking big scores, which is happening, extend the length of time of quarters because of the delays in getting the ball back to the centre. When this happens the time on rule applies and that extends the length of the quarters,’’ he said.
“Players coming up from the thirds where there are 20-minute quarters with no time-on to play at senior level (reserves and seniors) could find themselves playing an extra 60 minutes, which is two quarters, if they play both reserves and seniors on the same day and that’s very dangerous and inviting trouble.”
Ryan said to ease the problem the time-on rule needed to be adjusted so quarters don’t go any longer than 30 minutes.
“Even the new AFL chief boss Greg Swann has indicated he will be trying to reduce the length of playing times in the VFL where the players are professional,” Ryan said.
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