60 SPORT SATURDAY DECEMBER 5 2020 Seeking a comfort zone Coaches to meet with AFL as rule revamp promises to shake up leagues JON RALPH lays before stoppages before coach said yester- rival team does not have its perienced. So if this can add to the three pairs of players re- day he was all for the zones, three players inside 50m at more attacking footy and more THE AFL will sit down with treated into the 50m arc at keen to promote more attack- each end. goals I am all for it,” Ayres said. coaches from the newly each end. But instead of intro- ing football and a point of dif- The AFL has told clubs it “This could get more people formed VFL and East Coast ducing those rules in the AFL ference from the AFL. will have a series of Zoom to watch VFL and get more ex- competition in coming weeks the VFL and East Coast league He said his VFL teams had meetings in coming weeks, posure and that can only be to discuss how it will execute has become the league’s new started keeping one or two for- where clubs hope the league good.” the radical zones format in guinea pig. wards deep as far back as 2011 will listen to feedback from ex- Clubs have been told the 22- next year’s competition. Teams were told of the while rivals played 18-man perienced coaches on the best team competition will have 16 Clubs in the new 22-league changes by the AFL without hard presses up the ground, way to implement zones. rounds and see Victorian competition are still in the consultation, with the league often getting easy goals over “I have always felt that if we teams travelling interstate two dark about the rules, including Williamstown’s Ben Jolley. also making clear how import- the back of those zones. are making change, it can only or three times per season. why they were chosen by the ant it was not to criticise the Under NAB League rules in be for the betterment of foot- Clubs which used to get a league and how the league will The AFL’s own trials of code in a memo to VFL and a purely developmental league ball. I am all for it. If we didn’t yearly grant from the AFL will penalise players who trans- zones with AFL teams during East Coast clubs. a free kick is given to a team’s change things, we would have now have those travel expens- gress. live trials led to dramatic de- But Port Melbourne VFL ruckman at a stoppage if the so much we haven’t seen or ex- es taken care of by the league. Finals woe fuels Lions for 2021 tilt CHRIS HONNERY

BRISBANE Lions star Mitch Robinson has opened up about the depressing days following their preliminary finals loss this year and how it’s fuelling the flame for next season. The Lions finished the 2020 regular season with a 14-3 win- loss record to end up second on the premiership ladder.They then went on to beat Rich- mond in a historic finals clash before losing to Geelong in the preliminary final at the Gabba. It meant the Lions missed out on a Gabba grand final berth – an event which was de- scribed as “once in a lifetime”. However, Robinson said the “sour taste” from the 40- point loss was the club’s motivating factor for 2021. “In terms of the season in its totality, it was a great year for us but unfortunately we didn’t TIGERS SET TO POUNCE ON NEW get to where we wanted to go which was the big dance,” he AFL Draft prospect Jr playing for NTFL club St Mary's in February, 2020. Picture: Felicity Elliott/AFLNT Media. said. “That put a bit of a sour taste in our mouth, similar to JON RALPH front of AFL officials. The son of 1982 79 and 97, and despite Rioli being that some Victorians would be “very last year. We’ll use that as mo- Norm Smith medallist Maurice Rioli linked to Fremantle, given his father’s unlucky” to miss out, after being tivation for next year.” RICHMOND will dare to believe it can has been under the watchful eyes of WAFL days, he has chosen the Tigers robbed of their NAB League seasons. The 31-year-old midfielder use a late draft pick on father-son Richmond all year. as his preferred club. ’s under-18 competition – reflected on the days immedi- selection Maurice Rioli Jr, who is flying Following his aborted 400m time Like his relatives and which accounts for more than 50 per ately following the preliminary into Melbourne this weekend. trial, the Tigers have done their own soon-to-be Richmond teammate of the draft class each year – was final loss. The Tigers will welcome back their testing, which shows his speed is up , he boarded at postponed and then suspended when He said the devastation was first-to-fourth year players on there with anyone at the club. Scotch College. the second wave of COVID-19 made even more difficult be- Monday, with Rioli set to join them as He played only a handful of He is a good mate of fellow Scotch escalated in Victoria. cause of the COVID and travel early as Thursday. Northern Territory games this year, boarder and likely No.1 overall It robbed late developers – or those restrictions which were in It comes as the AFL confirmed to but his talent has shone out. selection Jamarra Ugle-Hagan. who missed out on NAB League place at the time. News Corp that banned Tigers Sydney What is not known is how highly Meanwhile, draft hopefuls have selection last season – of the chance “It was a different feeling Stack and Callum Coleman-Jones can rivals judge his talent in a draft in been urged not to give up on their AFL to press their draft claims. this year because we couldn’t play VFL and pre-season games until which a limited number of players dream if they are overlooked in a draft Giants livewire Toby Greene do too much in regards to ac- their suspensions for COVID breaches have exposed 2020 form. that is expected to be dominated by (taken at pick 11 in the 2011 National tivities during the week such as expire after Round 4. Talent watchers do not believe he academy and zone selections. Draft) – and Bulldogs midfield stars Mad Monday,” he said. Rioli has been living on the Tiwi will be taken off the board early in the It has been forecast as few as (pick No. 4 in “We got together as a group Islands after being forced to return draft, which could allow the Tigers to 40-50 live picks could be used in next 2014) and (pick No. 6 after the game with all the home from a Melbourne boarding take multiple selections before they Tuesday’s draft, while many clubs in 2012) – rocketed up draft boards families and friends and staff school because of the COVID-19 crisis, match a bid for the freakish have committed to retaining delisted in the later stages of their draft and we just reflected a little bit then surviving a bizarre plover attack Indigenous talent. players as rookies. year after modest returns as for an hour or two and then as he recorded physical testing in Richmond has selections 17, 36, 61, AFL talent boss Kevin Sheehan said bottom-agers. moved on.”

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