Oct 10,2024
Amend Rule 2.12
"The referee shall award a mark in either of the following circumstances:
(i) When the player catches the ball cleanly from a kick-out, without it touching the ground, on or past the 45m line nearest the kick-out point"
or (ii) When a player catches the ball cleanly on or inside the 20m line from only a kick in play or from a kick-out Mark (i.e. not from a free-kick, 45m free-kick or side-line kick) delivered by an attacking player on or beyond the opposing teams' 45m line. In this instance, the player may play on immediately until no advantage is accrued, where a free kick will be taken from the position.
Jim Gavin's rationale
"What we saw in the 7,000 responses we got in the survey is that people do not like the current advanced mark, even though there's under three per game.
"So we're proposing that that's scrapped. It's gone.
"What we're proposing is a new advanced mark, where the ball is kicked from outside the 45m line inside the 20m line, where it can be caught.
"This speaks to the things people want to see, and it speaks to a number of them. People want to see long range kick-passing, high fielding and they want to see scores.
"[The advantage element] is to reward to risk of kicking a ball from the 45m line all the way into the 20m line. The player who catches the ball can take a free from that position or they can continue on and in most instances go for a goal.
"And if the goal is not taken, if the advantage is not accrued, the referee will bring the ball back to where the original mark was claimed and it'll be a free kick.
"In the modern game, coaches might be reluctant to kick the ball into a 1v1 because it might be turned over.
"In this scenario, if the player wins the ball, there's a goal chance on immediately. From the defensive perspective, they can tackle immediately, unlike the kickout mark.
"If the defender blocks it, they have prevented a goal.
"We've decided to leave it up to the interpretation of the referee as to when the advantage is no longer accrued.
"If it's anything over 10 seconds, the ball obviously has been recycled and the ref can say the ball is no longer being moved forward in a positive way and he'll say 'let's just give the mark'.
"The other change we've made is that if the ball is won from a kickout mark, the ball can be kicked from that mark inside the 20m line, and it will count as an attacking mark.
"That doesn't apply in the current rule."
